Honda Insight Gets The Axe
Sales of the slow-selling Honda Insight will end, with Bloomberg reporting that production will end this month. Despite being released before the Toyota Prius, the Insight has lagged far behind it in sales.
While the Prius is the best-selling hybrid of all time, the second generation Insight has been heavily criticized for delivering an inferior driving experience and using a less sophisticated hybrid system. Sales of the Honda Civic Hybrid have far outstripped the Insight, with inventories ballooning to 237 days worth of supply, according to data from Automotive News. The equally slow-selling CR-Z could conceivably meet a similar fate in the not too distant future. Here’s hoping that the Fit Hybrid takes up the slack.
More by Derek Kreindler
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Both of these cars are extreme bargains in the used market. The Insight is commonly available for $10-12k or so, for 2010-2012 models with low mileage. And I have seen several CRZs for a little bit more, the best one recently was a red 2013 EX with 4k miles for $13k. If it was a stick I would have bought it, my wife loves them but insists on a stick and it would make a fun commuter. They are both much cheaper than any other used Honda or Toyota of similar age/mileage. The strange thing is there is no incentives at all on the new ones, which I think is a bigger reason they do not sell. You can get a better lease/finance/discount on a Civic and the MPG just isn't that much better to warrant a big jump in cost. And the Civics are more practical and a tad nicer too.
Looking at the support it got from its makers, and Hondas current lineup , the Insight was probably just a test mule for most of it's latest generation. I don't think anyone will miss it now that the Accord can achieve similar mpg's, while still beig a proper car. And the European Civic with it's new 1.6 diesel gets the same gas mileage in city driving as the Insights theoretic average...
Honda was first in North America with a hybrid and has done a stunning job of offering the wrong products, with the wrong technology, in the wrong wrappers ever since. The follow up to the original Insight, which was a hypermilers dream, was the V6 hybrid Accord that used hybrid technology to improve performance - not mileage. Customers didn't buy it (interestingly, the concept was ahead of its time by about 15 years). Then they went up against the Prius, which makes an immediate, "look at me I'm saving the planet," statement by its body style with a badged Civic. The first offering was from a performance and MPG standpoint competitive, but no one "knew" you were driving a hybrid. Then they had the battery life, computer reprogram, nope you won't get the MPG we told you issue in the next gen Civic hybrid. The new Insight was basically a crappy version of a Prius with inferior technology and an interior made by Coleman. The CR-Z is just mind boggling to me. They positioned it wrong, they ramped it up wrong, and the nod to the CR-X is just bone headed. The thing that baffles me about the CR-Z is the cure is so simple, Si trim and V-Tec. Problem solved.
In addition to its other shortcomings, the Insight is really small inside. A 237-day supply means there are roughly 2900 of these cars languishing on dealer lots, which works out to be a 5-day supply of the Prius. No doubt there will be Insight specials all year long.