You should read this first.
The biggest problem, and it’s taken me a while to work this out, because all the other problems are so vast and so cancerous, is the gearbox. For reasons known only to itself, Honda has fitted the Insight with something called constantly variable transmission (CVT).
It doesn’t work. Put your foot down in a normal car and the revs climb in tandem with the speed. In a CVT car, the revs spool up quickly and then the speed rises to match them. It feels like the clutch is slipping. It feels horrid.
And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
So you’re sitting there with the engine screaming its head off, and your ears bleeding, and you’re doing only 23mph because that’s about the top speed, and you’re thinking things can’t get any worse, and then they do because you run over a small piece of grit.
Filed under: Alternative energy, Enviro-nuts, News and Politics | Tagged: Honda Insight, Jeremy Clarckson, New Car Review, News and Politics |
Bob's Bites 
Nope. Don’ want one.
Me neither.
Granted, my BroncoII may not run much faster, but it’s cuter. With better windows.
In this neighborhood, even the school buses would squish it flat.
And I can carry the Pixie AND the cat with me if I want to.
Very important. You never know when you may need to evacuate Pixie with all the Pixie accessories as well as the cat. And Mr. Duffy.
Up here we need at least one 4WD truck, ours is a 97 chevy, and one brute like our ’79 full size Bronco for the really deep snow. In the summer a 2WD will do. I like a Ford Taurus for it’s front wheel drive and all around comfort for my “go to work” car, because near the end of the season those nasty snowstorms can stop me from getting home. Sadly, the ’90 Taurus didn’t survive the transmission transplant. A “friend” made me a deal, and it sits with a good engine, good body, good interior and to fix it will cost near $1800 for 20 year old car. Damn, I really loved that car. 😦
Yeah, we gots a couple near 20-year-old vehicles. We figure we’re the reason that the auto industry needs bailing out.