2010 Honda Insight: Insight Over Recalled Prius?

Unlike the other Toyota recalls, I don't consider the Prius recall to be that big a deal. The Prius is one of the few Toyota products that actually impresses me. The Insight on the other hand doesn't. Toss in that Honda never seems to get hybrid transmissions right (not so good on regular transmissions either), it's an easy call for me.

Prius > Insight

Btw: That's one of the few times I'd choose a Toyota over a Honda. Generally, I'd rather have a Honda.

@ brn

I agree, I also prefer Honda as I've owned an S2000 and now and 07 Civic, but the Prius was the prefect car for my small family and we hated the Insight in comparison.

The Prius is a nice car, it's easy to drive, unique, fairly original, and quite honestly it's easy to get great MPG. It's a surprisingly relevant vehicle to boot. Even though it's not 'fun' to drive, it's still entertaining and I give it major credit. I would own one.

The Insight is a miserable P.O.S. It's slow, noisy, noisy, cramped, noisy, cheap, noisy, and rides like garbage, and likely will be hauled off to a junkyard in 5 years like every other hybrid failure Honda has thrown on the world.

But if I couldn't buy the Prius due to fear of Toyota's slipping quality, you know what I'd buy? A Jetta TDI Clean Diesel.

I don't think the Toyota recalls will have much effect on Insight sales. The recall will pass, and the Prius will keep it's hybrid crown, due to Toyota's superior hybrid system. That will be especially evident once the Prius goes plug-in.

If any car companies will benefit, it should be VW (TDI) and Ford.

If VW would restore its previous extended warranty program (to include coverage for DSG oil/filter changes) and bring an affordable TDI Tiguan to the US market, it could make a dent in Honda, Toyota and Ford's small car and small CUV marketshare. The seemingly simple TDI vehicle line could become the "anti-hybrid" efficient car line. We saw a teaser of that from Audi during the SuperBowl...

PRIUS still numero uno.

I didn't understand the "...i was alone..." part of this entry.

"Will Toyota's latest troubles push you into an Insight over a Prius?"

No but only because I'm smart enough to realize that spending thousands to save a few bucks on gas is economically unsound and mining tons of nickel, manufacturing lots of complex electronics and motors, and shipping it all over the world is insanely environmentally unfriendly.

If gas mileage is really the main reason for buying a hybrid the Insight gets as good if not better real world mileage than the Prius. Plus the top line Prius is about $33K while the top line Insight is about $24K.

Neither of them are fun to drive, but I would take the less expensive Insight with Honda reliability and gas mileage over the Prius any day of the week.

I'm glad that people are starting to realize that Toyota isn't immune from having issues, but that still wouldn't stop me from getting myself a real hybrid.

I think the hysteria surrounding the recall has really blown the actual problems out of proportion. Sure, there are issues but Toyota has acknowledged it and accepted the responsibility of fixing it at their cost. It's not like thousands died because of these problems.

All the negative publicity is just another great example of fearmongering from the media. Perhaps it is even a media war instigated by rivalries between the different manufacturers? Whatever it is, it won't stop me from buying a Toyota.

But for now, we'll stick with the FX35 ;-)

Toyota has been ignoring unintended acceleration issues for years.

Hybrids don't really make much financial sense; because the payoff period versus a comprably equipped non-hybrid model is too long. So I don't think I'd find myself in the position of choosing an Insight vs a Prius.

Off topic, but I do agree with cx7lover's comment above. The NHTSA was ready to eat Toyota's lunch over this issue a few years ago. Of course, then a Toyota guy got hired on at the NHTSA, and the assault on the company subsided. If that doesn't reek of rank bribery and corruption, I don't know what does. The problem has only gotten worse in the intervening time period, and now more vehicles have the problem than there were to start with. Toyota probably did the ol' lawsuit analysis, and decided that the issue was rare enough that the expense of retooling the assembly lines of hundreds of thousands of vehicles outweighed the rarity of the glitch.

In the end, Toyota and the NHTSA should bear the responsibility of their dirty deeds. But we all know how that goes, don't we? This stuff will all be flushed down the memory hole before summer arrives.

I am not a Toyota fan (boring cars) but I think they will overcome their current mishaps. Recalls happen Toyota's problem was how they initially handled them. Blame a supplier (as if that matters to your customers), blame the drivers (FYI-blaming your customers is not good) blame the media (usually works). They have a huge following of satisfied customers who love their vanilla products. A few incentives for the existing customers and they will be fine. As for the Prius, their fanboys are like fanboys everywhere, "our (insert product) is the best ever, I will never buy anything else etc..

@Zeph:

Uh I believe there's an audio tape of the four people stuck in a Lexus with a stuck accelerator. The car wouldn't shift out of drive and the brakes failed.

It's irresponsible to buy a Toyota now, and now everyone knows their quality has always been worse than Ford, GM, or Chrysler.

mikeolan, in all fairness, the brakes on that Lexus were a known issue. It was reported by the prior renter to the rental agency. The rental agency chose not to address the brakes. In this particular case, the rental agency needs to take a huge chunk of the responsibility.

Prius easily. Toyota will fix whatever minor problem exists with the Prius and you're good to go. Only a redesign can fix the Insight.

I chuckle when people complain about hybrids saying they don't make finanical sense. My answer is... How do you know? If you do a lot of city driving then it can pay for itself in 1 to 3 years. If you don't then don't buy one. Whether it makes sense or not all depends on the driver.

Most of the other arguements are internet fiction.

The percentage on nickle mined that is used in batteries is insignificant (the vast majority goes to metal alloys like stainless steel, perhaps it would make more sense to boycott metal).

Also almost everything is shipped around the world these days including a vast number of non hybrid cars, make sure you buy domestic.

As for manufactoring complex electronics, hybrids are nothing compared to the volume of big screen tvs, computers, cell phones, etc. Hopefully no one has those either.

@BRN: It doesn't change the fact that the car's accelerator was stuck and neutral-shift failed. How many recalls is Toyota going to have this month? The Japanese business practice of simply denying faults doesn't work when you've got innocent people who died due to your inferior product.

mikeolan, I'm not disputing that Toyota is their (deserved) share of issues. It's just that in the infamous CA Lexus example, the rental agency is deserving of more scrutiny.