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March 28, 2009
From: Doug
Let me just 1st say I worked with the same salesperson I bought my S from, and believe me, by the time I took ownership of my S, Roy and I were very close because I had spent so much time with him. In addition I can count over 7-other people I know who have bought cars from Roy so we always have plenty to chat about. When I got there last night Roy handed me the keys and said go have fun, I don't need to ride around with ya, just be back within the hour; have fun. So, I got to really test this thing out with nobody looking over my shoulder.
TEST DRIVE - 2010 Insight EX
The EX adds things like 15" wheels, VSA, Cruise, center console, heater mirrors and of course the paddle shifters.
My thoughts are presented here based upon my strongest impressions after the drive, and in this case I have to start with the bad, because they are the things that left the strongest impression.
SEATS- What the hell, I know I have been at odds with Honda's ergonomics before, but this was the worst. The headrest was arched way too far forward. I live my back to be mostly vertical, not all dumb and laid back. The problem was my neck was forced too far forward, I tried the head rest up high, and down low, and the only position that helped was down so low it was not supporting the back of my head like it should. This was a major bad for me, I could not get comfy.
TRANNY- If this tranny and interface is the same thing the CR-Z will be offered in I do not see myself buying a CR-Z until it is improved or replaced by a real manual. In comparison to the Nissan Max this CVT is pathetic. Sorry Honda lovers, but I will not blindly love Honda. The Nissan shifted with a crisp definite feeling, it really felt like a gear change. The Insight was all slushy, not firm, not positive, all very vague feeling. Plus, if that was not bad enough, Honda should be embarrassed to put an M for manual above the digital display for the step you are in. This silly tranny did all sorts of shifting on its own in the manual mode. It would not stack downshifts to 1, you could shift all the way down to 1, but if you were doing anything more than a crawl it would automatically upshift so 2 was your lowest gear, so if you really wanted 1, you had to really work to get it. When it came to running the revs up to redline and then shifting to a higher gear when you wanted, well that too had an automatic override in the manual mode. You could not run the Insight up to red, the silly thing would upshift all by itself if you were really getting on it. I'll admit it would upshift close to red, but the key is, if you think you are really manually controlling the tranny, you are wrong.
O TO 3,000 RPMS- Hello? Driver to engine department, is anybody there? Has anybody fed the chipmunks today? Hello? In simple terms, be it in sport mode or normal mode, and don't even get me started on Econ Mode, from 0 to 3,000 rpms this thing is dead. So dead I would be concerned about needing to jump off the line to get out of the way of something. The startup on this thing is just really, really lethargic. I realize I'm not the Insight's target audience, but really, this was just sad. I was hoping the motor as in IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) would give this thing some snappy torque at startup, but no way. I would suggest nobody get into a drag race with a child on a tricycle, because the tricycle is going to kick the Insight's ass.
WIND- Well I will admit it was a bit windy last night, but holy cow, I can't recall the last time I drove something so upset by cross winds. At 75 mps on the expressway I had to remain very alert with the steering wheel. When I passed a tractor-trailer truck my eyes were wide open. First came the suck movement closer to the trailer once I got next to the truck, and then the push sideways when I broke past the front and was into the wind again. I'm not sure how much of this is caused by those pathetic tires, but trust me, they are indeed skinny, and I even suspect although I did not measure, I think the rear tire on the motorcycle is wider.
DRUMBRAKES- Never in a million years is somebody going to convince me crappy drum brakes are a kazillion times cheaper and belong on a production car made nowadays. The Insight line does not offer anything but drum brakes on the rear, I will never go back to a vehicle with drum brakes on the rear so this too had better be a unique to the Insight kind of thing. I guess they work fine as the car stopped very well, but they are ugly, and a complete pain in the butt to work on.
INTERIOR COLOR- I have not seen a complete brochure, but each of the 5 Insights I have seen have all had the same nasty super light grey interior. I sure as heck hope they have some dark colors because these brand new cars looked filthy because of that silly light grey fabric.
TAKE A DEEP BREATH- Here ends all my big negatives and I'll now switch over to some of the really nice positives.
INTERIOR- I like it, the rear seat room was fine for me, clearly it is for 2-adults or 3 kids, not 3-adults. The backs of the back seats folded down almost completely flat and I really appreciate that. The amount of storage room in the rear with the seats down is fantastic, but then again I have always loved hatchbacks.
INSTRUMENTS- I love the dash layout, the digital upper speed display and the lower round cluster containing all sorts of data was just great. If I was driving one of these things a lot it would take some training to not get caught up in all the displays regarding the power consumption. And I would never get tired of taking my eyes off the road under hard braking in order to watch how I'm generating battery power. This was like an F1 KERS system, only there was none of the fun of releasing huge stored up power at the touch of a button, too bad...
EXTERIOR- I drove a Polished Metal Metallic which is basically a dark grey and it has to be the worst color for this car because the body color blends in with the middle cross piece in the front grille area and really hides the cool detail. I like the look of the front end and the grille area and hiding that detail is bad, thus any of the other colors are more contrast here and to me look much better.
HEADLIGHTS- Projector beams in this class car, wow, very impressive! I still though think the blue surround inside the headlight cluster looks cheap and crappy and extremely nasty with some of the exterior body colors.
3RD BRAKE LIGHT- This might be my favorite feature of the car. The beauty of the design detail from the deeply contoured side backlights and how they mold up and into the 3rd brake light is just beautiful. The only other thing I would say is just like the S2000 they could have made this even better had they used more plastic and made the angle up and the amount of overhang bigger. But nonetheless, this is a beautiful design detail.
VISABILITY- I was concerned about the backwards view in the rear view mirror, but it was not that bad, it was sort of like looking out the back of a 4-door WRX STi with the huge wing, your visibility was cut in half, but you get used to it. Forward and side visibility was great, and I have to say, I just love those little triangle windows in front of the side rear view mirrors, very cool.
VALUE- Wow, I think Honda has crammed a lot of really nice stuff in a sub 20k car. The amount of stuff you get for the price you have to pay is very impressive. Even though I'm not happy with the power delivery, I suspect lots and lots of people are going to buy this car and be very happy with it. |
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