Jeremy Clarkson on the Honda Insight: It’s Biblically terrible

Posted: May 18, 2009

Filed under: 2010 Releases, Honda, Hybrids, Green News

So for what you’ve read about the Honda Insight is all bells and whistles about the hybrids fuel-economy and its ability to tell you how “green” you’re driving. However, rarely has any journalist commented on what the 2010 Honda Insight is like as a car that moves you from point A to point B – until now.

Jeremy Clarkson, host of our favorite TV show Top Gear, recently wrote a review on Honda’s latest hybrid offering over at TimesOnline. Here’s what Clarkson had to say about the Insight.

So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more. 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).

You can read the rest of Clarkson review over at TimesOnline by clicking here.

2010 Honda Insight Hybrid:

- By: Omar Rana

GMfan87

lol i love it when he talks about green cars...

dad4-5

other national car magazines are saying the same thing. the new prius is much better in their reviews.

i am sure the car will sell well here in the states. however, overseas volume would be lower because of the proliferation of more efficient diesel engines.

gekke henkie

Most EV or Hybrids feature a CVT gearbox. Audi recently received an award for theirs (called multitronic). It chooses the most efficient torque - speed combination and are therefore the most advanced/fuel-efficient transmissions in the world. Many people, unfortunately, are not 'ready' for 'gearless', so some companies decided to fake 'gears' on a CVT! (like the Nissan Murano).

I used to drive a Honda H-RV (smaller version of the C-RV), and it was amazing. On winding mountain roads you sometimes wish you had a 1.5 or 2.5 gear, well, a CVT solves that problem instantly. If you can live without your conservative 'gear-wish', these transmissions are the best (they were even tested by Renault in Le Mans).

kabluey

That was a very well written article about the ugly truth of hybrids...and I am glad he conceded to point out that, yes the Insight is a terrible thing BUT it pays for future development..

Hopefully one day we shall look back to the time of hybrids and laugh at the silly bandage that they are, which is only covering the obvious sore of finding alternative fuels..