By Chris Haak
08.25.2009
The first time I saw a 2010 Honda Insight in the flesh, I was underwhelmed. It was as the 2009 NAIAS (Detroit Auto Show), and was the main focus of Honda’s more subdued product introduction plans in light of the poor economy. At the time, I felt that the car was small, had a cheap interior, and worst of all – for a car whose whole raison d’être is fuel economy – had some relatively disappointing numbers on the window sticker: 40 mpg city/43 mpg highway. Toyota made a splash at the same auto show with a 2010 Prius that stole some of the Insight’s thunder with a 50 mpg combined number – far better than the Insight’s approximate 41 mpg combined figure. Also not good: the car looked like a cross between an original two-door Honda Insight and a Toyota Prius, and its only good angle (at least to my eyes) was the front end.
Honda doesn’t necessarily want you to necessarily compare the two cars; they are different sizes (the Prius is larger and heavier) in spite of their likely-not-coincidentally similar shapes. The Prius was engineered from stem to stern as Toyota’s environmental flagship, with maximum fuel economy as its primary mission. The Insight had a similar mission, but with the added wrinkle of bringing the entry price of hybrid ownership further into the range of affordable cars. Continue Reading →
The decision by the board of GM a few days ago to reject the latest offer by Magna to take control of Opel has made almost everyone in Germany unhappy, most notably Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.
When is a car not a car? When it’s the 2009 Toyota Venza. The latest addition to the brand’s line-up is something of an instigator for semantic arguments. At first look, it’s easy to tell that the Venza, though built on the (shudder) Camry platform, is more towards a small SUV in stature. You’d be in the ballpark if you hypothesized that it would fall in the crossover vehicle category, but Toyota is adamant in calling the Venza anything but a “really big car.” While magazines and other sources categorize it freely as a CUV or wagon, read the window sticker, and it’ll state “5 door sedan”. Why not call a spade a spade?
Germany announced plans yesterday to have more than a million electric cars on the road by 2020.
GM announced today that they will provide a 30-day line of credit to dealers for the cash for clunkers proceeds owed to those dealers from the federal government.
In this, the fourth week since it was officially kicked off, Toyota has passed GM as the automaker selling the most vehicles through the Cash for Clunkers program.
Honda to Sell Electric Vehicle in US by 2015
By Brendan Moore
08.24.2009
Honda had no comment on the Nikkei report.
If true, Honda joins a growing number of automakers that have decided to produce electric cars for the mass market.
Various strategies regarding electric vehicles are now emerging.
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