By Gary S. Vasilash, Editor-in-Chief

For all of us who fondly remember the Honda CRX, the closest we can get to it in size and (somewhat) architectural setup is with the Honda Insight.  Yes, the gasoline-electric hybrid.  It is 115.1 in. long and has a 94.5-in wheelbase.  It is just 53.3-in. high.  These numbers are somewhat more meaningful in the context of the current Civic coupe, which is 174.4 in. long and has a 103.1-in. wheelbase.  The Civic is 55.1-in. high.  You’d be surprised at the difference a couple of inches and a low seating position make in this era when sport utes and minivans rule the road.

Because of our proclivity for things technological, we like the Insight.  A lot.  Except for something that we need to quibble with, which is particularly vexing because we don’t live in, say, Scottsdale.  But we’ll get to that in a moment.

Back to the technology. . .  The Insight combines a 1.0-liter, 3-cylinder gas engine with an electric motor/generator.  The motor (10 kW @ 3,000 rpm) is used for low-end torque and as an engine supplement: it boosts the engine’s output from 67 hp @ 5,700 rpm to 73 hp.  You’d be surprised at the difference 5 hp can make.  The term Honda uses to describe the relationship between the two power devices is “Integrated Motor Assist.”  The engine draws from a 10.6-gallon tank (unleaded regular).  The motor draws from a nickel metal hydride battery pack consisting of 120 1.2-V batteries.  However, the generator aspect of the motor/generator recharges the batteries during braking and coasting, so a plug and an outlet aren’t part of the experience.

The version we drove is equipped with a continuously variable transmission (CVT).  This is the second CVT vehicle we’ve driven within the past month (the other is the forthcoming Saturn VUE, about which we are prohibited from saying anything about: see the December issue of Automotive Design & Production when it appears).  The CVT is so exceedingly smooth that it often seems as though the vehicle is a pure electric.  However, the CVT version (it is also available with a manual five-speed) has a feature called “idle stop” that kicks in depending on certain conditions (e.g., outside air temperature; state of battery change).  When at a stop at a red light or while idling in traffic, the engine shuts off.  Off.  It is somewhat disconcerting.  The gauges are still lighted, but the sound is silent.  Although the engine restarts when one’s foot is removed from the brake pedal, there was often a slight hesitation reminiscent of nearly stalling out a manual transmission by popping the clutch too quickly.  This didn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence.  Yes, it helped keep the mpg’s above 50, but it came at the price of some peace of mind.

The interior of the 2002 model is well put together and the materials and design touches say “advanced” without seeming like a 1950s version of the supposed future.  We’d been in an earlier model Insight that had an interior that reminded us of a bad Civic, and this is far superior.

Although we’re taken with the teardropesque shape of the largely aluminum body, the obligatory observing of other people looking at the car on the road resulted in the conclusion that with the exception of one old lady in a Buick Century who was wearing cataract sunglasses, there weren’t a whole lot of people whose attention was drawn to the Insight with the head-snapping that is undoubtedly desired by vehicle designers.

One interesting thing about people who expressed an interest in the Insight: To a person, they asked, “Can you buy one?”  The marketing people at Honda obviously need to ask Richard Dreyfuss to emote a little more in his commercials for the vehicle.

Our biggest criticism has to do with the heating and cooling system.  Near as we can tell, it is primarily either a (1) cooling system or (2) something that simply ducts outside air.  On a fall morning with the ambient temperature at the dew point and the humidity high, it was necessary to drive for too long with the windows partially obscured by moisture.  (And it was chilly in the car.)  The rear defroster worked OK, but the front fans did little in the way of helping remove the condensation on the front and side glass.  Although the temp gauge indicated that there was heat, presumably a 1.0-liter engine doesn’t throw off enough to overcome ambient air.

While we would put up with storage space that is shaped to carry little and a steering wheel that isn’t adjustable in order to buzz around in the Insight on a regular basis, that HVAC system needs work before we could seriously consider it.