The 2010 Honda Insight LX doesn’t come with an electronic stability system but higher-end EX models do come with the safety feature. We often reference the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's crash-test scores, and they give the Insight a Top Safety Pick rating when it's equipped with the optional stability system. The Top Safety Pick designation is given to vehicles that earn the IIHS' best crash-test score – Good – in its frontal-offset, side and rear tests and are also available with stability control.
Whether you choose an Insight with stability control is ultimately your choice. The IIHS and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have both conducted studies that show stability control can significantly reduce the chance of an accident, especially in rollover situations. By 2012, the government will mandate standard electronic stability control on all new passenger cars.
The Insight EX with stability control starts at $21,300, which is up from the LX's $19,800 base price. Honda calls its stability system “Vehicle Stability Assist.” You can read more about electronic stability control here.
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The Fusion/Milan hybrid is 1,000 lbs heavier. Yes their city mileage is 41 to the 40 of the Insight, but the highway is worse, 36 to 43.
The Fusion has the WORST taillights on any new car, so if you are going to pay 50% more than the Insight, get the Milan.
All the regenerative hardware eats trunk space, 16 cubic feet in the Insight, 12 in the Fusion/Milan
Get the EX Insight just for the brake actuated traction control.
George- did you just pull that info out of your ass? The Fusion/Milan has 16.5 cubic feet of trunk space, and the Insight has 15.9 cubic feet. Check your facts.
Also, the slight difference in highway mileage is well worth it for a MUCH more substantial, comfortable, and upscale car. A 5 star crash test rating doesn't mean squat when comparing cars in different weight classes, and larger cars with the same crash test rating as smaller cars are safer period. I am a Lexus / Mercedes owner, but this one is a no-brainer to me.
Vik, as much I hate to say it, George is correct about the cargo space (the 16.5 cubic feet trunk number is for the non-hybrid Fusion/Milan; the hybrid goes down to 12). But what the Insight has isn't really a trunk -- it's "hatch space" just like it is the case in the Prius, which means that it doesn't have the cargo separation that the Fusion/Milan has. I think that practically, the Fusion/Milan's trunk is more useful than the allegedly larger cargo spaces that the Insight (and, for that matter, the Prius, which is even larger than the Insight's cargo space) has.
But yes, the minor fuel efficiency gains that the Insight get is, in my opinion (and I drive a Fusion Hybrid) not worth all of the plusses that the Fusion/Milan have over it. In particular, the Fusion is comfortable with four people and tolerable with five. I don't think anything close can be said about the Insight. Now, the price difference is well-taken (although the base Fusion/Milan hybrids are not anywhere close to 50% more expensive than the Insight, and even the base Fusion/Milan Hybrids are substantially better equipped than the top-of-the-line Insight), but the Insight is just an all-around terrible car except on the fuel efficiency front. If you're willing to live with all of the awful characteristics for the fuel efficiency and the price, be my guest. The Fusion/Milan Hybrids are better overall, even accounting for the price differential. (And, as noted, I don't consider fuel efficiency a real plus factor for the Insight when compared to the Fusion/Milan; overall, the numbers will be almost identical.)
A saw a Milan Hybrid the other day, much better looking than the Fusion.
The Fusion's taillights remind me of...1993 Dodge Neon.
The Insight seems to be the poor mans' Prius. So (Honda Civic hybrid vs Honda Insight) vs. Prius.
Milan/Fusion hybrid vs. Camry Hybrid is probably a more realistic choice.
Read slower Vik, you would have seen 'All the regenerative hardware eats trunk space'
Author writes: "Whether you choose an Insight with stability control is ultimately your choice."
REALLY!? MY CHOICE IS MY CHOICE? THAT'S SO AWESOME! THANKS FOR POINTING THAT OUT! ...UGGH...
Regardless, either Insight will be chinzy and cramped. Bleech!
I usually don't take exception to nor do I normally respond to comments on these types of forums but I had to make an exception here. I have never heard anyone describe any modern day Honda as a "terrible car". Not to throw stones, but such a comment coming from a Ford owner (as I have been in the past) I must respectfully take exception to this comment. I have rented Fords in the recent past and they keep me missing my 1996 Integra GSR. Not much of a plug for recent Ford products. In addition, Consumer Reports have recommended 100% of the Hondas they have tested, Ford 63%(a much higher number than I expected truthfully).
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If you can afford it, get a Ford Fusion or Mercury Milan instead. Much nicer car, more practical, should be much safer, and gets better mileage in the city (and should be almost the same overall).