Remember the Honda Insight? No, not the original two-seat Insight that looks kind of cool today, but the Prius-mimicking one you can still buy, technically. It might not be long for this world.
When the new Insight was launched in 2009, it tried to make a big deal about being much cheaper than a Toyota Prius. In fact, it was slightly cheaper, but much smaller and not nearly as efficient, so people bought a lot of Priuses instead. Sales never took off and it's been a more common sight in government fleets than in people's driveways.
Autoblog Green reports that a source of theirs says Honda has made no plans for a 2015 Insight, meaning it's very likely dealers will just sell off the 2014 until they're all gone, Mitsubishi Galant-style.
It makes sense, though. The Insight shares a lot of bits and pieces with the Fit, and the new 2015 Honda Fit is coming soon. There's a Fit Hybrid for Japan and we could get that version, too, making a separate Insight model redundant.
Even though the Insight's sales last month were up 62% over November 2012, Honda still only managed to move 402 of them. By contrast, the more expensive and more efficient Civic Hybrid sold 1,031 units. Both still trail the Toyota Prius family by a lot, but Honda might do better if they put their marketing muscle around fewer hybrid models.
If the Insight is, in fact, canceled after 2014, that does raise a question about another Honda hybrid no one buys and that isn't very good. The CR-Z has always looked good and just been a good powertrain short of being a hot little car. It's Fit-based, too, but there's been no mention of it continuing.
So if you've always liked the current Insight and want a new one, better act soon. That's probably a bunch of parking enforcement agencies and about 7 actual consumers.
Photo: Honda
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