Why does the new Honda Insight so greatly resemble the Toyota Prius?

Posted by  in Thursday, October 8th 2009   
Topics: Highest MPG    Tags: , ,
honda insight2 Why does the new Honda Insight so greatly resemble the Toyota Prius? at Bestgasmileageblog.com
ljerritt asked:


The Prius is the darling of the automotive world. Fine, but i assumed it was because of it’s hybrid system, not because of its styling. Mark you, it’s not that horrendous, just boring. When Honda announced they were introducing a new Hybrid car along the lines of their old Insight from a few years ago, the original which had a unique and interesting design, i was somewhat excited. But the new Insight is quite easy to mistake for Prius. Why the conformity?!?

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3 Comments

Vipassana said in October 10th, 2009 at 3:22 pm    

The Prius is the darling?

Since when?

Also, the Insight is years old…if you haven’t noticed, ideas that are popular, get imitated…which is why so many cars on the market look similar to each other.

You must be new to the car owning world, if you think this is od…

Windowphobe said in October 13th, 2009 at 9:36 am    

Neither of Honda’s other hybrids – Civic or Accord – was selling well (the Accord version has since been dropped), and someone at Honda apparently decided that the reason they weren’t selling well was because they were indistinguishable from their more-ordinary brandmates.

The Prius looks like no other Toyota, and I suspect that people flocked to it because it was easily recognizable, especially people for whom it is important to appear to be environmentally concerned. (Which is no different, really, from the 16-year-old who wants the coolest-looking car in the high-school parking lot; we all are motivated at least somewhat by automotive appearance. This doesn’t explain the Dodge Caliber, but you can’t have everything.)

So Honda decided to avoid both looking like the previous Insight or like its other cars, and hit upon a very aerodynamic (good for fuel economy) design with a sharp cutoff in the back. Which is, as noted, a design that looks very Prius-y. Still, if you want to be recognized from a distance as someone with impeccable green credentials, now you have two choices at popular prices.

peacefuldisaster said in October 14th, 2009 at 11:50 pm    

The body style of the Insight is designed to reduce drag to maximize fuel efficiency. This was not done to the Civic Hybrid because Honda wanted it to still look like a Civic. With the new generation Insight, Honda could take advantage of a different body style to increase fuel efficiency, which happens to be what Toyota engineers did with the Prius years before.

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