Tell me about the Honda Insight

ubersonic

ubersonic

ubersonic

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26 May 2009
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Before I start I know it was only last week I was debating Supras and Legnums versus Skylines but, well this is this week :P

Ive been looking at Lings cars and they say I can get a 3 year Lease of a new Honda Insight 1.3 IMA ES for £252 a month inc vat, now considering I would never have to mot the car and they send me the tax discs that sounds like a great deal, the vehicles warranty should sort any problems

According to the site I would just insure it fully comp (Will actually drop my premiums a lot) have it serviced according to the schedule, and put fuel in it (which at a claimed 60mpg should save a lot of money compared to the proven 25mpg I get atm).

Well basically Id like to know as much about the car as you can tell and if you guys think its a good deal? I realise it wont have the thrills of the cars I was looking at but I don't really care, I love the look of the dash and the mpg looks great too.
 
The general opinion I've heard is it's a slightly inferior Prius. I do however prefer the Honda. I think it has less of that Eco-****er stigma and I prefer the looks of it.
 
Isnt the tax free anyway?

You are going to pay almost £10,000 to rent a car for 3 years. After 3 years, the car goes back and you are left with nothing to show for your £10,000 outlay.

I'm not sure why never having to MOT the car is some sort of a bonus, mind - my MOT expenses are £26 a year?
 
You wont get 60mpg other than novelty effort trips, 50mpg average is possible depending on where and how you drive.

Go down Honda and take one for a drive, its CVT so very much a car that might or might not be for you. The rear headroom is frankly comical, the Jazz hybrid is coming if you want more space and it retains Magic Seats.

The Insight will get much closer to the drive cycles MPG than you expect if you use Prius as a benchmark for hybrids, which would be inappropriate as they are vastly different systems. EPA MPG differences between the Insight and Prius are pretty significant but the owner logs put them 1mpg apart. Eco mode is pretty smart as it puts the engine into a psuedo Atkinson cycle and uses the electric motor to make the minor cruise control speed adjustment rather than engine speed, just a shame they test cycles again arnt reflective as it must be done in 'normal' mode.
 
[TW]Fox;18250794 said:
Isnt the tax free anyway?

You are going to pay almost £10,000 to rent a car for 3 years. After 3 years, the car goes back and you are left with nothing to show for your £10,000 outlay.

I'm not sure why never having to MOT the car is some sort of a bonus, mind - my MOT expenses are £26 a year?
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Yeah, but he won't have to MOT it, bonus no?
 
[TW]Fox;18250794 said:
I'm not sure why never having to MOT the car is some sort of a bonus, mind - my MOT expenses are £26 a year?
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Mine are £25. Ohhhh Yeahhhhhh. :cool:

Why people finance cars, I'll never know. I rather not pay for something which I know isn't going to be mine any time soon.
 
Well im currently looking at over £500 to get my car through the next mot hence why im looking for a new vehicle (not spending that much on a car with rusting arches, dying gearbox and a phantom oil leak :P).

Like Fox said its £9k and I have no car at the end however I should have 3 years of trouble free motoring in a £18k car. If on the other hand I bought the 18k car and sold it 3 years later I think I would lose more than £9k on it when you factor in depreciation (2 year old ones on auto trader for £7k below retail price) and tax discs, mot tests, etc.

Plus I cant afford to buy an £18k car lol, meh still deciding what to do...
 
If you're after that kind of economy then pick up a diesel hatch, I get 64mpg @ 70mph run and ~55mpg average pretty easily with a mixture of town and A-road driving out of a 1.5 Diesel Megane, it's similar performance to the Insight but doesn't suffer from tyres designed not to grip the road.

As Fox has already pointed out do the maths carefully before going ahead with a lease, you are tied in for a fixed period (normally 3 years) and don't have anything to show for it at the end apart from (hopefully) 3 years of hassle free motoring.
 
Well, that's the reason I thought it sounded like a cool idea, I don't have £18k just lying around and Im terrible at saving money, way too impulsive, whereas £252 is easily doable.
 
Why not just have a car loan on a used 1.6 Tdci Focus, which would be as good on fuel if not better and you'd have an asset at the end of it.
 
[TW]Fox;18251331 said:
Would you not be better off buying a car you *can* afford to buy, rather than simply renting one you cannot?
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That entirely depends upon a persons car buying cycle.

If you want a new car that you will sell in 3 years time then the cost of ownership is the depreciation of the car plus fuel, consumable items, servicing and insurance.

This means that the difference between leasing and buying a new car is the fact that instead of depreciation you pay the lease. Therefore the maths of it is simple, how does the price of the lease compare to the expected depreciation. If it's similar or not too much say £1000 more for the lease over the 3 years, then it's probably worth it as you don't have to save up the capital to buy the car in the first place. Even better if you would have to buy the car on finance as the interest would probably be more than the extra for the lease.

Obviously things slightly change if you go over your milage estimate on the lease.

I personally think that a lot of people are instantly negative towards leasing but in some situations it makes sense. It has pretty much the same financial impact as buying a new car with some financing.

The question is more like, can you stomach the cost of £10,000 + running costs over 3 years to drive a new car?
 
Lease deals like the £270/month inc on a 4 year 20kpa personal on this insight do make me stop and think.

I'd easily save more than the entire lease cost just in fuel switching to one of them, it would be a totally free (to me) brand new car which would take the miles away from anything else.

Crap car by the looks of it, but the economy cars like this offer do make me wonder if i am being rather silly running a V8 day to day.
 
Jez said:
Crap car by the looks of it, but the economy cars like this offer do make me wonder if i am being rather silly running a V8 day to day.
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Never, you're driving around in a nice V8 merc which has got to be preferable to driving a crappy hybrid/diesel (if you can afford it of course!)
 
McHaMmEr said:
Never, you're driving around in a nice V8 merc which has got to be preferable to driving a crappy hybrid/diesel (if you can afford it of course!)
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Thats not really the point, its not a matter of being able to afford or not, its a matter of those figures really making it look like a waste of money :p
 
Jez said:
Thats not really the point, its not a matter of being able to afford or not, its a matter of those figures really making it look like a waste of money :p
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Well then it's entirely down to whether you feel the benefits of driving a V8 are worth the extra cost or not. Could you tolerate covering the same mileage in a 4 pot derv or a hybrid?
 
Jez said:
Lease deals like the £270/month inc on a 4 year 20kpa personal on this insight do make me stop and think.

I'd easily save more than the entire lease cost just in fuel switching to one of them, it would be a totally free (to me) brand new car which would take the miles away from anything else.

Crap car by the looks of it, but the economy cars like this offer do make me wonder if i am being rather silly running a V8 day to day.
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I hear you can also slash your holiday costs by going to Spain instead.
 
[TW]Fox;18255195 said:
I hear you can also slash your holiday costs by going to Spain instead.
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Well quite. We are not talking huge sums of money. Pretty bad that i am burning an entire new car in extra fuel though :p
 
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