Honda Insight & Civic

I bought Consumer Reports (CR) Annual Auto Issue last week. Given Verified Atheist's endorsement of his Civic Hybrid, I checked those out first. Honda is coming out with a new Civic line right about now, so there wasn't much data in the new vehicle reports. The reliability history for the Civbrid was generally excellent, mostly red circles. But for the electrical systems of the 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2009 models CR shows the dreaded black circles instead. 

Honda is a great automaker, but their hybrids all feature Integrated Motor Assist, which may be a step up from Chevy's mild hybrids but is not as robust as parallel hybrids like the Prius. Milds do not have a large electric motor that can push the car. Instead, milds include some combo of battery and electric motor to run the lights and AC while the mild is stopped in traffic, and to restart the combustion engine imperceptibly when you step on the pedal. In short, a mild hybrid is an efficient and green vehicle for stop-and-go city driving, but not that special for highway driving. I use public transportation and my bicycle in the city, so virtually all my driving is on the highway.

Honda's first Insight was as distinctive as the Prius, but IMO, suffered from poor acceleration and having only two seats. Honda took a lot of flak for the Accord Hybrid, which used the electric motor more to improve performance than efficiency. The Civic Hybrid has been as unobtrusive as the base Civic, which appeals to some people, but probably cost it some green sales. The newer Insight looked a lot like a Prius, but was still a mild, so I was a bit surprised to read Honda Insight sales surging in U.S. on Autoblog Green: 

After two lackluster years, the second-generation Honda Insight is starting to see a surge in sales. Soaring gas prices, along with Honda's "The Really Big Thing" advertising campaign, boosted sales of the Insight to 2,782 units in March, a 62.2 percent increase compared to the same month last year. Furthermore, Ward's Auto points out that the "Insight's sales rise last month outpaced the 52.0 percent increase for the Toyota Prius."

But that's large increase in a small market share.

Although demand for the Insight is on the rise, the Prius remains the hybrid heavyweight, with sales hitting 42,779 units in the first quarter of 2011 versus only 6,058 for the Insight.

Perhaps this comment by Sasparilla explains why Honda earned black circles for their hybrids' electrical reliability:

Hopefully they have fixed their NiMH battery pack longevity issues, but since they didn't do that with the original Insight Hybrid, then the Civic Hybrid, then the 2nd Generation Civic Hybrid (multi-thousand dollar battery packs start "recalibrating" while you're driving as the packs loose their capacity) and the current Insight Hybrid pack is the same capacity as the Civic Hybrid's I would bet that it is not fixed.

I would not be afraid of a new Insight, but I'd only plan on keeping it through about 60,000 miles and then sell it for sure. Keeping it beyond that and you have to start planning on the battery pack dying noticably, but slowly (and Honda not replacing it).
If you want a hybrid through 100,000 miles or more go look at a Toyota or a Ford, their packs are big enough that they can manage them to last.

Just my $0.02 as a 2nd Generation Civic Hybrid owner.

Honda is coming out with a new Civbrid which will use lithium ion batteries, but I wonder if the mild strategy is harder on battery cycles than the full parallel engine.

Autoblog Green also has a full review of the Insight.

Those looking for an affordable Honda have three main choices: the Civic, Fit and Insight. What you should choose depends on your full spectrum of needs and wants. For those who rarely have to traverse bumpy roads, that takes one element out of the equation. If you regularly need to carry four people and two of them are over six feet tall, the Fit is the clear winner. The same is true if you are looking to maximize utility in a small package.

Those purely interested in maximizing fuel efficiency or minimizing greenhouse gas emissions should go for the Insight. Over a week of driving around town and on freeways, we scored an impressive 43 mpg with the Insight compared to the 47 mpg we managed to squeeze out of the 2010 Toyota Prius. However, no matter how much you want to save fuel or protect the environment, for many of us, dollars and cents play a big part of the equation. Here's where things get a bit dicey. The Prius we drove came to over $30,000. Including delivery charge. This Insight comes to $22,010. That's a big difference, though you can get a Prius priced a lot closer to the Insight by choosing lower levels of equipment.

The Insight's real internecine competitor, however, is the Fit. At just $17,820 out the door, a Fit Sport has a significant pricing advantage over its electrically assisted kin. The Fit Sport we reviewed last fall achieved 33 mpg, which nears a point where the diminishing returns of increased mileage kick in. If gas were $4/gallon, driving the Fit Sport some 12,000 miles per year would cost $1,452 versus $1,116 for the Insight. The difference of $336 per year in fuel cost would take over 12 years to cover the premium paid for the Insight. This won't matter to people who are more interested in reducing their carbon footprint than saving some greenbacks, but for the rest of us, the Insight's extra cost may not be manageable, especially in this economy.

As art, one of the commenters noted: 

i've said it once and i'll say it a hundred times: no one buys a dedicated hybrid model like this to save money. they are bought to save barrels of oil. they are bought by people that care more about the environment than their wallets. whether or not they are correct in their assumption, is another story altogether, but it's just not about money. another reason is they want people to KNOW they're saving barrels of oil for the world, not their pocketbook. that's why the Prius has done so well, and why, i suspect, this test notwithstanding, the Insight will do well too. they look different, they're seen as hybrids even by people that don't know a Civic from a Corolla. the Insight will go to people that don't care about the latest 'luxuries,' it will go to current Honda owners that love their light weight and econoclass trappings. the Prius could be sold for $40,000 and they would still sell as many as they do now because those owners appreciate the space age interior, the leather, the xenons etc. loaded Priuses are the norm.

Image might explain that surge in Insight sales, but the price dropped a lot, too. Both CR and Edmunds calculate a five year cost for cars including fuel, insurance, repairs, etc. CR only gives away a few numbers for their "best value" cars, but Edmunds posts theirs for almost every car. I used their 2010 figures for consistency. The Insight became quite an inexpensive way to get into a hybrid, but I'm leery of the battery issue:

Edmunds True Cost to Own®:

$26,582 Insight (Mild Hybrid)   
$26,853 Civic Sedan   
$27,041 Yaris Hatchback   
$27,374 Yaris Sedan   
$27,986 Fit Hatchback   
$28,423 Civic (Mild Hybrid)    
$29,204 Prius (Hybrid)
$29,736 Corolla Sedan 
$30,985 Camry        
$31,415 Fusion Sedan   
$32,171 Escape SUV   
$33,482 Camry Hybrid   
$37,349 Fusion Hybrid   
$39,711 Escape Hybrid  

Nissan Leaf & Chevrolet Volt

I wonder how far people will go to buy the Leaf and the Volt. Consumer Reports also featured a full test drive review of the Volt and a brief review of a borrowed Leaf. Both cars can achieve low cost-per-mile, but both are pricey and even worse, both fall short of the claimed range in cold weather. The Volt is supposed to get 40 or 50 miles of pure EV mode, but:

We've been getting the low end of electric-only range, usually between 23 and 28 miles, undoubtedly due to this winter's deep freeze. The car's electric range is very susceptible to cold weather, primarily because the heater runs on electricity. ... Our engineers complained that the air from the heaters was tepid, leaving them uncomfortably cold.

The Leaf also had range problems:

We think the Leaf is great for short trips. But its range is often not what its gauge might indicate. One staffer found that the range was rapidly reduced from 36 miles [as displayed] to barely 19 one frigid morning. Nissan claims the range on a full charge is 100 miles, but during a long cold snap we averaged just 65 miles. ... Our initial take is that the Leaf is a fun urban car that works best as a second or third vehicle in a temperate climate.

I've read similar reports elsewhere. To make things worse, Autoblog Green reports that:

On Monday, Japanese automaker Nissan acknowledged that it would investigate complaints that some [5300] Leafs randomly don't start, a problem caused by the vehicle's air conditioning system. The issue was reported in both the U.S. and Japan.

Growing pains are to be expected, but that doesn't help to win the PR battle.