Honda Insight EX Review

Let's skip right to the central questions here. Should Toyota be worried? Is the new Honda Insight a Prius-killer?

Yes and no.

Yes to the first question because Honda has come through with a hybrid for a couple thousand dollars less than the Prius sells for (Insight EX base price: $21,300. With destination charges, $21,970). And in tough economic times, the car payment (if you can afford one at all) matters big.

No to the second because there will be a large group of people (especially existing Prius owners) who will choose the Prius for reasons that the Honda (at least at present) can't touch.

The Insight is shaped like the Prius (apparently the best shape for reducing wind resistance), has four doors and is powered by a gasoline-electric hybrid engine. But that's pretty much where the similarities end.

Honda got to the price advantage by making a smaller, less powerful, less comfortable, less refined car that actually gets fewer miles per gallon than the Prius.

If you've never driven a Prius, you might not notice. If you have, you most certainly will. The Prius interior is almost like being in a Camry. The Insight makes a Civic (one size class smaller) feel a bit roomier.

If you stomp on the gas pedal of a Prius, you're surprised by what it can do. The same move in an Insight produces a lot of noise from the 98 horsepower four-cylinder gasoline engine and the continuously variable transmission, but frustratingly little speed.

Each evolution of the Prius reminds us that Toyota also makes Lexus...refinement is definitely on the agenda. The Insight was built to hit a price target and it shows.

And even with all those things, the Prius wins the fuel economy contest with an EPA estimated 48 city/45 highway to the Insight's 40 city/43 highway.

That't the objective stuff. The subjective, like Honda's overly complicated, overly cute instrument panel and dashboard layout are strictly matters of opinion and taste. But for me, I gotta ask...is this the same company that built my '84 Civic Sedan, a model of simplicity and ergonomics that got 46 miles per gallon on the highway for the 14 years and 140,000 miles I owned it?

Think I'm being harsh? Read what Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson wrote about the Insight in a Times of London piece.

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Volkswagen Jetta Review

Some cars become so familiar that they also become somewhat invisible. That's the great thing about a test drive...it can put you back in touch with the car itself instead of the blurred image in your brain.

The Volkswagen Jetta is now (with the Golf having been re-named Rabbit a couple of years ago, but on its way back to Golf for 2010) the longest-running nameplate in the VW lineup...and the basic concept is so strong that redesigns end up looking like minor facelifts.

Get behind the wheel and you find that the Jetta is an exceptionally well-thought out sedan. The German engineering is obvious every time you touch a surface, move a lever or turn the wheel. The structural integrity is evident in the tightness and quietness of the body. Unlike most cars (especially in this price class), the details are given careful attention...right down to double-hinged doors...capable of holding the weight of an adult male.

Consider this your reminder...VW makes a competitor to the Civic, Corolla, Focus and Cobalt. It's worth a look...and a test drive.


UPDATE: Just finished a week in a new Jetta SE and all the above still stands. This tester had a six-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic, Bluetooth, rubber floormats and an iPod connector...bringing the price to just over $22,000 with destination charges. A bargain for the quality you get.

EPA estimates: 20 city/29 highway.

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P.J. O'Rourke Is A Great Writer. As A Re-Writer, Not So Much

P.J. O'Rourke is a former National Lampoon editor and writer who branched out into automotive journalism at Car And Driver (another example of why David E. Davis Jr. is the father of modern automotive journalism) in 1977, following NatLamp's publication of his hysterical (if vulgar, sexist and, in those days, borderline obscene) piece "How To Drive Fast On Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed And Not Spill Your Drink".

Over the years, that particular gem has been reprinted in at least one of O'Rourke's books...but with a few of the words changed. Now, P.J. has put out a compilation of his car pieces for Car and Driver, Automobile and other magazines, Driving Like Crazy. And once again, he's editing himself. Jean Jennings mentions it gently in her column in the July Automobile.

O'Rourke himself cops to it in the book...arguing that he's now a better writer, so changing is improving. I disagree. P.J.'s pieces are better the first time (so much so that I think I'd like to read the first drafts).

Evidence of how good P.J. is when he's not overthinking it is found in this past Saturday's Wall Street Journal, where he gives us "The End of Our Love Affair With Cars". It's classic, yet mature P.J. Go read. Then hit your local used bookstore and see if you can find the original back issues of Car and Driver and Automobile to see P.J.'s work the way it was originally written.

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Autoextremist Turns Ten

I remember when my friend Mike Conlee came to me and said "You've gotta see this new website about the auto industry." Incredibly, that was 10 years ago, and I haven't missed a week. Peter DeLorenzo recaps the decade...along with the surprise that this was intended to be the last Autoextremist.com post.

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GM Files For Bankruptcy

It's official. Details here.

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David E. Davis Jr. Rejoins Car And Driver

Car and Driver's new editor-in-chief Eddie Alterman is on issue number two of his tenure...and he's continuing to hit all the right notes.

At his invitation, David E. Davis, Jr., who held that office twice in the 60s, 70s and 80s (both tenures widely considered to be the golden years of C/D) has returned as a columnist.

Davis is the father of modern automotive journalism, a true giant whose talents and instincts not only propelled Car and Driver to the top while he was at the helm, but provided sufficient momentum to keep C/D there for the 23 years since his departure to launch Automobile. His most recent venture was the online magazine Winding Road.

If you took everything Davis ever wrote in his life and put it in one volume, I'd read it all (most of it for the second or third time) and then urge you to do the same.

Davis says he's rejoining Car and Driver because it is the one car magazine with the ingredients needed to succeed.

Alterman's second issue (July, 2009) is yet another big step forward in putting Car and Driver back in gear, from a thought-provoking editor's column, to continued refinements in content and artwork (including the cleanest-looking cover in years).

Last month's appearance by former editor-in-chief Csaba Csere, kicking off a series on Certified Pre-Owned vehicles, appears to have been a one-shot...Tony Swan writes installment number two (on Porsche 911's)

DED, Jr.'s first column is in there, too...a brilliant piece on former General Motors chief Rick Wagoner and what might soon be the former General Motors. Go buy a copy. Then subscribe. This is going to be very good...at a time when we car folks need it most.

Car and Driver May 1964 (Vol 9 No 11)
Automobile, December 1988, Vol. 3, No. 9.

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Ford F-150 Supercrew Lariat Review

If you were wondering why Lincoln chose to discontinue building the Mark LT pickup this year, meet the reason:

The Ford F-150 4X4 Supercrew Lariat.

A fact fewer and fewer people seem to know: Full-size pickup trucks can be fairly cheap. A base Ford F-150 XL standard cab starts at $20,815.

But not this one. Base price: $37,990. And the Ford PR folks slathered on more than eight grand worth of options (special color metallic paint, limited slip axle, navigation, a chrome step bar, moonroof, the Lariat Plus package, 20 inch aluminum wheels, a trailer brake controller and heated and cooled leather captain's chairs) for a bottom line before discounts of $46,195.

Thank goodness for the $1,000 Lariat premium discount...it's really only $45,195.

Incredibly, the Lariat isn't the top of the line...meaning $45,195 isn't all the money you can spend for a Ford truck. The King Ranch edition starts about six grand higher than the Lariat base price...and the Platinum goes $1600 above the King Ranch.

Meaning you can break $50,000 here.

Mileage? Well, rent a car to go to the Sierra Club meetings. The EPA says 14 city/18 highway.

So...given all that, how is it?

If you want a full-size, four-door truck loaded like only Lincoln Town Cars used to be (and more tasefully at that)...and it appears that's exactly how truck buyers like them these days, then this is the one.

At least, I think. It's definitely one-upped the Chevy Silverado. There's also a new Dodge Ram pickup for 2009, but Chrysler pulled it out of the Phoenix press fleet a few weeks before my scheduled week in it. Will we see one again? If you know the answer, a courtesy call to the UAW workers biting their nails over Mopar's future would be nice.

                                                           

Keep your gear dry with a Ford F150 tonneau cover from AmericanTrucks.

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