The Honda Insight Hybrid is a Honda Civic, fully loaded, with better fuel economy.

At least that’s according to Trent Valley Honda assistant sales manager Tom Cook. He explains the 2019 model is “essentially a Civic hybrid” as we zip down Hwy 115 for a test drive.

“See,” he says before taking his hands off the wheel as we head around a turn with the cruise set to 120 kilometres per hour. The car stays within the lines using Honda’s Lane Keeping Assist System and slows to match the speed of the car ahead of us with Adaptive Cruise Control.

“It drives itself,” he says. “It’s semiautonomous.”

The 2019 Honda Insight Hybrid features the latest tech including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You can plug your phone into the car’s eight-inch audio display audio system.

It’s true, the new Insight is packed with Honda Sensing technologies including Forward Collision Warning, Road Departure Mitigation, Lane Departure Warning, Collision Mitigation Braking System and Traffic Sign Recognition. “Taglining “naturally futuristic,” Honda’s packed the car with up and coming tech from the steering wheel across the dash.

Cook notes the Apple CarPlay/Android Auto where two USB ports in the centre
console allow you to throw your phone interface onto the eight-inch display audio system. He says he’d drive the Insight if he lived in Peterborough full time — a shout out to those looking for something that packs some pep without breaking the bank.

Pep comes in the form of a 1.5-litre, 16-valve, Atkinson cycle DOHC, i-VTEC four-cylinder engine and two electric motors using an Electric-Continuously Variable Transmission. In layman’s terms, the gas and electric motors work together to maximize efficiency and fuel economy. That’s 4.9 litres per 100 kilometres.

When you brake, the display shows you’re charging the battery. When you accelerate, it shows the motors working together. You can switch the car into full Sport mode, driving up your power; EV mode, switching to full electric; or keep it
at ECON for both. Together, that’s 151-combined total horsepower.

Since its debut in the early 2000s, the Insight has transformed from a three-door hatchback to a four-door sedan. Essentially, it’s gone from looking like an electric car to looking like something you’d want your friends to see you in.

Cook says Honda completely redesigned the Insight from 2018 to 2019 to get away from the electric car look.

“They basically made it a lot more attractive because a lot of hybrid designs have always been very different looking, not like your traditional car. They stand out from the crowd,” he says.

“A lot of people who have come in looking for hybrids have found that some of the previously offered hybrids… are not as appealing from the outside,” he adds. “Honda has combated that objection by making the Insight look like an everyday car, while maintaining that incredible fuel economy.”

The Honda Insight Hybrid has been redesigned from engine to chassis for 2019. The third generation Insight is a more traditional four-door sedan. Its evolved from the three-door hatchback model released in the early 2000s and the second generation five-door hatchback.

Sporting Honda’s signature flying wing grille and bold facia, the Insight looks both sleek and sporty. You’ll find LED lights from front to back including a door puddle light option. The brochure for the Insight says, “Even the 17-inch aluminum-alloy wheels turn your drive into more of a strut.”

With all that tech packed in you’d think inside you’d want for legroom, but there’s enough to stretch out in the passenger seat. The all leather interior with minimalistic threading adds class. With the option for rear heated seats there’s not a whole lot left to be desired.

It only makes sense that Honda has reinvented the hybrid. It was, after all, the first to bring a hybrid to North America. The Honda Insight Hybrid starts at $27,990 and the Hybrid Touring starts at $31,590.

Call 705-748-2777 to test drive one at Peterborough’s Trent Valley Honda.