Prius and Insight Top Safety Pick Awards

Small and safe

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has awarded both the new Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight Top Safety Pick Awards.

Small, safe and fuel efficient. Do you really need that huge guzzler to feel safe?

Can the Insight hybrid sell in this economy?

Recession-fighter?

Had Honda launched the fantastically aerodynamically designed Insight hybrid at this time last year, it would have been impossible for Honda to match demand.

This year, however, is a whole different matter. Cheaper gas, a dead car buyers market, and a deep recession make the car business a bad business to be in these days.

Finish: Can the Insight hybrid sell in this economy?

67 mpg Honda Fit and Insight hybrids?

Even cheaper than the Insight hybrid?

While US automakers are struggling just to survive to President-Elect Obama's inauguration, Honda is ramping up plans to put many more hybrid vehicles on the road soon. The Honda Insight is just around the corner and the Honda Fit hybrid should be available in 2010.

Reports coming out of Britain are claiming the new Honda hybrid will achieve at least 67 mpg, which is what the report claims the new Honda Insight will achieve.

This is nonsense. Finish: 67 mpg Honda Fit hybrid ready in 2010?

Why isn't any other automaker focused on cheap hybrids?

Still too expensive?

Hybrid vehicles, and other emergent fuel efficient technologies, are not the cheapest vehicles on the block, especially up front. And, when your 401K, pension plan, and home equity values are racing downward - with gas prices - sticker price becomes even more important.

While plug-in hybrid vehicles have received all of the hype and hope recently, aren't cheap hybrid cars the most efficient path to better fuel economy and technological economies of scale? Finish: Cheap hybrids - Only Honda gets it?

Hot new details on the 2010 Toyota Prius

Not! And don't expect any until January

There was a rumor coming out of England that Toyota planned to sell both the current version of the Toyota Prius and the third generation Toyota Prius concurrently. The current version, according to the rumor, would be sold at a discount to fight off the Honda Insight.

Finish: 2010 Toyota Prius - Hot, new details

New Honda Insight still not better than the Prius?

Not as efficient as the Prius in the city?

The new Honda Insight hybrid will be the first real challenge to the Toyota Prius. But is it really a Prius fighter?

Finish: Honda Insight in Paris - Cheaper not better than the Prius?

Great Honda Insight expectations

Too little too late?

Sure, it looks sort of like the Toyota Prius, yet the Insight's design lines are still a bit more sleek and refined than the Prius. But consumers don't buy the Prius for its looks - or do they - they buy it for its fuel economy, right? How will the Honda Insight compare?

Finish: Great Honda Insight Expectations