As I was driving today, I thought I recognized the unique styling of the original Honda Insight several cars ahead. Once I caught up to the vehicle at the next stoplight, my suspicions were correct – it was an old school Honda Insight. So, I’ve just spent a bit of time digging through the Honda Media site’s archives and I was able to find both images and several press releases about the 2001 Honda Insight.

• Insight Tops EPA Fuel Economy Report – 12/27/2000
• Honda’s Hybrid Gives Insight Into the Future – 12/29/2000
• Honda Insight Lineup Adds Continuously Variable Transmission – 1/3/2001
• Honda Insight Tops EPA Fuel Economy Report, New Civic Makes Top Ten – 1/3/2001
• Honda Insight Tops Rankings in 2001 ACEEE Green Book – 2/23/2001
• New Honda Insight Model Earns 57 MPG EPA City Rating With Advanced CVT Automatic Transmission – 5/10/2001
• Hybrid Car Sales Surge Along With Gas Prices – 6/12/2001
• Honda Insight Wins ‘Tour de Sol’ – 6/19/2001
• Honda Insight Named Most Fuel-Efficient Car in America – 10/9/2001

The 12/27/2000 press release shows that the Insight crushed its competition with a fuel efficiency rating of 16mpg more than the vehicle in the number two spot. The average fuel economy of the 2001 Honda Insight was 64 mpg.

I found it interesting to read about the ACEEE ranking since I just posted the 2009 list. In 2001, the Honda Insight had a Green Score of 52, which put it at the top of the green car lists that year. For comparison, the 2009 winner, the Honda Civic GX, received a Green Score of 57.

The last press release that really caught my eye was that hybrid car sales were surging as gas prices were rising. In May of 2001, 903 Honda Insights were sold which was a 137.6% increase over May 2000. These kinds of sales numbers definitely are a thing of the past, at least as far as 2008, 2009 and likely 2010 go.

Gas prices in May 2001 were under $2/gallon. In researching this, I found this article on the PBS website that is worth the read – Rising Gas Prices. When you read through the article, remember that this was published nearly nine years ago but parts of it feel as though they could have been written yesterday.

The 2010 Honda Insight will soon be available in the United States and I’m sure Honda would love to see a repeat of some of these headlines.

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Filed Under: Gas Prices, honda

On Monday, I reported on the overall December 2008 sales figures as well as the year on a cumulative basis. Later that night I sat down and looked for hybrid-specific numbers and some of the figures are astounding. Hybrid sales were down for December 2008 when compared to December 2007 and down for the year.

Despite the exorbitant gas prices that American consumers were faced with in the summer of 2008, the hybrid sales during that time were not enough for hybrids to post an overall sales growth for the year.

Honda dealers sold one Honda Accord Hybrid in December 2008 and 198 for the entire year. The only surprise in this is that Honda announced in the summer of 2007 that the 2008 model would be the last year for the Accord Hybrid yet there was still a model available at the end of 2008.

The Honda Civic Hybrid, part of Honda’s award winning Civic lineup, sold 1,036 units in December 2008 which represents a 67.9% decline over December 2007. There were 32,575 Civic Hybrids sold in the United States in 2008, which is a drop of 4.2% over 2007.

Even the industry-leading Toyota Prius was not exempt from the sales slump. In December 2008, dealerships sold 7,859 Toyota Prius’ down from 14,212 in December 2007 (a 44.7% decrease.) Although 158,884 Toyota Prius’ were sold in 2008, this is down quite a bit from the 2007 sales of 181,221. The 12.6% decline in sales is better than the 15.4% decline that was seen by Toyota as a whole but still nothing to get excited about.

Gas prices are on the rise again; in my area, the prices have gone up by $0.20 in the past seven days. However, $1.69/gallon gas does not cause much of a stir in anyone. It is likely that hybrid sales for 2009 will follow a similar trend. I am still holding out hope that the Honda Insight Hybrid will turn out to be a strong seller though.

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Filed Under: Gas Prices, honda, toyota

Very interesting article at easy finance blog WiseBread on how gas pump manufacturers back in 1995 created pumps that cannot charge over $3.99 The convention is/ was that gas would NEVER go that high. Well……they were so wrong.

[photo credit - flickr]

Mostly these pre-1995 gas pumps are located in small towns and other backwood places. What these gas station owners are faced with, is either install new gas pumps (which is costly and out of the question for many) or simply tell customers “the price shown is wrong”. Hmmm. This is going to be quite the issue in the coming months ahead.

What happens if you fill up thinking you’re getting $3.99 a gallon, then the gas shop owner tells you “hey its really $4.14 a gallon, the pump price is wrong”. What on earth!

Fact is 1995 is not that long ago, how could manufacturers put such a low price in effect for the computers in gas pumps. Did they really feel oil would never skyrocket the way it has? Well regardless, this is the current situation for many small town gas station owners.

The government is giving these owners a break for now, by giving them ample time in replacing the older pumps, but eventually they will have to comply with the law. As it is illegal to not display gas prices.
(or incorrect prices)

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Filed Under: Gas Prices, Gas Pumps