Honda Insight

( Honda )

Honda Insight

Overview: Still technically a concept, although we all know a production version looking a lot like this will go on sale in spring 2009. For anyone who’s just come out of a coma, the Insight is Honda’s answer to the ubiquitous Toyota Prius hybrid car. And yes, the original 1999 Insight (America’s first gas/electric hybrid) used to be a cramped little two-seater just before you went into that coma, but this one’s a proper five-seater. It will have a 1.3-liter gasoline-powered engine and Honda wants to price it below the imminent next-generation Prius.

Our take: Competition is a good thing. And sometimes, so is imitation.

--Colin Ryan

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