The much anticipated Honda Insight Hybrid, which seemingly got all of Honda's engineers at work; seems to have finalized plenty of details within a relatively short period of time.First official images of the concept was shown early September, a working prototype along with videos shown during the Paris Motor Show, and then Honda released images of the production interior with details of its functions in mid November; and along came the first images of the tone down, production version in early December.
What we have now, are leaked brochures that (like all other cars recently) seemingly found their own way onto the internet. Thou certain sites mentioned these are uncredited 'leaks', let us confirmed that these are indeed 100% genuine scanned images of salesroom brochures.
First off, the happy news is, the lack of those 'US only orange colored indicators' that the first images released by Honda, which shouts 80s are (of course) not here to disgust the rest of the world. Clear indicators are a direction of no turning back we reckoned.
As for the rear, which was not shown earlier on, thou bland, but arguably expected, as those beautiful LED rear clusters are solely meant for attracting flashlights from motor show journalists, as for the production version, the generic, all 'red' housing (any other rear lamp clusters) was used here.One notable add-on that screams 'WHY?!' from us, is that patch of cheap looking chrome lining housing Honda's logo beneath the rear 'see-through' extended glass house, which was not seen on the prototype. Which we reckoned are there to hide the housings for the mechanisms for the rear hatch.
Gladly, like we mentioned earlier, the interior was left unmolested, staying with Honda's recent form on creating wonderful interiors, those Matrix-like interiors that first debuted in the 3rd Gen JDM Honda Odyssey, which subsequently found their way into the Civic, Stream and Jazz/Fit, had found their way here relaying information of how your Insight Hybrid helps preventing Polar Bears from drowning. Check out our previous post on what button does what miracles to prevent Global Warming.
The brochure also reveals a slew of color options available, of course in this case, in Japan. Of course this is not entirely applicable to the rest of the world, as perhaps Honda product planners would've gotten a good insight (pun not intended) into each region's preference of color from our previous post on Dupont's regional survey on car color preferences.One thing thou, as the Honda Insight Hybrid does comes with the huge chrome/silver slab surrounding the intake radiator grills, which was first seen on the FCX Clarity and 4th Gen Honda Odyssey, it came to us that this thing doesn't go very well with a silver colored car, as evident in Honda's first official image of the production Insight Hybrid.
The brochure also shows that three variants are available, with the G Spec coming in as the base model, complete with common features available in most modern cars including climate control, airbags, anti whiplash headrests and interestingly, a 'Flat Tyre Repait Kit' - we're not really sure how that works out, but we're sure that the Insight Hybrid doesn't come with a spare tyre.The L Spec moves up a notch by offering side mirror integrated indicators, HID head lamps, full leather steering wheels with integrated (presumably) volume, multi function controls and cruise control, as well as armrests laden with cupholders.
Lastly the LS Spec adds on those much better looking 16" seven spoke aluminum wheels, fog lamps, and manual overwrite 7 speed paddle shifters for the CVT transmission unit and of course, Honda's VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist), which Honda consistently claimed (In marketing brochures) that all vehicles without it will crash, burn and die and possibly, results in more deaths than WWII before Honda came in and safe the world.
Of course, after spending billions trying to save mankind from themselves, the penguins, polar bears from drowning themselves, of course Honda would want a little bit of 'reward' for their efforts, therefore, some incentives so that perhaps when time comes, they can have enough 'encouragement' to venture back into F1 and restart the NSX replacement project.What better ways are there than including optional Modulo bodykits for owners to play their part in saving the world?
