Help me Honda

Adrian and his Honda Insight

You don’t have to be a fan of Strictly Come Dancing to know it takes two to tango and when it comes to Green motoring the driver is at least as important as the car.

I liked the Honda Insight a lot after driving the cheapest hybrid on the market at its launch in Valencia, Spain. No other car has made such an impact on my ability to drive economically thanks to its extremely simple visual display.

The upper part of the car’s information display glows green when acceleration is smooth, gradual and environmentally-friendly. It glows blue when you put your foot down.

This means you can gauge the effect of your inputs much more quickly than in other cars as well as stand a better chance of matching the 61.4mpg combined fuel return.

You can see my first impressions of the Honda Insight and Senior Web Journalist, Andy Goodwin’s Honda Insight Ten Point Test here.

Since that launch the Green car market has become more competitive with the new Toyota Prius joining a raft of extremely frugal hatches, including versions of the VW Golf and Ford Focus, which boast better fuel economy.

But Honda’s emphasis on changing driver habits as an essential part of the Green mix is compelling. Any environmentally-friendly vehicle requires the person behind the wheel to do their share of the work and for me, the Insight is the car which does this part the best.

Now Honda has given Auto Trader the opportunity to put that theory to the test over a longer period of ownership.

We’re running a Honda Insight for six months and we’ll be keeping you posted on our progress.

Adrian Higgins