New Honda City unveiled in Thailand - is this the look of the new Insight?
click for a gallery of the 2009 Honda City
The new Honda Insight concept was teased last week in advance of the vehicle's unveiling at the Paris Motor Show next month. We don't know that the production version will look like, but it'll be similar in some ways to the concept and different in others. That's a cop out, sure, but what else is there to know? How about by taking a look at the 2009 Honda City, which was just unveiled in Thailand and is based on the Fit/Jazz. An anonymous poster wrote to Carscoop that, "We'll definitely see a variant of this in the US. It'll have a slightly different profile from the c-pillar back, be a hatchback and will be called the 'Insight.' Due at dealers in April..."
Last year, Honda became one of the first international automakers to take advantage of Thailand's financial aid packages to get more green cars built domestically. As to what the local vehicles might reveal about Honda's global line-up, go ahead and compare the two cars in high-resolution galleries below. Do you think that anonymous is right? Thanks to Rob for the tip.
Gallery: 2009 Honda City
Gallery: Paris 08: Honda Insight concept
[Source: Carscoop]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gordio 2:30PM (9/14/2008)
So the insight is a hatchback of a sedan version of a hatchback....
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Arno 3:17PM (9/14/2008)
Honda made a serious goof there. They put the steering wheel on the wrong side!
:p
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Ignatius 10:43PM (9/14/2008)
I hope you're not being serious...
And if you are, well... let's put it this way, please don't ever drive in any country other than the US, people will thank you with their lives. :P
Dave 3:18PM (9/14/2008)
EEEEEEK! this looks terrible in my opinion. Very stale design.
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Luke 7:31PM (9/14/2008)
My eyes!!! My eyes!!!
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ArtV 7:30PM (9/14/2008)
The Insight will look EXACTLY like it does in those pictures, minus the funky wheels and LED lighting. Not that it won't have some LED lighting, just not like the weirdness at the front.
Here's a tip; When an automaker shows a "prototype" less than a year before the production model drops, what you're seeing is a lightly massaged production intent vehicle. The lead time on tooling is such that they have to have the final styling frozen about 18 months prior to release, if not longer, in order to meet their schedule.
It's not a stretch to believe that the new Insight will be built on a shared platform. There's no way they could meet the pricing target with a dedicated platform, ala the original Insight.
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Noz 8:06PM (9/14/2008)
is this the look of the new Insight?
God I hope not. Honda really tried hard on this one to fk it up.
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James Sonne 9:03PM (9/14/2008)
I think the design is handsome and sharp, especially the rear. The grill is a little busy, but overall certainly better than that weird ant-hill shaped Civic. If this is the new Honda Insight for the most part, I would be very interested in it, and I'm getting close to car buying time.
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flabby 12:38AM (9/15/2008)
It looks like it would be a civic, not something that stands out as a hybrid. It's boring!!!
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Chris 2:44AM (9/15/2008)
There are one or two glaring problems with this car :-(
1) The most major crime is the radiator grille. It looks old-fashioned and low-rent. There is simply no excuse for this.
2) The centre console :-o Gloss black acrylic on matt silver. Please! This is a car, not an iPod. It looks tacky.
3) Where is the display? The SatNav? The rear-view camera? The climate control? The trip-computer with MPG readout? In-car electronics are as cheap as chips now (that's 'fries' for all you Amercian chums). There is simply no excuse for their absence.
Honda - must try harder!
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KC 6:12PM (9/15/2008)
Well, the spy shots of the camo'ed insight in testing clearly showed the same two tiered gauge cluster we see on today's civic and the FCX Clarity from which both cars drew their interior inspiration.... So I would guess that the new insight is on a shared platform with the civic and is in fact a re-styled civic hatch.... cause you know, the whole point of bringing back the insight was the fact that the civic hybrid wasn't selling well... so basically the insight is the new civic hybrid.
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Rajiv 5:47AM (11/07/2008)
Check this out ::::::
http://autos.maxabout.com/cvid0000707/honda_new_city_2009.aspx
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