This means they make less money on its cars and that the bike business is real good for them.

 

Wow, it's like the more AcuraZine hates them, the better they do.

 

Well we are a bunch of enthusiasts so we bitch and moan all the time but we represent a small % of Honda/Acura business. Honda/Acura must know its target audience than we do since we're such a small group...

 

Indeed, it does seem that Honda management has no problem to eschewing the niche segment (i.e.: S2k, NSX, Prelude) in which many of us dwell in favor of volume sales to the general masses. Go figure.

As far as Civic and Accord sales go, my local Honda dealership has been flooding my inbox with tons of offers on both models that get better with each email. (i.e.: 2010 Civic LX ~$14k) I'm just waiting for one that says they're giving the Accord LX away.

 

THreads like this are like pure cocaine to SSFTSX...

 

Must buy more Honda stock. I am not kidding.

The engineers who actually run Honda obviously know what they are doing. Props to them! No matter what we, the enthusiasts, think of recent designs, the great unwashed are obviously buying them. Hopefully, the profit keeps rolling in so that they can restart the V8/RWD and NSX programs. Even if they don't, their big green push ensures profit in the future. Definitely a good long-term risk for a stock.

They are trading a few points off their 52-week high, so now might be a buying oppo.

 

http://www.leftlanenews.com/flop-hon...om-canada.html

Damn you again restrained production capacity!!!

I think the Civic can be explained by the fact that this generation is nearing its end of life, makes sense to pull the plug on slow sales now.

But the Insight? No surprise whatsoever. I've seen Insights on the lot at my local dealer for months. Canadians thankfully aren't dumb enough to pay for a terrible product, but also an overpriced terrible product. The cheapest Insight is about 27K while an EX will run you about 31.

And since only 500 CR-Z are planned for Canada, Honda will pretty much have no hybrid presence up here whatsoever.

Can the US be far behind?

 

1st: To be fair, hybrids are apparently not popular in Canada:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/08/21...-civic-hybrid/

Evidently Canadians just aren't taken with hybrids – even the mighty Prius has only found 2,272 Canadian buyers this year.

2nd: Here is an update

Honda Canada Not Canceling Insight, Civic Hybrids, Will Order as Needed

Remember the report from Quebec that suggested Honda Canada would be discontinuing the Insight and Civic hybrid for the 2011 model year due to poor sales? According to company spokesman Richard Jacobs, the 2 hybrids have not in fact been discontinued. Instead, Jacobs tells us that Canadian dealers currently have a six month supply of the Insight and Civic so it hasn't ordered any new cars from the factories in Japan.

"Honda Canada will listen to the voice of our customers and will bring the products they want," says Jacobs. Both hybrids will remain available and Honda will be monitoring inventories and customer demand to determine when to order more units. Perhaps the launch of the CR-Z will get customers to reconsider its siblings as well.

 

2,272 Prius's sold. Considering the top selling cars sell between 60-70K per calendar year, (lower this year for sure) that isn't bad. Insight has sold 748 through July.

To give that some perspective, the Fit has sold 3,512. The Accord, 8,182. The Camry, 9,238. So 2,272 isn't nearly as bad as you're trying to make it sound.

 

is price a factor? how much more is the civic hybrid over the regular civic? people looking for a car in the civic price range might not be willing to spend whatever extra it costs to get the hybrid version

 

That would mean that Canadians caught on and Americans haven't quite yet.

 

Canadians are smarter than Americans when it comes to hybrids

 

Agreed.

 

Yep. They havent fallen for hybrid crap like we have.

 

As much as I'd like to think we're a bunch of smart SOB's, the figures I posted earlier pretty much show that we buy the Prius at about the same rate, percentage wise compared to other models, as American's.

Its the Insight we're too smart for.

 

The Prius is a good car.

 

 

If your into that kind of thing

 

:ibthesarlacc:

 

 

I only ended up with a Prius because the price I pay is ridiculous...

 

 

 

Where is synth, doesnt he have one too

 

I don't get the hate, if you like seeing really low mileage and you like gadgets, why is the Prius a bad car?

 

and call me (and Sarlacc) crazy, I actually kinda like the styling. Especially compared to an Insight.

 

Its not a bad car compared to the insight. If i "HAD" to chose between the 2 it would be a no brainier. BUT that said i dont like them period and would never buy one.

 

Same here. I like the styling outside, it's pretty nice on the inside, and being a hatchback it offers some practicality. I wouldn't buy it myself, but so what, I wouldn't buy 99% of the cars out there and yet I can still like them and not make fun of other people for buying them, because I understand that they might fit someone else's priorities and tastes very nicely. I think it makes sense to rip on some cars when there are other obvious competitors that do everything better, but the Prius is not one of those.

 

No, Canadians spend less money on cars than Americans.
The top selling cars in Canada are economy cars (Corolla, Mazda3, Civic, etc.), whereas the top selling cars in the US are midsize sedans (Camry, Accord, Altima) and pick up trucks (Ford F150, GM twins, etc).

Hybrids more than economy cars and hence sell less.

 

Went over my brother in laws house last night and as luck would have it, he had a courtesy Honda Insight. (can't sell them, may as well get some use of it) since I would never go out of my way to test drive this car I figured I'd take it out for a drive.

First thing I noticed was how terrible the interior quality was. This seems to be the trend with Toyota and Honda these days. Cheap plastics everywhere. The faux dimple plastic on this Insight was particulary bad. Hard feeling and hard sounding.

Start it up and my wife immediately commented how loud it was on the inside. Pull out and the first thing I noticed was how jerky it was from a stop. It was strange. Not sure if thats a CVT thing but it was terrible.

No surprise was how poorly put together it felt. Rattles, noise, you name it. Maybe the fact that it was a courtesy car had something to do with that?

But worst of all IMO was the stop start feature when you come to a stop. It shuts down, which was kinda strange but ok, its a hybrid. But when it started back up, not only was it slow to do so IMO, but it then lunges forward more than it should IMO.

Overall it was eye opening and its absolutely no surprise why this car sells so poorly. I've driven a few current gen Civic's that are IMO much better built and better to drive.

 

The Prius is better in every way compared to the Insight; gas mileage, looks, and drive train. It seems like such a hack job by Honda, which is surprising. It is basically a cheapened derivative of the Prius.

 

Thats exactly what it is, a hack job. Hondas poor attempt at trying to get a Prius competitor out there. The IMA system is a laughable excuse for hybrid to boot.

 

Compariing Prius to Insight is like Comparing Honda Fit with TSX/Euro Accord
Insight is built over Fit platform (engine is even more downgraded 1.3L) which is comparable to Toyota Yaris.
Prius platform is larger than Corrolla. more in line with Toyota Avensis/Lexus HS.
Toyota cost structure is far cheaper than Honda. $22K Toyota product will be far superior to $19K Honda product if both are built in Japan.

 

Are you HONESTLY going to sit there and try to convince us that Honda built this car NOT to compete with the nearly identical size, and look to the Prius

 

That's because cars cost more in Canada, so a Corolla in costs the same as the US base Camry.

 

And an Insight costs almost as much as an Accord

 

Even the most diehard Honda fanboys (as in the types that would compare an RSX-S with an E92 M3 and give the former the thumbsup) would concede that the current iteration of the Insight was clearly (read: blatantly) aimed at the Prius.


:IBTHERSXS>>>>>>>>E92M3ARGUMENTCOMES:

 

I am not die hard fan. It is objective facts.
Insight engine has 8V 1.3L SOHC vs 16V DOHC VVTI 1.8L Prius
Insight rear drum brakes vs disc brakes Prius
Insigh rear torision beam vs semi independent rear suspenion for Prius.
Insight is a strip down version of Honda Fit that look alike Prius.
the investment is hardly there to make it even better than Fit let alon Prius which starts more expensive than Camry.
I will take Camry hybrid anyday over Prius for more freeway driving but for city drivng it does not matter whether it is insight or prius.

 

True story I kept up with an E46 M3 with my RSX-S from a dig lol. Dunno why that was so hard for people to believe back in '04.....

 

And NONE of that makes it NOT a competitor to the Prius. It makes the Insight CHEAP. The car WAS designed to compete against the Prius plain and simple.