So, this weekend, we got to take Honda’s hybrid vehicle, the Insight, out for a spin.

Something of a large one.  To be precise, we drove from Wellington to Auckland and back.  On consecutive days.

Our reasoning?  Well, we’d already decided we need to start doing long road trips to practise for the Rally.  And then Honda said we could have an Insight for one.  Our first, in fact.  So we did.

The start (well, nearish). A prize to the firt person who guesses where this is :)

We managed not to kill each other.  Result!

Sadly, there wasn’t any sufficiently-funny bickering to recount here.  Although one day, aimee is going to transcribe one of Dane’s rants about New Zealand drivers.  It’s entirely possible she will be able to recount said rant verbatim, and from heart, within the very future.

We did have an interesting time in the hybrid, though.  If you’re curious about how this hybrid engine works, have a look at the post aimee’s written on the subject.

But on to the experience itself.

In summary: a good one!

Yes, we may be some of the more hated drivers ever on New Zealand’s roads.  And yes, driving efficiently may be the single most tiring way of driving I’ve ever experienced.  But it was worth it.

Our enormous satisfaction comes in part from our low fuel bill.  In part from our low emissions.  And a whole bunch, we’re not afraid to admit, because we WON.  So far, at least.  We’re currently leagues in front of other Weekend Insight drivers in terms of fuel efficiency.

4.3l/100km at the end of it.  And we spent several hundred kms down at about 4.0/4.1.  We can provide pictures of this.  We are most impressed with ourselves.

No, we’re not gonna say how we did it.  We’ll reveal that later this month, in Pt II, when the competition’s over.

Comments

It’s very easy to speed in the city.  I’m not sure whether it’s because it’s so quiet, but travelling at 50km/hr (or 70, for that matter) doesn’t feel like it.  One has to really watch the speedometer.  The car has a speed alarm one can set, apparently, although we didn’t.

The Insight sticks to corners very, very well. We embarrassed some Holdens rather a lot in the ‘Rapas (and other hilly parts) :P  And the very light steering’s a joy.  Driving our (still very awesome) Peugot this morning felt.so.heavy.

Cruise control is _awesome_, says aimee, who’s never used such a thing. Particularly when going uphill, as the car then feels like it’s aliiiiiiiiive (it accelerates on its own). Of course, it helps with efficiency.

The sound system could be louder, but it’s not bad :P

The passenger seat has more legroom than, well, anything other than a bed.  Which was useful not only for Dane, but also for keeping our devices, numerous hot beverage containers and junk food packets close to hand.  We did not have a family and the kitchen sink, but got the impression we could get a coupla suitcases and a coupla mates into it.  Small children, of course, are even easier :P

It’s pretty darn efficient, but it feels like it’s designed more for cities than for long cross-country drives.  Possibly.

Dane kept wondering whether the software running the engine/motor could be hacked to a) get better telemetry off it and b) to optimise even further how the engine, motor and battery work together.  Hmmmmm…

The sport kit, while looking very, well, fast, definitely confused people enormously as they passed us on highways, NOT going at [amount over the speed limit most Kiwi drivers drive at].

Also, we couldn’t figure out why or how the paddles/tiptronic system would be useful.  For example, dropping it into a set gear ratio would last only a couple of seconds before being overridden by the car, or else do nothing.  Then again, this is probably us missing something :P

One note:

We were slightly confused, watching the times that the battery/electric motor fed into the engine, that it didn’t seem to do it as much on hills and when accelerating as we had expected…

Ruapehu. The desert road. Not the least pretty place ever :)

Because, y'know, this is _exactly_ what one would expect to find in Wanganui.

Our final reading