Insight on the Insight

In the late 1990s, Honda was the only car company with a hybrid on the road. It was called the Insight. It was basically a CRX with a weird, new-fangled electricity hybrid which pissed off the modders of the time and led to many a panzy name-calling session when you rolled up to the stoplight in that and not a tricked out Civic or CRX.

GM had one too - it was ALL ELECTRIC called the EV-1. GM thought it was not viable for consumers and people woudn't go for it (plus the invariable huge bitching from the oil conglomerates and GM, being quite patriotic, ordered all owners to return the EV-1 for destruction...literally...we see how well that's worked out for GM). Toyota wasn't on the map. There was no Prius. The original "gay spaceship" as one comedian once called the Prius was the Insight.

I'm a fan of Honda, not because they're cheap cars - they're not -but because they don't screw around with the horseshit that BMW or Mercedes Benz do with the crap about prestige and image. Take a boxload of prestige to the bank and try to deposit it - see how far you get. Honda does have something in common with BMW and Mercedes, and that's innovation. The second generation of Insights takes a lot from the FCV Clarity. That's a Fuel Cell Vehicle, similar to the Fuel Cell Vehicle which BMW and GM are rolling around with.

But one thing you never see MBZ or BMW or even Prius owners do with their cars - make funny light shows. Utilizing the LED headlights of the Insight, Honda has made something quite unique about the Insight - one massive LED display: