Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
Back when I worked at Pfizer (sometime between 98 and 2001. A co-worker bought a honda Insight, First gen hybrid. It was a pretty interesting car. We went over all the details. That thing got him in the 70s' MPG on certain occasions. I remember he bent the hood by closing it early on (it was all alluminum) they had to give him another new painted hood as it was a known issue.
Yeah, those things were... interesting. The original version with a manual transmission barely counted as a hybrid; the integrated power assist/generator thing was basically a permanently coupled starter motor powerful enough to move the car from a stop and start the engine simultaneously; I don't think it actually did regenerative braking until the CVT version? And they really did go absolutely ape with making them as light as possible; they were well into Geo Metro territory in curb weight and almost half a ton lighter than a first gen Prius. I guess until *pretty recently* they actually held the record for the car with the highest ever combined EPA mileage? They, possibly more so than any other car I can remember, came across like a true "concept car" that escaped into the wild vs. being watered down for mass consumption, and you've got to respect that.
I haven't seen one in the wild *forever*. I mean, I guess that shouldn't be too surprising, they're 20 years old now, but I do wonder how well they held up long term. Their unibody was made out of aluminum instead of steel, which at the time they crowed about improved rigidity and whatnot, but any fender bender hard enough to put a bend in it would probably be fatal? (Aluminum is a lot less forgiving about being bent back into shape after being deformed than steel is.)