I went shopping when the Tpyota dealers were still selling 2009 models. The 2010's were due in two weeks.
The wonderful Toyota rep told me that the 09's were sticker price, that the 10's would be higher and that I should be greatful to spend over sticker to get a 10. I got a great deal on the Honda at Valley Honda in Illinois. Pat Malik, the sales rep was knowledgable, friendly and reasonable.
Now it seems that Toyota dealers are somewhat willing to negotiate prices.
Maybe the competition from the Insight has made Toyota dealers rethink their arrogance.
I LIKE my insight. It has a very sporty ride. Try one.

 

My commute in Atlanta is very similar to your commute. About 7 miles on city streets with speed limits from 35 to 45. Many red lights. I drive with ECON on and use cruise as much as possible in this stop and go environment. During summer, I was averaging about 43 according to the display. During our "not so cold" winter here, I have seen that drop to 39 to 40. I have the tire pressure at 35 psi.

Disappointed? A little. A little more research on my part would have steered me away from the Insight and to the Prius. But I did get a great deal on the Insight, well below MSRP while a similar Prius was selling at MSRP. I do like the car and know that if my commute were different I would see the 48 to 50 MPG that others on this board see. I will just have to settle for what I get. BTW, my 2001 Honda Civic was getting about 28 MPG on this same commute before I traded it for the Insight.

 

Holy cow! You're driving in 6-degree weather? No wonder your mileage sucks. Super-cold temperature really saps the life out of rechargeable batteries. You're probably not getting a whole lot of boost from the IMA. The 37 MPG is probably what the 1.3L engine actually gets without assist.

 

In warm weather I average 49 MPG. For the winter it's about 44. The cold certainly does zap the fuel economy.
The mantra: minimize breaking, accelerate slowly, anticipate traffic, decelerate slowly, cruise control, obey speed limits, drive in the right lane, smile

 

To followup, the Prius is Japan's selling car for 11 months in a row now per http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Toyota...&asset=&ccode=.

Someone else posted the top selling cars in Japan at http://www.jada.or.jp/contents/data/ranking/index.php. Since I can't read Japanese, Babelfish's horrible translation at http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate...rUrl=Translate seems to show the Insight has fallen to 25th place for March 2010 in Japan.

 

That is interesting with Toyota's current situation, but to each his/her own. Even if they put them side-by-side and offered me a chance to pick a car for free, I'd still take the Insight without hesitation. I've been driving mine since July and haven't had a problem or regret since. I could care less who has the most sales or where they rank. Let Toyota have it, they need it with all the corporate nightmares they are dealing with. I got rid of my RAV4 just in time and will never buy another Toyota as long as I live. I did see a Prius on the road the other day with a great bumper sticker though, "Live Dangerously... Drive a Toyota!" I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard...

 

 

Very well stated.

 

Have had the new 2010 Insight w/nav for three months now. It has 2324 miles on it, and about 1600 of those were from a trip. I use air 100% of the time living in Florida and try to use the proper start and stop as recommended for best gas mileage. On I95N it averaged 49.7mpg going up and coming back it averaged 51.3. The highest it got was 53.7 on one leg of the trip. Some mountains were encountered up and back and the Insight took them in stride. I also use cruise control just about !00% of the time and max. cruising speed is 60 mph. Keeping in mind the use of air and crusie 100% of the time I guess 51.3 mpg is not to awful bad. Lifetime mpg is 46.6.

One other thing I would like to mention and that is that the Insight proved to be very comfortable on the 1800 mile trip. The back seat is not for big people, but then we seldom if ever have people riding in the back.

Over all I couldn't be happier with the Insight. Everything works great, but I don't know if I'll live long enough to learn all of the voice commands for the GPS, Bluetooth, audio, climate control and what ever else that can be controlled by voice.

I had the dealer install leather, factory rubber mats, door edge film and rear bumper protector. Being a new and highly computerized automobile I also went for the 8 year 100,000 mile extended warranty. I installed a wireless backup camera after getting the car. That was the only downer I had with Honda, why they would produce a navigation system without a backup camera. Its certainly not because you did not pay enough for the unit.

Several visits were made to the Toyota dealership, during the "making up the mind stage", but the price became prohibited when comparing the Prius with all of the extras I was getting on the Insight.

I am an ex Ford Motor Company Representative as well as an ex Ford Dealer and I selected the Insight because it provided the best value and mpg for the dollar in today's market.

 

I've now owned my Insight LX for six months. I love the car! I give it a solid "B+". I got it for $17.5K, which made it only slightly more expensive than a Honda Fit. The fuel economy is much better than advertised. I averaged 55.9 MPH over a 606-mile one-day drive (yeah, that was a long drive).

I am not particularly bothered about the cheap interior. It's pretty similar to the Fit (upon which the car is based). I am very happy with the tight, responsive handeling. The acceleration is acceptable in "green" mode and quite brisk in "blue" mode. I don't really have any major complaints.