I am really ticked off at Honda of America. I was over at the Japanese's Honda website today and looked at the Insight that is available over there.

Honda's Japanese Insight has sooooo much more packed into the car than what we have.

Here is the link to one of pages. It is completely in Japanese but I figure the pictures will do most of the talking here:
http://www.honda.co.jp/INSIGHT/assist-system/index.html

One of the links shows a different head unit (navigation) then what we got stuck with.
Their navigation unit show streets and buildings in 3D. Now I understand Japan is a small country so all of that extra 3D stuff is possible to fit on one DVD.
The other links show off dual camera options for front facing and backward facing. It also has sensors to warn you of obstacles.

One of my main issues with this is Honda's decision to market the car as an affordable hybrid and they market the same statement in Japan. By this standard, are they assuming we in America are not worth the extra bells and whistles? Again, understand that a lot of people would completely buy the Insight over any other Honda vehicle if it had all of those features included but would someone who really needs a Mini-Van buy the Insight just to have all of those features?

Other forums sites have mentioned the camera options from the JDM Insight and I can honestly answer that the JDM camera will not function with our navigational units since they use another brand (not Alpine).


As a side note, I am still looking adding the backup camera to my Insight and hope to have an Installation Manual available once I am complete.

 

Unfortunately, Honda hasn't decided to make a hybrid for Acura, so they are missing out on all the execs, etc who are willing to purchase a Prius because it does come with all the bells and whistles