I posted about the Fit Hybrid over here:
Hybrid at the end of the year?
Here's what I think happened. First Honda did the original Insight. And not enough people bought it.
Honda Insight Review - Edmunds.com
Yeah, the fuel economy was outstanding. But it was like the CRX in styling. That meant 2 seats, no cargo space, low to the ground, incredibly hard to get in and out of.
Smart did a better job as far as making the space there is in a tiny city car to be accessible. That darned hatch on the CRX had a high lift-over and was awkward. It wasn't very usable space either. I could have had my mum's old one, but it was too difficult for me, in my disabled condition with the back pain. Fall in, crawl out of the seats. LOL! Too much bending and twisting to access what little space there was.
Look at the back end of our cars, the Fit. Easy access back space. Smart and Mini Clubman have different doors, but they are easy to access too. And it's easy to get in and out of the Fit. The Smart looks easy too. The Mini is a bit lower down it seems, might be more difficult.
So Honda ditched the old Insight. Probably thinking that a hybrid just doesn't sell. But they were wrong. It wasn't that the hybrid wouldn't sell, it's that the body style and basic needs were not in tune with what people need.
Honda certainly did get in tune when they came out with the Fit. It's an excellent car.
Meanwhile, Toyota racked up sales with their Prius.
Honda still didn't get it. They figured if they virtually copied the Prius design, and made a hybrid, that it would sell. But they didn't pay attention. The mpg is much better on the Prius.
Honda kind of ditched what it knows in order to copy someone else. Honda does small cars really well. There are STILL Honda 600's on the road and they have a cult status amongst collectors:
Honda600source
A car so small it fit in the back of a pickup:
600 letters
60 mpg highway, 40 city. Sure, it would be way underpowered for you guys, until you put some high-powered motorcycle engine as was done with a Smart car:
YouTube - Ferrari vs. Smart Car, An Ass Whipping
Meanwhile, a dinky transport with the mpg listed above would be the awesome city car. And it actually says it seats four (if the people in the back don't mind sucking on their own kneecaps).
Honda does small good. They always have. They could create the world's most fuel efficient car. I know they could. In that tasty city car category. Hybrid. Solar battery charger. All that neat stuff.
And at an unbelievable price. I told them when I had signed up for their hybrid newsletter (before the Insight was shown) that if the car didn't get 60-80 mpg and wasn't really small, they needed bother. And the car should be around 10K to buy.
We HAVE hybrid sedans. And we HAVE one Prius already. Toyota makes it. Not Honda.
Honda! Pay attention. Here's your new slogan:
"We do small good"
Hey, it's no worse than "The Fit is Go"
And get back to doing small good.