Post by: gunug on May 22, 2009, 09:47:22 AM
This is from the London Times and I originally read it because I'm interested in getting a Hybrid; although I'm not sure this is the model available in the US:
QUOTE
So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more. The biggest problem, and it’s taken me a while to work this out, because all the other problems are so vast and so cancerous, is the gearbox. For reasons known only to itself, Honda has fitted the Insight with something called constantly variable transmission (CVT).
It doesn’t work. Put your foot down in a normal car and the revs climb in tandem with the speed. In a CVT car, the revs spool up quickly and then the speed rises to match them. It feels like the clutch is slipping. It feels horrid.
And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle6294116.ece
It doesn’t work. Put your foot down in a normal car and the revs climb in tandem with the speed. In a CVT car, the revs spool up quickly and then the speed rises to match them. It feels like the clutch is slipping. It feels horrid.
And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle6294116.ece
Post by: Highmac on May 22, 2009, 02:27:36 PM
He's the leader of the Top Gear trio of presenters on TV. Would you drive through Alabama in a white pick-up with "Man Love Rules" painted in pink along the side..? The Top Gear team did
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2syY12OPkwI
Post by: krissel on May 23, 2009, 04:30:27 AM
But I wish he didn't seem to slam the whole idea of CVT. My Murano has it and it has terrific pickup. Acceleration is more than adequate for getting on the interstates and entering some of the local highways where the idiots fly by well over the speed limit. Maybe Honda hasn't figured out how to use it properly.
Post by: gunug on May 23, 2009, 06:30:26 AM
