This touches on one of my major gripes about auto manufacturers in general, but it seems worst with Toyota. I don't *want* the leather seats--I mean, I have them and they're OK and all, but I'm fine with cloth--but I absolutely *need* the adjustable lumbar support (I would have kept my prior, paid-for, absolutely reliable car otherwise). And you can only get that by going high end (IV or V in the US). You can slum a freaking Cobalt at an airport and get an adjustable lumbar support, ffs. I mean, it must add at least $50 to the price of manufacturing the car. Would it kill them to offer it at lower trim levels? I'm sure it enables them to sell more IVs and Vs, but, honestly, if I didn't put a high priority on fuel economy for environmental/geopolitical reasons as well as economic ones, I would have said 'screw the Prius' and shopped elsewhere. And I'm sure many others have.
I'm a little baffled that you don't think that leg room could be a real reason for concern for many people. It doesn't necessarily have much to do with weight. If you can't get a drivers seat far enough back to be comfportable, you have potential for real problems. If you can't fit people taller than 6ft in both back and front with reasonable comfort then then for many (but not all) people, the usability of a car is significantly compromised.
I really liked the Insight, and the price differential was almost enough for me. But I feel the Prius offers better interior volume for the money, and in the long run I will be happy with it. My head rubs the roof in the back of the Insight and as I said earlier, I hit my head twice during my test drive trying to get in the back seat. I am 6'2" amd 195lbs., so I am not obese nor abnormally large. It just has some space limitations.
Maybe not be the same quality leather. I doubt a Sephia will have the same quality of leather as a Prius on the steering wheel. You can always add Katzkins (or equivalent) leather. +1. Apparently our countries think it's a luxury feature while other countries have them as standard equipment even on base models.
I'm 5'8" tall and I can put the driver's seat in the Insight so far back that my feet cannot touch the pedals. So I have a hard time imagining that anyone would not fit unless they were like a really tall basketball player or something. As for the back seat, I sat back there once and didn't see a problem. Most of the time my 7 year old daughter is riding back there and there is plenty of room for her. In comparison to the Mitsubishi Eclipse I used to have, the back seat is quite spacious. Oh - And for whoever said that there was no cup-holders in the back, they were wrong. There is a cup-holder in each door on the back.
You are comparing two generation older Prius to the current gen Insight. Honda should be embarrassed. 2002 Prius combined fuel economy is 41 MPG if you convert it to the new standard the Insight II is rated at. Both of you are beating EPA estimates.
QUOTE=usbseawolf2000;1113298]You are comparing two generation older Prius to the current gen Insight. Honda should be embarrassed. 2002 Prius combined fuel economy is 41 MPG if you convert it to the new standard the Insight II is rated at. Both of you are beating EPA estimates.[/QUOTE] I agree. I think Honda built the Insight to challenge where the Prius was not where the Prius is...Mazda made the same mistake with MPV when it converted it to a Van...shot for where the Toyota Sienna was and released just when the Sienna went way up size and scale. Development lag is a B*tch.
For me the lack of rear headroom and rear legroom killed it. Definitely not the cup holders or arm rests. The rest was a balance of price versus the desire for efficiency. The base Prius fit the budget and my wife wasn't uncomfortable in it.
Technically they're bottle holders. I wouldn't put my open can of pop or my coffee mug in those holders.
