I suppose the link is the fewer pollutants your car provides from the norm, the smaller the damage you do to the environment. True, it is unlikely flowers will bloom as I drive past, but there has to be a tenuous link between lowering your emissions and happier plants! Unless of course we are putting out less Co2....

Ford has been using a leaf as part of their hybrid emblem from the beginning, before the Smartgauge. It might even go back to their flex-fuel vehicles. I think green equals leaf seemed like an obvious association to someone. How did the other markets come to using blue for their less environmentally damaging cars?

I think the Leaf association has been around much longer to be honest, Google image search "Eco logo" and you'll see just how many companies actually use a leaf. It tends to be the German brands that use "Blue" Mercedes Bluetech and VW Bluemotion, not entirely sure why, thought maybe it had something to do with the adblue additive used with some of the emission injection systems? Who knows...

Toyota uses blue highlights on the company emblem for the hybrid models.

My eco Hyundai was Bluedrive. Skoda have Greenline brand. Someone uses Bluefficiency I think - possibly Mercedes? It has made itself an eco brand, as you see Blue on a car or tyre (I bought Dunlop Bluresponse for the Hyundai, and I reckon the Prius has a blu somewhere on its rubber) and you automatically think it is especially efficient. Electric Nissans and Renaults have fully blue rather than chrome badges. The PHEV in Mitsubishi is lettered in blue.

Anyway Paul, you'll not be too far off your first Fuelly mpg report for you Insight? I guess it has a small fuel tank. Does it drive as well as the Clio - do you prefer it, either for a better experience, or for the enjoyment of driving such an interesting and beautiful car? I have calmed down - had too much fun accelerating under the pretence of investigating "pulse and glide"...! I am now back to gently following the eco guides on the displays and getting much better daily and trip computer figures, I expect a 10% improvement next full tank.

Well I've only done about 400 miles so far. To drive it kind of reminds me of a Classic car, its lightweight construction and lack of refinements and just the noise of the engine, it kind of has a "put put" tappety noise when driving about town. It has pretty stiff suspension, not uncomfy but you notice those speed bumps more! Which reminds me, its a bit clunky low speed so I think the ball joints, strut mounts or similar need looking at before the MOT. Its nowhere near as nice to drive as the Clio, in fact, it makes me appreciate the Clio more and what a great car it is in comparison. Not just the Clio, but modern cars in general have come a long way in the last decade in terms of technology, comfort, refinements etc, there are very few compromises.

Acceleration is very modest, must be 8 years since I've had a car with no turbo, you really have to work the little engine, especially when there's no battery boost. On some of the hills here, I'm down the second gear, in the Clio, you'd just squeeze the throttle and let diesel torque and the turbo do its magic. But once you have some battery assist, its pretty nippy, especially the first few gears, enough to overtake anyway. Overall though, I'm still in love with the design and general quirkiness of it, attracts a lot of attention and gets people talking. Its nice owning an interesting car. The poor Clio has been abandoned since buying it, that may change this afternoon as I might be going to Manchester with friends.

I saw one of these Insights last week, here. Gee... I didn't even know of their existence until this forum. In person, the back appears wider. Sticks out more.

Yes, they look very different in the metal to what they do in pictures. Most of my friends have been laying it into me big time about buying the car (although I'm not one to care what people think) but once they see it, I can see them getting interested, asking questions etc. Just two days ago I was driving about town, windows down and some guy said "that's a nifty little car isn't it" haha

Yeah, when people asked me to show them pics of this car I was going on about, not one person was impressed! The only real one I can remember seeing was at a classic car show in around 2008, and though it was in the citrus I like, I thought at the time "what a swizz - its only 5 years old!".
I only started appreciating them in the last few years.

A coworker had the citrus lime colored one. This was back when the Insight first came out, and the only other color choice might have been the silver.

Would have been my first choice, but to wait for the right car in the right colour could take years, at best only 4 or 5 of these come up for sale a year in the UK (not including Japanese imports) but I do like this colour too. My friend opposite where I work can wrap cars and has a sample, almost exactly the same as the citrus colour, if my paintwork were in worse shape and I had the spare cash, id consider getting it wrapped. Renault, Peugeot and even VW have similar shades, VW call it Viper green on the Scirrocco although its way more green than yellow as on the Honda.

A couple of phone snaps, for those interested, from recent trips in the Spaceship! ;)

Very nice! Let me see if I can remember....

You got it Ben, sweet pic ;)

Speaking of green, at first I thought the Prius had a similar shade to Citrus in the US, but under closer inspection it is just a very ugly lime neon green, like fluorescent '80s socks!
I still think the Mazda 2 green is fab, and there are often Corsas in a similar shade, or Fiestas with one closer to citrus.
I'm a big fan of green cars, but the missus hates them - she even used to threaten not to ride with me in one if I ever got one!

My Mum is superstitious (she's from the North East, every other sentence is a saying of some sort) and she says Green cars are unlucky and will never buy one as a result!

The only green we have that I'm aware of is what I'd call sea foam green and I think they call it sea glass. It's a very light green with to me a slight grayish hint. I'm not aware of any lime neon offering and have never seen one that I can remember.

There was a light green that shifted to a blue depending on lighting for the gen1.

On the Toyota site, it appeared the gen2 had a similar color called tideland pearl. I wanted that color, but the sample chip the dealer had looked almost black, and he said it was actually lighter grey. So I chickened out.

When I finally saw it in the flesh about a week after getting my Prius, it was an unique grey green, and I kicked myself for not ordering it. it was cancelled on the next model year(2006), and replaced with the light green that was continued on to the gen3.

In Japan, the gen4 has a light green option that reflects more infrared, and helps keep the car and cabin cooler.

Love the Mazda green, think the Prius green too wishy washy.
Maybe it is more fluorescent than neon?

I have heard that about green cars being unlucky, but also read a report saying people who drove green coloured cars were the most content. The three green cars I had were unlucky. I made a lot of my bad luck though. The first I crashed before I even passed my test (I was an idiot), a B reg Nova two door saloon. The second was a D reg Nissan Micra, with a faulty oil warning light, stuck oil filler cap and consequently a blown up engine! The third was an R reg Peugeot 406 diesel estate, which the ex paid way too much for and had a warped brake disc or something as a recurring fault. As I was a massive prick during the period I owned all 3 vehicles, I can't say I was particularly content either!

Well after about 1000 miles since I got the insight, looks like battery pack has finally died. Going up a steep hill and the assist was doing its thing, then I ran out of battery and the IMA light came back on, followed quickly by the engine light. So I carried on, but on the 107 mile trip, both lights stayed on and the charge light wouldn't ignite, so the battery won't charge at all. RIP I guess. Car still drives fine, I'll probably disconnect the pack properly and carry on using the car until I get a chance to fix it properly. Still averaged about 70 MPG, which makes me wonder how much extra effeicncy having the hybrid system adds? I knew it was coming of course, just wasn't sure when, had fooled myself into thinking it was ok after the IMA light went off after regular use.

About what is the total weight of batteries etc.? For what it might cost to fix and at 70mpg without it you might take off enough weight and bump the 70 up enough to make it more economical to run as a super efficient little car. Good luck with it all whatever way you go.

That's my thinking, sadly didn't get enough time to get an idea of how economical it was to do a before and after comparison. If I invest in a new battery, I won't do enough miles to get the cost back unless I keep it a long time, but I may get a lot more when I come to sell the car, so it's a decision that will need a bit of sleep over no doubt. I just didn't want to shed a ton of money straight after buying the car, so I'll probably just use it like a conventional car for a while.

Ah, that is a shame - glad you used the potential for that to happen to get the price down first....
It will be interesting to see how a conventional full tank figure compares to a hybrid one. There is a lot of talk about how you lose a lot of energy putting it into then out of the battery, I 've read several times the less I use the EV on the Prius the better (sounds totally counter productive to me, but these are Prius experts with scientific educations!). I'm sure I''ve read on here Insight owners continuing to use batteryless Insights without too much problem, still getting high mpg.
Wasn't it also said the new battery packs are both cheaper and more efficient than the original Honda one? It is also bound to be an investment, either for you if keeping, or to recoup the cost if selling.
I''ve been playing with the radar adaptive cruise control this month - it latches on to the car ahead. Speeds up and slows down with it, puts your efficiency in the hands of the car in front!

Its an interesting debate, I think it depends on the type of driving you'll be doing. For example, if you're doing a lot of low speed driving or descending a lot of hills, you're mostly generating the battery power from regeneration and not using any more energy/fuel. But, if you're idling in traffic etc, the engine will be acting as a generator to charge it. There is lots of evidence to suggest a regular diesel car, already efficient and lighter than a similar sized hybrid, will be more efficient, and cheaper to run overall, but its an argument that has so many factors involved, it could work in favour for either.

I read a review earlier, Vauxhall insignia ecoflex, just a regular diesel, similar size, power etc to your average hybrid. They got 64 MPG on test, but had figures as high as 82 MPG during other journeys.

I can only speak from experience. Large diesel cars, driven steadily on country roads carrying the weight of me and the missus averaging 46 mpg. These were older cars, but that's the best I could average. The Prius is almost 20 mpg ahead. Would a modern diesel of the same size deliver? The small Hyundai could only manage 64, so I wouldn't expect a heavier car with a bigger engine to improve on it.
In fact the Avensis diesel I borrowed while waiting for the Prius showed no more than 48 mpg on the trip computer (almost certainly optimistic anyway).

Is the Prius considered a large car in the UK? Here I think it's more of a large small car or a smallish mid size car.

Cars are segmented here, A segment being the smallest, such as a Fiat 500, then B, C and so on. Not sure where the Prius fits in, but here's a brief description of the segments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Car_Segment

The segments roughly correspond to the EPA size categories. Where B is our subcompact, C is compact, and D is midsize.

For the EPA, the size is based upon total passenger and cargo space. So a hatchback can easily fall into a category higher than what the passenger cabin implies. The Prius is a midsize, but then so are about all of what people here call compact cars; Corolla, Cruze, etc.

But these are all at the low end of the midsize category. The Camries and Malibus are at the larger end, and are what people mean when they say a midsize sedan.

The electric side of a hybrid is only part of the reason why the cars are more efficient. The core reason is because they have an efficient ICE sized right for the majority of the time. The electric side helps with with effective start/stop capabilities. More importantly, it makes up in performance where the ICE alone is lacking, so that the car is drivable.

We've had small engined, efficient cars before hybrids. People drove them out of necessity than desire. Journalists whine about the Prius being slow, but it isn't slower than the base muscle car of the past; it might be faster. Most of today's V6 family sedans would give those V8 sports cars a race.

I still rate cars in size as:
Fiesta
Escort
Sierra
Granada
Or
Small
Medium
Large
Extra Large
On this Ford reference scale from the 1980s, the Prius compares to at least a Sierra (i have semi owned 3 Sierras), so i would class it as large.
I definitely group it with the Xantia and Rover 75, and not with Escort sized Citroen ZXs or Vauxhall Astras that i have also owned.

I've never owned a large car really, never needed to. I've always had fairly new cars (my first car was just 4 years old with 26,000 miles and only cost £1000!) so performance has always been pretty good what with modern VVT, EFI, Turbocharges etc, small = light = quick! The Clio is probably the biggest car I've owned so far, my Fiat 126 was the smallest.

Was your first car a Yugo?! I've had a wide selection of sizes, often bought on prices, locality or necessity rather than for perfect fit.

No it was a Perodua Nippa (I actually had 3 in a row!) a Toyota rebadged as a Daihatsu, then rebadged by the Malaysians as a Perodua. Britain's cheapest new car at the time at £4700 new, hence why a nearly new one was just £1000, and I still see it locally, 16 years old going strong, very reliable. Just proves what excellent value for money it was!

I've had way too many cars, being stupid about them for far too long, most stupid with one pickup and one convertible. I am very happy with my Prius and will have it until at least Sept. 6, 2023 if not forever. I guess the largest ever was a Mercury Grand Marquis for a while when my first daughter was a baby, around 1983 and the smallest probably a Mazda RX3 that was my first car.

Nice little car - mum in law bought a Suzuki Alto in 2014, at £6,995 joint cheapest uk car (with the Dacia Sandero). Shes very happy with it, looks cute in pink. Least sensible car was a Nissan Terrano, as 27 mpg was its best mpg and it cost a bomb to fix after i took it off roading regularly. Only bonus was running it on heating oil...!

Had the chance to tinker with the Honda tonight. So I decided to save the risk of damaging the battery any further, I will disconnect the IMA, so following the guide someone showed me on insight central, I successfully did it. Fairly straight forward, everything is pretty easy to work on given its a Honda and well thought out. At least I can safely use the car until i'm able to find the time to get someone to fit a grid charger for me. Car started fine, but sounded weird using the starter motor, like a regular car I guess, it usually just fires up using the electric motor. Pics attached.

Interesting to see (i have no idea what my electric/battery stuff looks like or where it is even!). Just the other day i noticed for the first time , have 2 separate coolant fillers under the bonnet. ..
good luck - will a grid charger fix the existing battery back to normal?

A grid charger will allegedly revive a battery in about 75% of cases. It charges the battery to max, breaks down the crystallisation and more importantly, rebalances the pack so the cells hold even charge. Some guys have over 200,000 miles on their original batteries so I'm remaining hopeful!

Will a grid charger also work as a very limited plug in system - ie: starting your day with a fully charged battery?
I usually try and end my day by draining the battery, wringing out the last mile or so in EV.
I suspect from the times I haven't, and started the day with mostly charged battery, that the latter is a better option for overall economy.
I should resist the urge to push up my mpg as I arrive home tonight...