The Toyota Prius absolutely crushed the Honda Insight in sales during 2009 and it was probably for a number of reasons, one of which is likely the superior gas mileage that the Prius gets.

The Prius, which boasts 51 mpg in the city and 48 mpg on the highway, sold nearly 140,000 cars in 2009. In an interview with Auto News, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito, stated that Honda was planning on amping up their mpg rating on future Insight models to surpass the Toyota Prius.

In 2009, despite going for $2,500 less than a Prius, a mere 20,572 Honda Insight’s were sold with US mpg rating of 40/43. Clearly Honda will have to make some dramatic changes to add another 11 mpg to the Insight’s performance.

Will Honda be able to compete in the hybrid car market in coming years? Let us know what you think.

Check out some used Honda Accord hybrids.

An interesting combination of the economic recession in the United States and a perfect storm of contributing factors in Japan has resulted in Japan buying more hybrid vehicles in June than the U.S.

America’s population is more than double that of Japan’s and their GDP is almost five times, yet, in the month of June there were 8,782 Honda Insight hybrids sold and  22,292 Toyota Prius hybrids sold. Those two companies alone accounted for far more sales in Japan than all of the hybrids sold in U.S., which capped out at 26,205.

The dip in American car sales is no surprise, but what is really interesting the spike in Japan that has led to a seven month waiting list just to buy a 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid (pictured above).

It’s mainly a combination of high gas prices in Japan, at $4.50/gallon, and a government tax break that has made all hybrids exempt from purchasing tax.

You might have heard a lot of hubbub about how hybrid vehicle sales are down from last year. The economy was great in most of 2008 and gas was going for $4 a gallon. Hybrids were hot. Toyota posted a drop of 42 percent in overall sales this April from last April.

But in the cases of Ford and Honda, things have been looking up.

Despite car sales being pretty dismal this year, Ford still managed to move a record number of Fusions in April with 18,321 sold. Not considering that over 1,000 of those Ford Fusions were hybrids. Combined with sales of the Ford Escape hybrid, Ford ended up selling 2,300 hybrids in total for April, helping make for an increase in Ford hybrid sales by 21 percent over last year.

Meanwhile, Honda saw a 25 percent drop in overall sales in April from last year, but saw a surge in hybrid sales. With the new Honda Insight selling 2,096 units and the Civic Hybrid selling 3,461, Honda hybrids manage to sell 25 percent more than last April.

If you’re thinking of buying a used hybrid vehicle yourself, check out LemonFree.ca and their hybrid vehicle section.

Are you ready for the “world’s most affordable hybrid”? We sure are! And thanks to Honda, starting tomorrow, this promise will be made a reality.

Costing consumers a mere $20K, the Honda Insight uses the most cost-effective hybrid technology – giving the Toyota Prius a run for its money by already topping Prius’s current sales in Japan. And in retaliation, Toyota has announced that the current Prius model will be available for a few thousand dollars less than before at $19,250 USD (1.89 million yen), making it the same price (in Japan) as the Inisght.

Honda is hoping that the Insight could bring a turnaround for their luck with hybrids. Their previous attempt at selling hybrid vehicles was a bust and they discontinued a previous Insight model in 2006, believing consumers were not willing to shell out the cash. However, with the success of Toyota’s Prius coupled with a spike in oil prices, Honda is back with a new Insight. Who will win the battle of the hybrids?

As we reported earlier, the Honda Insight has been selling like hotcakes in Japan and there were rumors bubbling that the Insight’s main hybrid competition, the Toyota Prius, might see a price drop to better compete with the Insight.

Well that rumor has moved into the realm of fact as Toyota has announced that the current Prius model will stick around for a while and will be available for a few thousand dollars less than before at $19,250 USD (1.89 million yen), making it the same price (in Japan) as the Inisght.

The 2010 Toyota Prius price point has not been set yet but there are rumors that Toyota is planning on releasing an even cheaper hybrid model which may be priced as low as $14,000 USD.

The highly popular Toyota Prius hybrid has established itself as the top hybrid vehicle. That was until the Honda Insight came along, another quality Japanese hybrid vehicle. The Honda Insight sold 18,000 cars in Japan in its first month of sales – more than Honda had even predicted.

Part of the success of the Insight is attributed to its affordability, which is a few thousand dollars cheaper than the Toyota Prius. The Insight’s TV advertisements will start airing in the US this Monday and will focus on the relative low cost of the Inisight at $20,470 and will shoot for a broad demographic with the tag line, “the hybrid for everyone.”

Now rumors are swirling that Toyota will be looking to undercut Honda’s price advantage in the near future with a new hybrid model that costs 20 – 30 percent less than the Prius. Exciting news for those of us thinking about getting a hybrid in the next couple years.

Cars For Sale – LemonFree.com

In an interview with Hideharu Takemoto, Assistant Chief Engineer for Honda over at Motor Trend, some interesting things came to light. It all begins with the question of, “Why does the Civic Hybrid produce better gas mileage than the new Insight?”

It’s a good question considering according to the Environmental Protection Agency the Civic Hybrid scores 42 mpg while the new Insight only scores 41 mpg. Odd since the Insight is lighter by 100 lbs. and uses more advanced Integrated Motor Assistt technology.

Tekemoto’s response can be boiled down to the fact that Insight designers were only partially concerned about gas mileage. Takemoto cites various design decisions including the tires.

“”Civic Hybrid has very low rolling resistance with good stopping distance but ride/handling feeling is not great. We wanted fun drive feel even if we lose a little on the fuel economy label.””

This saddens us a bit here at Eco Auto Ninja. It is totally reasonable to balance a vehicle for more than it’s green aspects, but fun? This idea that we need to (or even can) have fun driving our cars is kind of ridiculous. Putting tires on a car that makes it more “fun” to drive isn’t going to change a thing except they’ll be burning a little extra gas going from A to B. Frankly, if you’re having “fun” driving your morning commute you’re probably driving like a jackass. Just sayin.