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.