2000 Honda Insight Is Junkyard Treasure in Colorado

Date:2025-08-25 21:55:35 Category:tech Views:1 Comment:0

When I'm roaming the car graveyards of the globe, I'm always looking for milestone vehicles. I've documented one of the very first Toyota Camrys sold in the United States and one of the last Oldsmobiles, for example.

Today's Junkyard Treasure is an example of the first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car sold here: an early first-year Honda Insight, now residing in a Denver-area boneyard.

2000 honda insight in colorado junkyard — Murilee Martin

The Insight first went on sale in the United States in December of 1999, as a 2000 model. It beat the Toyota Prius to American showrooms by seven months.

It was an engineering masterpiece, with a super-lightweight aluminum chassis and a drag coefficient of 0.25 (which made it second only to the GM EV1 for the honor of most aerodynamic production car in the world at the time—that is, if you accept the EV1 as a production car).

With a 1.0-liter VTEC straight-three gasoline engine and a 10-kW electric motor hauling a curb weight of just 1,847 pounds, the 2000 Insight blew away all rivals in the fuel-economy department. The EPA rated it at 49 city/61 highway miles per gallon, while the second-place gas sipper that year (the Chevrolet Metro) managed just 32/41 mpg.

This efficiency came at the cost of comfort, performance, and appearance. When the bigger and far thirstier Prius appeared, it lapped the Insight repeatedly in the sales race.

For the 2000 model year, the Insight was available only with a five-speed manual transmission. A CVT was added for 2001 (but the manual still got superior gas mileage, which likely wouldn't be the case with 2025 CVT techn0logy).

This car was built at the Suzuka Factory in Mie Prefecture. The 004xxx production sequence numbers in the VIN show that it was one of the first 5,000 Insights ever built for the US market, which makes this particular car a genuine hybrid pioneer.

The 2000 Insight was the first mass-production gasoline-electric hybrid sold in the United States, and this car is one of the first few thousand of those.

The Toyota Prius debuted in the USA as a 2001 model, so the Insight was the only new hybrid car Americans could buy for the better part of a year.

A five-speed manual was the only transmission available in the 2000 Insight; a CVT was added as an option starting in 2001 and proved more popular than the three-pedal rig here (despite the manual achieving better fuel economy).

The powertrain included a 1.0-liter VTEC-equipped straight-three gasoline engine and a 10-kW electric motor.

Total power output was 73 hp and 91 lb-ft.

This car obliterated the competition in the fuel-economy standings, with an EPA rating of 49 mpg city/61 mpg highway.

The Chevrolet Metro with three-banger and five-speed manual came in second place for fuel economy in 2000, with a relatively thirsty 32 city/41 highway miles per gallon rating.

The chassis was aluminum, resulting in a curb weight well under a ton. The body was wind-tunnel-optimized to a fare-thee-well. Its 0.25 drag coefficient made it the most aerodynamic production car ever built at the time.

All that efficiency-enhancing technology came at a cost. There are only two seats, for starters.

The futuristically slippery body resulted in a goofy-looking car that looked more like a science project than real-world transportation. Just over 14,000 first-generation (2000-2006) Insights were sold in the United States.

The first-generation Prius was bigger, more comfortable and less weird-looking, and the original Insight quickly became a sales footnote compared to its big-selling Toyota rival.

But the Prius chugged gas with abandon next to the Insight, with the '01 model getting 42 city mpg and 41 highway mpg.

The Insight wasn't the only hybrid ever sold in the United States with a manual transmission; the Civic Hybrid and CR-Z could be had with three pedals for a while.