Car News Review: 2009 Honda Insight Leaked Brochure Includes Sporty Modulo Version

Monday, December 29, 2008

2009 Honda Insight Leaked Brochure Includes Sporty Modulo Version

2009 Honda Insight Hybrid Sedan The brochure that was uploaded on the Honda enthusiast site called Temple of Vtec also reveals a picture of the Insight Modulo. For those wondering, Modulo is the name Honda gives to jazzed-up versions of factory-designed cars. The accessorized Insight pictured above features a sporty bodykit with a front spoiler that incorporates an extra set of (fog?) lights, side skirts, a rear apron and larger alloy wheels. Finally, we also learn from the leaked brochure that the JDM Insight will be offered in three trim levels, G, L and LS.

Despite Honda's attempts to keep a tight lid on any information concerning the new Insight hybrid sedan, a set of scans from the official Japanese market model (JDM) brochure have been leaked online, two weeks before the car's worldwide premiere at the Detroit auto show on January 11. Honda had released a three-quarter front shot of the production version but the brochure scans give us our first glimpse of the 2009 Insight's more conservatively styled rear-end along with the hybrid's interior which remains for the most part unchanged compared to the Paris Show Insight Concept.

Another site called 'Insightman' posted a more detailed article with plenty of data sourced from an unnamed Japanese car magazine that supposedly gathered the information from a product preview meeting for Honda dealers in Japan. We've included the 'spec-sheet' of the JDM Insight below, but since it's unofficial info from an unnamed source, we wouldn't take it too seriously.

As for the information that Honda has verified up until now, the production Insight will be equipped with a mild hybrid powertrain developed from the one found in the Civic IMA, combining an electric motor with a small displacement petrol engine and a CVT gearbox. The Insight will go on sale worldwide in the spring of 2009 with U.S. prices said to start from around $18,000 to $19,000.