TOP 30 VALUE FOR MONEY BUYS £2000-£10,000
HONDA INSIGHT
► You might recall the original Honda Insight. Launched in 1999, this small two-seater looked like a 1980s Honda CRX that had been left at the bottom of a river for a few decades to be polished smooth like a pebble, with covered rear arches for aerodynamics, lean-burn technology, and electric assistance to extract comfortably more than 70 miles from every gallon of unleaded.
Its successor arrived a decade later and was a great deal more conventional, with a five-door body that looked like Honda’s interpretation of a Toyota Prius. But with more space for passengers and luggage at competitive pricing, it proved more popular than the Mk1, and today serves as a cost-effective way of getting a car capable of 60mpg without the higher cost of diesel at the pumps.
Related under the skin to the Honda Jazz, the second-generation Insight paired a 1.3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with a small brushless DC motor, their combined outputs good for 111bhp and 89lb ft of torque through a continuously-variable transmission. Unlike the Prius, the Insight couldn’t propel itself on electric power alone, but officially Honda claimed combined economy of more than 60mpg and CO2 emissions under 100g/km, putting it in the all-important tax-free bracket.
And that’s largely how the Insight stayed until it went off sale in 2014. A mid-life facelift in 2010 freshened up the front and rear styling and improved the quality of some interior materials, while confusingly-titled trim
