Virtual Car Broker

Honda’s Insight is the cheapest hybrid in the UK. But is it as good as the Toyota Prius, and can its ‘eco assist’ dashboard really make you drive more efficiently? Sam Wollaston finds out

The new Honda Insight is not shy about publicising its green credentials. It shouts them from the rooftops – make that the treetops, the tops of the trees that will live so much longer because you have bought one of these cars instead of a filthy gas-guzzler. The little booklet that tells me all about the car is covered in paper that has seeds embedded in it.

Presumably, when I have finished reading it, I will toss it into an urban wasteland and a meadow will spring up, and we Insight drivers will be able to skip around together among the daisies we have created.

When I put the key in the ignition and turn it, a little green plant lights up on the dashboard. Good news – it means I’m in Econ mode and the car’s brain will send messages out to various components to improve fuel economy. That’s not the end of it. The car actually encourages me to drive greenly – the speedometer glows green if I am light on the throttle and turns an angry purply-blue if I am not.

There is still more. My multi-info display will, in one setting, show me a row of trees. Again, depending on how I drive, these trees will either shed their leaves or grow more. It is like a little environmental videogame. The trouble is, I am so obsessed with the virtual trees that I drive into a real one, killing both it and myself … well, I could have done.

Actually, my main problem with the tree game is that it is more fun making the leaves drop off than it is to grow them. Everyone – apart from Honda, obviously – knows that the best videogames involve violence and destruction. So instead of trees on the display, they should have put a virtual Jeremy Clarkson there, on a rack. You have to drive greenly in order to tighten the rack until eventually, if you are really easy on the throttle, Clarkson’s limbs are pulled from their sockets with a scream and a red splat, and then you can go to the next level, which involves taking out illegal Brazilian loggers with an eco-cannon.

Enough of the dashboard display though. What about the car itself? Well, it is a bit like a Toyota Prius, the car that has dominated the hybrid market for the past 10 years. The Insight works in the same way as a Prius – the battery boosts the power of the smallish (1.3 litre) petrol engine when you accelerate, and the energy generated when you brake, which would normally be lost, goes into recharging the batteries. And when you stop, the engine cuts out. It looks a bit like a Prius too – slightly lower and sleeker perhaps, but with the same aerodynamic profile. It has the same advantages as a Prius – good fuel consumption (average 64mpg), low CO2 emissions (101g/km), low road tax (£15 a year) and, in London, exemption from the congestion charge. You can also drive an Insight with the same smug green grin.

But it is different in one significant way: it’s cheaper. A basic Prius won’t leave much change from £18,000; the entry-level Insight is £15,490, not too much more than a nice Ford Focus. That has always been the problem with the Prius – you have to be Leonardo DiCaprio to be able to afford one. Now, with the Insight, some of us B-listers might consider a hybrid.

I drive my test car over to show off to my friend Andy, a Prius driver. As it happens, his mate Chris, another Prius owner (they stick together), is also there. I want the green of their envy to match the green of their greenness. Weirdly though, they give it a mixed review. It is a cheap Prius copy, they say. They mock its cheap interior. They say that the Prius has become both a statement and an icon and this imitation will never achieve that. Leo, or whatshisname from Curb your Enthusiasm, would never drive an Insight. Well, they are probably right about all of that, but for £2,380 (the actual saving), I’m very happy not to be driving what the stars drive.

A more affordable hybrid has to be a good thing. But the environmental credentials of these cars have to be kept in perspective. With all this green glowing and trees sprouting up on the dashboard, it would be easy to con yourself into thinking that you were actually doing the planet some good. You’re not; you’re still harming it, only less so (100g of carbon dioxide is still 100g of carbon dioxide). By my calculations, in 40km you could fill a box 2m x 1m x 1m with it, which I reckon would be big enough for Jeremy Clarkson. Death by CO2 might be a more humane, and more appropriate way of disposing of him than the rack.

The real excitement, from a green point of view, is another Honda – the hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered FCX Clarity. It’s not available here yet, but Honda plans to introduce it, or something similar, in the future. Its emissions? Nothing but water vapour. That’s something to feel properly smug about, and would probably make the driver and not just the dashboard glow green.

• See how the Insight’s CO2 emissions compare to over 4,000 new cars