Yeah its a dog, neither sporty
or fuel efficient. I drove one and managed almost 17 mpg on i95 during rush hour. The suspension is too soft and the rear seats are missing seat belts.
I know a guy with an enginer phev kit and best he can get is the mid 60s in regards to mpg and he has the manual shifter. OD is too low of gearing. No EV mode. I have the 2nd gen Insight and have managed 103mpg with a plug in kit and EV mode. Basically tap the gas petal and apply enough pressure to take the play out of it. It does however rotate the engine and everything, so its not that efficient as the power splitter of the prius.
Mugen modded one for kingsmotorsports and it was just supercharged to 200 hp and lots of extra body parts added.