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Originally Posted by samwichse
Because the design turned out to be way too expensive to produce at a price people would pay?
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That was the intention from the start. It was intended to be a real-world beta test of hybrid technology, and get some good "green" publicity. It did that perfectly.
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Because nearly everyone at the time found it to be hideous?
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False. Everyone who commented on mine thought it was either cute or futuristic - like a spaceship, according to my neighbors' kid :-)
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Because designing it as a pure commuter with only two seats killed any future it had in most markets as a mass-appeal car?
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Was never intended to be a mass market vehicle (see above). Beyond which, there are people who like the idea of having only two seats. Why carry around the excess weight of never-used seats, and the larger vehicle size they require?
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It was a design experiment that did one thing well and made compromises everywhere else... and flopped.
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I've lived with my Insight for 15 years now, and I can't think of anything that's a real compromise. (Other than the NiMH battery, but that was necessary given the state of lithium battery tech at the time.) From my point of view, it's most of those other cars that have the compromises, like more than the necessary number of seats...