So, Honda has announced the pricing of its new Insight hybrid for France. Even though just like for the Prius, its fuel economy numbers look less impressive in Europe than they do in the US, mostly because of Europe’s large fleet of diesel cars, the Insight should be a smashing hit.
This is a car the size of the Opel Astra, VW Golf, Renault Megane, Citroen C4, Toyota Auris, Honda Civic and so on, with a decent boot and a reliability only the Toyota and the other Honda can match. Its fuel consumption is only bested by the Prius or by way more expensive diesels, and its price is very competitive.
The entry level Honda Insight is very well equipped. The typical similarly equipped car from the competition is priced around 22000 Euro. The Honda Insight has a initial price tag of 19990 Euro. But that’s not what you re going to pay. France has got a system in place where if you buy an environmental friendly car you get a certain amount of instant tax credit. The Insight, just like the Prius, will qualify for 2000 Euro instant tax credit. Instant means that you don’t even have to wait to file your tax report in order to get your money back, the 2000 Euro are immediately taken off the price. It’s the dealer’s business to get its money from the state later. So you as a customer are not going to write a check for 19990 Euro, for the new Honda Insight, but one for 17990 Euro.
But that’s not all. If you buy the Insight to replace a car that’s 10 or more years old, you’ll get another 1000 Euro instant tax credit. So you dump your old car, Honda’s in charge of properly disposing of it and the price of the Insight gets down to 16990 Euro.
And all this is before you even started to negotiate. Because you should be able to, I mean all these reductions are coming from the state, Honda didn’t make any effort for the 3000 Euro. In general, french car dealers are open to negotiation so with a little bit of luck you’ll be able to get the new Honda Insight Hybrid car for about 16500 Euro, maybe even 16000 Euro if you’re lucky.
So, to sum this up, you’ll get a car that is well equipped, has great fuel economy, is more reliable than most of the competition, and is environmental friendly features qualify it for tax credits that make it about 15% to 18% cheaper for the paying customer.