Honda Prius vs Toyota Insight at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show

We read a lot about Chinese manufacturers plagiarising existing designs like the smart and the BMW X5. Last year at the Paris Show, I saw BYD Auto’s facsimile of the Toyota Aygo which they nattily named the f0. The same car was on display again at the Detroit Show this month but it narrowly failed to win the ‘Best Lookalike in Show’ award.

That accolade went to Honda for its new Prius…oops, I mean Insight.

Creative Chief Designer, Motoaki Minowa, said he was delighted when, at the Paris Show, some onlookers likened the profile of the car to a Lamborghini Countach. “That is a big compliment,” says Mr Minowa.

You’re not kidding. I too was delighted when I was recently mistaken for Tom Cruise.

Oh, per-lease! Enough of this.

Insight - hindsight more like. It’s the spitting image of the Toyota Prius which just happens to be the world’s most successful hybrid car. It simply looks as though the same clay model was presented twice with two different sets of graphics.

This, from a company that sells itself on the ‘Power of Dreams, is a major disappointment.

If you’d like to judge for yourself, our Detroit video news special captures the likeness beautifully (around the 2 minutes 40 mark).

Ferrari goes green

I thought I’d hit on something the other day when I saw in a technical paper that Ferrari had committed to reducing its carbon footprint.

Was the company intending to launch a ScuderEco model, I wondered, or an Environzo? The word photovoltaic was mentioned, so I began to think solar power. A hybrid, maybe, the F430 Solari, juiced up by the currant bun? (Or should that be current bun?)

Then I read the article properly. Apparently solar panels have been fitted to the roof of Ferrari’s Engine Mechanical Machining facility at Maranello. Manufactured by Mitsubishi, the photovoltaic system will substantially reduce the engine plant’s environmental impact. I’m glad about that. Given the carbon offset created by the solar panels, I needn’t worry the next time I have to test a Ferrari.

Aviva - or rather, a Vauxhall Viva

Norwich Union has changed its name. The TV commercial announcing the decision includes a host of celebrities who no longer go by their birth names: Ringo Starr,  Alice Cooper and Bruce Willis (among others) tell us that a change of name can be ‘a chance to show the world who you’ve always wanted to be’.

Here’s a picture of who Norwich Union always wanted to be.

Happy New Year.