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`Like a real car' photo by Jim Craven Norton Smith's Honda Insight is one of the first to gasoline-electric hybrid automobiles sold in Southern Oregon. Ruch-area man's electric-hybrid Honda, one of two in valley, is surprisingly peppy By David Preszler of the Mail Tribune RUCH -- The drive to Norton Smith's house puts to rest many questions about the get-up-and-go in his new Honda Insight -- a hybrid car powered by electricity and gasoline. Smith lives up Burton Butte Road, a hilly, dirt Forest Service track above Cantrall-Buckley Park and the Applegate Valley. And the silver Insight zips right up it just like its fully gas-powered cousins. "I think it has more power than it needs to have," says Smith. "I can go 70 (mph) up Jacksonville Hill. "It drives like a real car. I was expecting something like a Geo Metro, but what it feels like is something much more solid." The Insight is the first gasoline-electric hybrid to be sold in the United States. The Rogue Valley's two Honda dealerships -- Lithia Honda in Medford and Jim Sigel Automotive Center in Grants Pass -- each got one Insight in stock the last weekend in December. Neither one stayed on the lot for long. Smith ordered his from Lithia back in June and picked it up Sunday. Sigel sold its Insight to a customer in Gold Hill within three or four days. The customer couldn't be reached to give his impressions of the car. Honda produced only a limited number of the Insights, and they appear to be going fast. "Everybody I know that's had one has sold it," Jim Sigel says of his fellow dealers. "I think it's going to be a real popular car." Neither Rogue Valley dealership expects to get another one in stock for some time. The Insight isn't Smith's first car to be powered by something other than gasoline. Smith had a fully electric car in the 1980s and briefly drove a methane-powered one in the 1970s. "I've always been interested in this," he says. Smith, 54, works for a environmental foundation called Whole Systems. He also has worked in the recycling business and owned an organic farm. He sees the Insight as the next step in a process toward ending dependence on fossil fuels. He hopes the Insight's performance will help convince drivers that alternative fuels can be practical. "There's got to be some compromise between a technological solution and a consumption solution," he says. Unlike fully electric cars, the Insight does not need to be plugged in, and it runs on regular unleaded gasoline. It gets 61 miles per gallon in city driving and 70 on the highway, according to Environmental Protection Agency fuel economy tests. It also meets low-emissions standards. On a 4.2-mile spin around Ruch, the car's fuel-efficiency gauge reported getting 71.6 miles per gallon. "I think if someone was willing to do with a little less power, it could get 100 miles per gallon," Smith says. The Insight has a lightweight body made of aluminum and plastic, as well as an aerodynamic shape. The car features a three-cylinder, 12-valve gasoline engine and a compact electric motor. The motor assists the gasoline engine. Smith says one of the most impressive features of the car is how seamlessly the electric motor kicks in to assist the engine. On the down side, he says, it seems to have a bit more road noise than the typical passenger car. And Smith is a bit concerned about the cost of repairs, including replacement of the nickel hydride battery that powers the electric motor and is recharged when the car is running. "I'm still debating whether to get the extended warranty," he says, noting that nearly all of the engineering that went into the car appears to be new. While he hasn't noticed passing drivers staring at the car with its rear-wheel skirts and sporty, space-age look, people have taken notice when he parks it. He says the look of the car certainly wasn't what sold him. "My first reaction was, `Boy that's ugly,"' he says. "But now that I've seen it for awhile, I think it's kind of neat." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA