2010 Toyota Prius - Review

By Lyle Dennis

Lyle Dennis

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Dr. Lyle Dennis conceived of AllCarsElectric.com as a place for like-minded people to convene to bear witness to and participate in the nascent... More

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Prius_Insight

The Insight interior is a bit of a step down. It is comfortable and provides the driver with necessary information including an EcoAssist driving interface; it keeps with standard tradition of instrument gauges standard shifter and ignition key.

Comfort
Both cars felt comfortable to sit in and drive. The Prius felt a bit more spacious as the roof was higher and the top of the dash high and steeply sloped. The Inisght was lower to the ground which made it seem a bit sportier. Rear seat room was a more generous in the Prius.

Engine sounds and road noise was significantly greater in the Insight.

Performance
Obviously neither of these hybrids could be considered performance cars as they are optimized for efficiency. However, the Prius was noticeably faster and more powerful. It uses a 98 hp 1.8 L 4 cylinder engine and electric motor that combine to produce 134 hp. The Insight has a 1.3 L VTEC engine with a 13 kw electric motor that cannot propel the car independently but simply adds to the efficiency of the gas engines operation.

The Prius did 0 to 60 in 10.5 seconds, and the Insight in 11.5.

The engine in the Prius has a throatier confident sound while the Insight was high pitched, loud and seemed to strain.

Ride and Handling
The Prius outperformed here as well. The car had a heavier more solid feel and held the road well with crisp responsiveness of steering and braking. The insight tended to be a little softer and looser in feel. It also didn’t handle road flaws as comfortably or quietly. Nonetheless the Hoinda sitting lower to the ground handled overall reasonably well.

Efficiency
Since this is the raison d'etre of these vehicles it was the parameter most important to compare. Both cars offered an eco and power mode, but the Prius also has the option of a pure EV mode which could propel the car at speeds up to 20 MPH for as much as a mile.

With regular unfocused driving in mixed highway and city conditions both cars wound up averaging around 46 MPG. However, when paying careful attention to eco-driving techniques such as pulse and glide, coasting, and avoiding strong accelerations, the Prius was far superior. It was able to obtain 92.5 MPG over a 7 miles course in the Prius using these techniques, whereas the maximum that I could obtain with the Insight in the same routes was about 65 MPG.

Price
The Insight was less expensive with a starting price of $19,800 for the base model. The base Prius is $22,000. The Prius also had many options and fully loaded cost $31,770.