| 2010 Toyota Prius vs 2010 Honda Insight | November 2009 | AUTORIVALS.NET |
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| The Prius finally has a real competitor with the arrival of the 2010 Honda Insight. The new Insight completely ditches the design of the last generation and mimics the Prius instead. The new Prius was also redesigned for 2010 and enters its third generation and becomes better in every way. | ||
| 2010 Toyota Prius | vs | 2010 Honda Insight |
 The redesign of the Prius finally looks good enough to call nice. The headlights are unique, the front fascia is clean, and the badge is blue? I guess blue means "green" now. |
 The Insight's headlamp and grille takes styling cues from the Honda Civic and Acura TSX which I suppose gives it a slightly more aggressive look than the somewhat dopey looking Prius. |
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 The tried-and-true jellybean shape from the second generation Prius remains but looks a lot better now. It also improves the aerodynamics with a coefficient of drag (Cd) of 0.25 (compared to 0.26 from the last generation) giving it the world's lowest Cd of a production car. |
 The Insight is encroaching on minivan looks with their copy of the Prius. The shape isn't as sharp and body panels are softer giving it resemblance to the first generation Honda Odyssey. The front fascia resembles the Honda FCX Clarity more though which Honda used for its styling cues. |
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 The window outline really helps put the Prius ahead in terms of aesthetics. The nicely shaped window behind the rear door is something that Honda forgot to add. |
 This is where the Insight loses major styling points. With an acre of sheet metal for a C-pillar, the profile looks more minivan-ish than the Prius. |
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 The door mounted side mirrors are always a better look than when attached to the window. The Prius finishes off nicely with large clear tail lights and a clean rear end. The squared-off bumper looks good and actually improves aerodynamics. |
 The triangle tail lights don't work well and that C-pillar is missing something. The Insight can't match the Prius' attention to details and refinement. Hopefully the next generation will be better. |
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 The Prius' roof shape is an interesting design that actually dips down in the center. A narrow tinted window is integrated into the hatch to help driver visibility and another blue Toyota badge finishes off the rear. |
 The Insight also uses a narrow window in the rear like the Prius (although the Prius first copied it from the original Insight). The rear silhouette is more rounded and softer than the Prius and doesn't look quite as good. |
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This is what we might call a lose-lose situation. On one hand, you
have the Prius interior which looks nice enough until you see
the gauges in the center instead of in front of the driver where
they belong. A large area of plastic resides where the gauge
cluster usually goes. On the other hand, you have the Insight which has the gauges in the right spot but the interior looks like it might pilot the next spaceship. The optional navigation also looks thrown in at the last minute and isn't integrated into the dashboard at all. Tough call. |
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PROS +Looks good, even in jelly bean form +Nice side profile looks good and is aerodynamic +Better gas mileage and still faster CONS -Center gauges |
PROS +Two-tier gauge cluster helps ergonomics CONS -Minivan styling -Spaceship interior -Huge C-pillar -Triangular tail lights |
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| Video Source: YouTube via Inside Line |
| NOTES |
| Toyota currently has more hybrids on the road than all other manufacturers combined. The new Insight should help Honda capture more market share but is doubtful it can overtake the Prius in sales. The main selling point of the Insight is the price which is actually even cheaper than Civic Hybrid. |
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