Prius vs. Insight, round 3

Toyota and Honda are far ahead of the pack on hybrids — but can they lead the way to fuel efficient vehicles?

Royal FordJune 3, 2009 16:25Updated May 30, 2010 11:57

Toyota introduces its 2010 Prius vehicle during press days at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Jan. 12, 2009. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)

ORLANDO, Fla. — First came ripples of Insight.

Not ripples of deep thought or precsience, but instead, ripples caused by a quirky, iconoclastic, little car: a hybrid gasoline-electric from Honda that would capture an excited, if small and eclectic market to sustain it from 1999 to 2006.

But the ripples became a wave after Toyota jumped into the pond with its Prius, putting Honda and Toyota way ahead of the pack.

In explaining its original Prius, which arrived in the United States a year after the Insight, Ed La Rocque, Toyota's national small car manager, said the company wanted to "make a difference and change the way people think about transportation."

Toyota had company, of course, and the wave continued to swell. Other cars, trucks and SUVs soon joined the market, and hybrids continue to attract new followers and manufacturers. But as on any race track — hot tar or industrial — what goes around comes around (unless it crashes).

So coming off the last turn and heading into another lap are the 2010 revamped Prius and the 2010 reborn Insight, seeking more "mavens, adopters, pioneers," as La Rocque said of Prius buyers.

While bigger and more traditionally car-like in its appearance than the original Insight (hint: George Jetson would have been an Insight owner were he grounded), the reborn version remains a smaller car with a smaller engine (1.3 liters vs. 1.8) than the Prius.

And yet the Prius, which we drove here on Florida byways, while it has more power, somehow has a better gas mileage rating: 51 miles per gallon city and 48 highway, versus 40 city/43 highway.

Hardly a race, you say?

There's more to this race than just fuel consumption. Cost and cost recovery, as always with hybrids, is a considerable factor. Long argued, calculated and tested has been the question of how long and over how many miles will it take to get back the premium (in the past as high as $5,000) slapped onto hybrid prices — this in a time where plenty of small cars with no hybrid system and no premium still reach or approach 40 miles per gallon.

And yet, if the Prius we drove can truly reach the estimated fuel ratings, it could be a game changer. But still there's a cost recovery conundrum. That's because the Insight's base price is $2,000 to $3,000 below most hybrids.

It is hard not to conclude that the Insight pricing — starting at just under $20,000 — caused Toyota to promise a base model at $21,000, a grand less than its current $22,000 base model, but still a work in progress.