About 10 years ago, when the hybrid market was in its infancy, there were only two players: the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius. Thing is, with the Prius being a conventional four-door sedan, and the Insight a tiny coupe/hatch/shoe, any price different was largely irrelevant. But now that the Insight and the Prius are both four-door hatchbacks, both all-new this year, and both nearly as indistinguishable from each other as Mary Kate and Ashley, price suddenly matters.
We recently learned that Honda stuck to its promise to offer the least expensive full hybrid on the market, and the Insight starts at just $20,470 and rises to $23,770 when fully loaded. No one expected the 2010 Prius to snatch that title, and it won’t, with the base 2010 “Prius I” starting at $21,750. (We don’t yet know how decontented this model will be, but we expect it will be very stripped down.) That said, the 2010 Prius has been priced a lot closer to the Insight than Honda may like. Indeed, with only $1300 separating the two, the price difference may not be enough to pencil in the Honda as the hybrid sales leader, especially given the Prius’s loftier mpg rating. The Toyota is rated at 51 mpg city/48 mpg highway, while the Honda is rated for 40/43. This would allow Prius buyers to reclaim that $1300 premium relatively quickly.
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