Now that we've had a chance to review the technical details and features of these two new cars, as high interest hybrids the new Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius, we're going to discuss how they drive and take them to the track to learn how they perform.
Okay, here we're driving the new Prius. Compared to the Insight, this is a much more substantial feeling car, it feels very solid, the structure is much more solid, it feels a bit heavier. It has a higher quality feel on the road, it's no longer a sort of light weight vehicle. The brake feel and behavior is very normal, you hardly detect its transitions from region to normal frictional breaking. The shifter operates very well I'd love this type of shifter; you can shift very quickly back and forth through all the different gear options.
The experience looking around this interior is interesting as a lot of familiarity or similarity to its predecessor. It's a very elegant dash, very elegant interior, the lines flow, sweeping, it's a very serene type of environment compared to the Insight.
Up the track the Prius arrived at 60 miles per hour in 10.6 seconds, the quarter mile in 17.9 seconds at 77.7 miles per hour. Stopped from 60 miles per hour at 120 feet and gripped was a 0.82gs of Lateral Acceleration.
Now here we're in the Insight and this is a very different experience. Many people in the past have mentioned about the Prius's interior that it looks like a space ship, all of that looks like a space ship, this looks like a cling on space ship interior very aggressive, very wild looking. The driving experience is very indifferent as well; it feels much lighter so it's a bit more fun on the road just because it's a lighter vehicle. However it is much noisier, there's a lot of engine noise when you go to full throttle, being a CBT it lets the revs climb quite high, it's a small engine so it has to work pretty hard to do its job and it doesn't have a big electric motor to help out.
Another option for shifting is to use these paddles on the either side. It's not real ratios there, they're kind of artificial ones that the computer selects, that's really a CBT of course. But it doesn't give you greater control over the operation of the vehicle unlike the Prius. The steering is lighter in effort than the Prius. That's a noticeable difference, it seems a little bit slower ratio in terms of turning the wheel a bit more to accomplish what I'm trying to do. It's just a varied light weight car; it's more akin to earlier Priuses and certainly the current one.
At the track the Insight sprinted to 60 miles per hour in 10.4 seconds, hit the quarter mile in 17.8 seconds at 79.4 miles per hour. Stopped from 60 miles per hour in at 127 feet and gripped with 0.79 g of Lateral Acceleration.
The biggest differences between these two cars are the basic differences one always sees between the Hondas and Toyotas. The Insight here is a much lighter car and it feels lighter on the road, it's more nimble, has a lighter weight sense but it's also kind of fun a little bit possible. The new Prius however feels quite substantial much more like a high quality high end Toyota or Lexus product rather than what it was before. Also its mileage has gone up quite dramatically 50 miles per gallon combined EPA number, that's fantastic it's the highest efficiency car you can buy in America today.
For the Insight you get nearly as good a mileage, 40 city miles per gallon and 43 highway miles per gallon but which is the more important hybrid starting at under $19800 plus $670 for destination charge, the Insight is the first hybrid that simultaneously within the reach of just about every pocket book and is a solid business proposition for Honda. Amazingly it delivers nearly identical mileage as the current Prius at about 80 percent of the price.
The incremental value of 50 miles per gallon verses 41 miles per gallon, whether you judge it by gasoline cost, Greater National Security or CO2 reduction seems to waft by the benefit of its potential sales volume. The Insight is a milestone that can't go unnoticed.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services