2010 Insight reviewed, compared to 2009 Prius

They compared a loaded Prius to the Insight. (Note the fog lights & NAV MFD.) Are they really comparably equipped? I suspect a fully loaded Insight won't have much, if any price advantage over a comparably equipped Prius.

 

Of course they will pick the Insight as the winner. They will focus on the lower price despite Prius having extra standard features, a class larger in size, faster and more fuel efficient.

 

Whew! Nicely done, graphically. It would have been nice if they had shared the real dollar figures in this "promo." It does look like they had a fully-loaded #6 Prius, so they picked the most expensive model possible. I don't know what the 2010 Insight price is, but I doubt Honda is even offering most of the things found in the #6 package. Take away leather, NAV, etc., and you can drop the thousands of dollars Edmunds is talking about.

I don't begrudge Honda one thing. Honda makes a great car. Conventional, though, seems to have been the buzz word for Edmunds. The more the car looked and felt like a "normal" car, the better the reviewers liked it. When you start complaining about where the speed is shown or what the gear shift lever looks like, then you are screaming: "Don't change what I expect a car to look like!" Why keep a shift lever in the middle of the floor when there is no mechanical linkage that requires its placement anywhere?

Oh well! It looks like Toyota is headed that way anyway. If you want to reach the mainstream, then you've got to make some changes (or reversions!).

 

It seems to me that all the complaints that the reviewers had are "fixed" in the '10 Prius.

 

Same ole BS. Put a loaded Prius up against it then whine about the price. "Hey, Dipstick, next time try one of the base packages and kiss your whole basis good-bye!"

Can't blame them for the features they liked about the Insight, but it is telling that they described the Insight's "busier highway ride", it lost the slalom, lost 0-60, and its mileage was nearly 6% lower. Seems to be a case of getting what they paid for.

Different strokes for different folks. It's just too bad that reviewers rarely attempt legitimate price comparisions with the Prius. Why? Because they want to provide a distorted picture to hype something else.

 

Man.

You guys are doing what Edmunds WANTS. It is called Journalism 101.

Create something negative and hear all the beotching and winding = more visits on their sites. And = to more reads and sell more ads.

Chances are.... Honda bought ad time on their sight.

 

I sure wish they would do some city driving for fuel economy information.

 

Edmunds has done full reviews or comparisons of the 2004-2009 Prius 7 times that I can find:

2009 Prius Touring #6 vs. 2009 Jetta TDI Loyalty
2009 Prius #6
2008 Prius #6
2008 Prius #6 vs. 2008 Base Camry Hybrid
2008 Base Prius vs. 2008 Fit Sport
2005 Prius #6 vs. 2006 Civic Hybrid w/ Nav
2004 Prius (no package but $26K)

There are several ways this can be interpreted:

1. Toyota USA stocks their press fleet with mostly Prius #6
2. Edmunds is biased and only picks the most expensive Prius
3. Edmunds compares the vehicles they happen to have on hand.
4. Edmunds notifies the manufactures of the story that they are doing and the manufacturer send the vehicle they think will best represent Toyota.

I'm not ready to accuse the editors of Edmunds of bias when there are many other reasonable reasons for why they have tested mostly Package 6 Prius.

Have other magazines tested a Standard or Base model Prius?

 

Because that's what Toyota gives them. I know people here *love* to rush to knee-jerk reactions, but if you read the article on edmunds.com, it says:

The manufacturers provided Edmunds these vehicles for the purposes of evaluation.

There's further explanation buried deep within edmunds, which they published years ago, which basically states that they call a manufacturer and tell them they'd like a car to review, and the manufacturer ships the car that they feel is the best representative of that particular model.

 

You are darn right, Edmunds, that driver comfort and fully adjustable seat and steering wheel are VERY important, something the new Insight has that the 2009 Prius does not have.

Sure, if you happen to fit the Prius seat with its limited adjustability and small, oddly shaped seat bottom, you're then lucky.

I can already hear the replies 'I love my Prius driver's seat, fit's me great!'

I trust my own experience and the many professional reviews -

Show me one video or text review that specifically states the 2004 - 2009 Prius driver's seat and position are well designed and comfortable.

 

taken from this article -
Creating the Perfect Fit: New Car Seat Design -- Edmunds.com

"...Aging, Globalization, Competition Come Into Play
The aging of the American population poses its own difficulties, particularly the boomers' move into their sixties.

"Younger demographics like seats harder, but as you get into the middle of the baby boomers and older, they're used to having a very soft seat, and they've come to expect that of a vehicle," said Michael Steers, general manager of engineering design for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America. "Whether we think it's truly the best seat for them or not, in an ergonomic sense, isn't as important."

 

What he's saying is that Toyota tries to build seats that people want, instead of the seats they think people should use.

 

Interesting that the Prius beat the Insight in the slalom. Yet, although they were filmed at different angles, you can still see how much more body roll the Prius has compared to the Insight which stays relatively flat through the slalom.

I thought it was an honest assessment. If there's a $3000 price differential, then it looks like the Insight has a lot to offer.

 

Flatter cornering means less grip, body roll isn't the end of handling but it feels yucky.
BTW I think my Prius corners really well.

 

Competition is a good thing. Still comparing across classes isn't good form. The video clearly shows the Insight is smaller. It also shows a test driver who says he is comfortable but sure doesn't look like it with his knees spread out so far and so close to his mouth. And the dashboard looks normal because although it has the same angle on the windshield, it starts sloping downward a lot quicker than the Prius. It looked to me like the reason the Prius won the slalom was the much beat-up LRR tires on the Prius held the road better. It might be that the "out of touch" steering worked better than the more human-controlled steering.

Edmunds has been beating up the Prius for over a decade. They hate anything "family" oriented. They hate the practical. They love only the pricey, NASCAR wannabe type cars. And so do most of their readers. They have good info if you read carefully though so I do read them. They are no more biased than Consumer Reports' car testers (surely Honda has made a less than stellar vehicle in the last decade!).

Of course I like to read both liberal and conservative mags too. Gotta know what the other guys are thinking.

 

Oh, as for handling and comfort, the Prius still beats my 01 Blazer. Not that the latter hasn't taken me places the Prius couldn't...

 

Flatter cornering means more grip, as it keeps the suspension, and as a side effect, the tire, parallel with the road and the center of gravity doesn't shift about the car.

Body roll isn't the end of handling, but it does mean less grip.

 

So why does a stiffer anti roll bar on the front induce more understeer while a stiffer rear roll bar induces oversteer? Stiffer roll bars induce less grip.