(WIRED) Test Drive: Feeling the Heat, Toyota Boosts the Prius

LAGUNA BEACH, California — The 2010 Toyota Prius is the best Prius yet, a car that's roomier, more powerful and more fuel efficient than ever before. It remains the gold standard for hybrids. But then, it has to for one simple reason: The Honda Insight.

Toyota has dominated the hybrid market since bringing the Prius to America in 2000, and for the first time it faces a legitimate threat from a car that is cheaper to buy, more fun to drive and almost — but not quite — as easy on gas. Toyota tells us it doesn't consider the Insight a competitor to the mighty Prius, but pretty much everyone else does.

"Now there's serious competition," says Mike Omotoso of JD Power and Associates. "Add the fact that the new Insight is cheaper than the existing or the new Prius, and [Toyota's] only remaining advantage is best overall fuel economy."

Test Drive: Feeling the Heat, Toyota Boosts the Prius