Review: 2010 Honda Insight

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But the Insight's steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters at least allow the transmission to simulate shifts, which keeps the driver involved in the driving experience.

However, the Insight is pokey. It struggles up hills and is noticeably slower off the mark than the Prius. The fastest time I got in accelerating from 0 to 60 in the Insight was around 12 seconds, though Edmunds.com clocked the car in 10.9 seconds. By contrast, I timed the new Prius at a little under 10 seconds, and the Toyota seemed to lag a little less going up hills.

I like the Insight's interior materials and ergonomics slightly better than the Prius.' The front seat is spacious, with plenty of head and leg-room for anyone who isn't unusually tall or heavy. Anyone who has driven a Honda Civic or Fit will find the interior familiar. It has a similar tiered instrument cluster and inexpensive but attractive materials on the dash and doors.

Unfortunately, Honda has imitated one of the worst design features of the Prius—it's hard-to-see-out-of, two-tier rear window. This setup is even more annoying in the Insight than in the Prius. There's a bar between the two windows that largely obscures vision out the back. Also, as in the Prius, the Insight's rear windshield wiper is on the radically sloped top window, which you can barely see out of anyway. When it rains hard, visibility out the bottom window is badly obscured and you can't see much of anything,

As with other hybrids much of the fun of driving the Insight is eking out higher mileage by braking gradually (to get the most out of regenerative braking system) and accelerating gently. Honda has its own setup of graphs and readouts to help you with this. There's even an Eco Guide that monitors your daily driving, awarding you flower petals when you conserve fuel and accumulating a "lifetime score" of your driving habits. There's a green "ECON" button to the left of the steering wheel that saves gas by putting the cruise control, air conditioner, and other accessories in a fuel-saving mode.

Buy it or Bag It?

The Insight LX clearly offers good value, However, whether you buy one instead of a Prius may depend on how long you keep your cars and your projection for gasoline prices. If you expect to own the car for, say, eight years, drive 15,000 annually, and believe gasoline prices will average $5.00 per gallon over than period, the Prius will save you around $2,600 on fuel alone, more than wiping out the Insight's price advantage. On the other hand, if you only plan to keep the car four years and expect gas to stay around $3.00, the savings will be around $800.

If you simply prefer the looks and ergonomics of a Honda to a Toyota, be sure to check out the Civic Hybrid, too. The '09 Civic Hybrid sells for an average of $21,926, almost exactly the same price as the 2010 Insight, according to PIN. The Civic Hybrid has more options and a roomier back seat than the Insight, and gets about the same mileage. However, luggage space is even tighter than in the Insight. (PIN, like BusinessWeek, is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies.)

Among non-hybrids, check out Volkswagen's (VOWG) diesel-powered Jetta TDI. It sells for an average of $24,030, handles a lot better than its hybrid rivals, and gets 40-mpg-plus on the highway.

If you're considering an inexpensive hybrid, however, the bottom line seems clear: The Prius remains the model of choice for most shoppers.

Click here to see more of the 2010 Honda Insight.

Thane Peterson reviews cars for BusinessWeek.com.

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