Honda's new Insight hybrid taken for test drive

Sedan competes well against Toyota Prius on cost, gadgets and handling

Watch out, Toyota Prius. Honda’s new gasoline-electric hybrid car has aerodynamic styling like yours but carries a lower price, offers video game-like “scoring” for fuel-thrifty driving and is arguably a more fun ride.

In fact, several people

Environmentally minded shoppers aren’t likely to be the only ones who will buy the Insight.

With a manufacturer’s suggested retail price, including destination charge, of $20,470 for a base model with 88-horsepower 1.3-liter, four-cylinder engine mated to a 10-kilowatt electric motor for a total of 98 horses, the Insight arrives in showrooms priced $2,250 less than the base 2009 Prius.

The current Prius, with 110 horsepower from its four-cylinder engine and electric system combined, has been the top-selling gas-electric hybrid vehicle in the United States and around the world since its debut in Japan in 1997 and in this country in 2000. U.S. sales of the Prius hit 180,000 in 2007.

MSNBC