THIRD TIME IS THE CHARMER

I’ve hardly driven 100 feet out of our parking lot before I’m already talking to myself: “Wow, this thing’s steering and brakes feel worlds better than the Prius.”

I’ve just belted into the Toyota’s archnemesis—Honda’s latest Insight Touring—having dashed over here from the Prius Limited I’d just parked. It’s 9:30 p.m., and the night is just beginning.

I prefer doing nighttime comparison testing. As folks settle into bed, roads become a distraction-free test loop of rapid-fire stop signs and traffic lights, surface changes and lumpy railroad tracks, freeway acceleration and lane changes. All your key everyday questions answered in a compact, nonstop 15 minutes. But the key—importantly—is to repeat it. Again and again until neither car has anything left to tell you. By midnight, the cars are finally starting to repeat their stories, and I stop. Which one to take home? I search my pockets for both sets of keys, lock the Prius, and move my stuff into the Insight.

This is going to need a little explanation.

The Prius and Insight—Toyota’s and Honda’s halo hybrids—have clashed before. Or at least their nameplates have, as their previous two skirmishes have actually been repeated first-time encounters. As Toyota has been methodically maturing the Prius over the years, Honda has thrown completely different