Renault Arkana vs Toyota Prius

What's the difference?

Renault’s Arkana coupe-style compact SUV has been hit with its first makeover, which ushers in a range of styling changes, increased equipment and new model grade names.

There are few cars like it in the compact SUV segment, where vehicles usually favour the boxier, traditional SUV wagon shape over the stylish but often internal space compromised coupe SUVs.

Renault Australia is only expecting about one per cent share of the segment or around 1500 sales a year.

But if you want to stand out from the crowd of Mazda CX-30, Mitsubishi ASX and Toyota Corolla Cross small SUVs then the Arkana might be for you.

What to say about the Toyota Prius in 2021? A car that was once a technology trailblazer seems now to have become properly retro, even while it’s still being built and sold.

The awkward-looking wedge, an eco-punk icon, not only brought Toyota’s hybrid synergy drive to the masses, it also debuted the brand’s excellent TNGA architecture and set the scene for the company's absurd hybrid success, which now sees the RAV4 version topping the sales charts.

So, after all these years (25 to be precise), is the Prius’s time finally over? Or does this quaint hybrid hero still have more to offer? I took a top-spec I-Tech for a week to find out.