boostjunkie1

At 230,000 Miles----- with an average of 40mpg with the Hybrid and an average of 33 miles to the Gallon ($2.30 a Gallon) with a Standard Civic--------with only Fuel savings in mind------you saved a whopping $735 dollars in buying the Hybrid --NewBattery Pack included---------that does NOT Consider the initial cost of the Hybrid over the regular Civic. HHHmmmmmmmm----- I think that I will stick with the Standard Civic---!!!

What other Problems have you had with the Hybrid??????

bigredBCS

a regular civic gets 33 miles to a gallon?

Begle1

According to the Honda website, for 07 models.


And ohh how much I love to hate hybrid cars. Ohh how much I love to deride their engineering at every possible corner of time...

But, as I don't want to get into a spitting contest with biododge, I'll just let Boost Junkie say as he will.

boostjunkie1

Yes-- I have owned 1 and regret ever getting rid of it!!

boostjunkie1

I now have a Saturn that I would give away if I could find someone that I didnt like enough to torture them with it!!!----- 28 MPG and the Worst Auto Tranny Ever Built!

biododge1

that is exactly why i love this site. it is amazing on the vastness of info you can get here. and people treat your problem like there own. it really shows the good character of the people on this site

biododge1

no spitting contest here. i accept all opinions about my ride. there are LOTS of improvements to be made to these cars, and i will never deny that. as for my ride- the rear is ugly, no hydrogen fuel cell, no cruse, the worst radio under the sun window gaskets that tear on avg every 60,000m. 1700$ cat replacement and so on. i do get a wee bit better mpg then 40 though[62-87mpg]. owning this car was about economics rather then style/trend. with the miles i drive to and from work my old car just couldn't compare.

Ilikebikes

62-87 MPG?!?!? WOW!!! How do you do it? I've never heard of hybrids getting that kind of mileage.

nirion

A new regular civic only gets 33mpg? I remember mid 90s Corollas and Civics getting about 35-40mpg with a 5 speed. My Dad's Avalon with 3L V6 gets 29-30 on the freeway and it has about 70 more hp and a lot more room than a civic.

FiverBob

Hey, guys - - go easy. I hate buying Arab oil. I am just waiting for someone to come up with something that will kill that necessity. We must walk before we run and I am totally in favor of the pains of development necessary to make a reality of oil independence. We MUST do it, and soon.

Begle1

But a system to burn oil and store the kinetic energy in a battery so that you may once again convert it back into kinetic energy when you go to move is so contrary to engineering principal... And the fact that it marginally functions is what is most annoying.

But on a long highway trip, the hybrid would be getting better fuel economy if that thousand pounds of electrical hoopla were torn out. Most of the fuel economy benefit they do see is from engine parameters, aerodynamics, tires and a little computer screen that constantly tells you to drive slower. The only time the design is slightly advantageous is when you are going in constant stop and go driving, as it allows your engine to remain in the optimal power band (not a big deal on today's computer controlled engines) and allows you to maximize regenerative breaking (which is the only thing worthwhile in the entire design).

Nonetheless, people contribute the mechanical efficiency of these things to the thousands of dollars of extra electronic stuff; meanwhen a vehicle that would get better mileage during an average commute can't sell because it isn't a "hybrid", even though such a vehicle would be thousands of dollars less in price.

If it works for you I'm not one to derride you, but the degree to which people think hybrids are a holy solution to energy problems (and that they think they are holy for having them) greatly annoys me. I can go down to Fashion Island and Beverly Hills and watch the cars go by: Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, Jaguar, Toyota Prius driven by somebody that doesn't understand entropy and idolizes Ralph Nader... So I just greatly enjoy to derride the cars themselves.

Shovelhead

That's why I don't understand the theory behind allowing Hybrids into the HOV lanes without passengers on board.
At highway speeds, they get the same milage as their non-Hybrid cousins.

ptgarcia

Hybrid shine in stop-and-go traffic. Like Shovelhead said, on the highway they're no better than a regular econobox.

RustyJC

Well, not quite since most hybrids use smaller, Atkinson-cycle gasoline engines that are somewhat more fuel-efficient than their pure gasoline cousins. The hybrids can get away with this since they have the electric motor(s) to supplement their gasoline engine's output when needed even at highway speeds.

You're right, though - they lose a good bit of their advantage at highway speeds, plus they have the additional weight to haul around.

Rusty

ChrisLib

Whatever you decide to do with the hybrid batts...BE CAREFULL!!! I`m not familiar with Hondas hybrid system but I work for Toyota and those sucker`s WILL produce LETHAL voltage/amperage, the new Highlander HV has somewhere in the neighborhood of 680(IIRC) volts available. We have to wear linemans gloves when servicing any of the high current electronics on those things, very dangerous stuff.