2005 Honda Civic Hybrid

2005 Honda Civic Hybrid
Originally uploaded by Larry13.

This is the car that I bought to commute to my new job. I have about a 33 mile commute which takes about 40 minutes - depending on the traffic.

It is about 1/2 city and 1/2 highway driving timewise.

The EPA fuel efficiency ratings are:

City 47 mpg
Highway 48 mpg

My experience with EPA ratings is that one is typically fortunate to get what they say it is rated for:

1. The tire pressures have to be "just right;"

2. The engine has to be "broken in" but not "worn" so that the rings are loose;

3. One must drive very "defensively" (Read: no jack rabbit starts or screeching halts);

4. Be alone in the car with no luggage;

5. Have all the planets lined up in the right conjunction.

OK, it surely seems that way sometimes.

My Hybrid has been getting about 50.3 mpg over the past couple weeks of fulltime commuting to work.

When someone borrowed my car and made a "quick trip" to Portland because they were running late, the fuel economy DID drop due to the more aggressive driving: to 48.8 mpg!

I am very pleased with the handling. Many people have felt that being a Hybrid means that it has no "pick up" however nothing could be further from the truth! For acceleration the electric motor kicks in and the car really takes off. It is much more manuverable in city driving than the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan that I was previously driving.

There are several features of this car that I really like:

1. The seats are VERY comfortable - they seem to mold to your so that there are no uncomfortable pressure points,

2. The fuel economy,

3. The use of the generator to recharge the electric batteries during deceleration and braking thus reclaiming kinetic energy already put into the car by the fuel that has already been burned,

4. Emissions Rating: "Advanced Technology - Partial Zero Emission Vehicle" (AT-PZEV). This is only available in New England and California, which borders on being criminal. The rest of the country buys a hybrid model that is "ULEV" (Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle) which is still good but not as good as it could be.

I recognize that some will question why I bought a Honda instead of the vaunted Toyota Prius. There are actually a few reasons:

1. The back seat of the Honda has more head room than the Prius (yes, I sat in a Prius before I bought anything).

2. The Prius has a waiting list of about 4 months in our neck of the woods - I went in and bought this after work one day (yes, my dear wife, Jean, was a doll to bring down the checkbook for the down payment when I hadn't really talked with her about it previously).

3. A similarly outfitted Prius costs about $3,000 more than the Honda.

4. I got a GREAT deal on this brand new Honda by getting a $1,100 mark down because it was the next to the last day of the month and the dealer had a quota to meet (and the salesman was 1 sale shy of an incentive bonus!).

5. The Toyata salesman discouraged me from buying a Prius! That's right. He said that it is NOT a good commuter car and that it only gets about 40 mpg highway when it runs primarily on its gasoline engine and doesn't do as well on the hills of Maine. He said I would save money in the long run to buy a Toyota Corolla. (To be fair here the Honda salesman also told me that I could save $3,000 by buying a Honda Civic LE, I believe - I wanted the better emissions control.) Now I believe that the Toyota salesman wanted to make a sale and didn't have a Prius to sell and DID have Corollas sitting around costing the dealership finance fees. Even allowing for that, the Honda doesn't have the dramatic difference between highway and city driving in fuel efficiency and where I will be spending about equal amounts of time in city and on highway, this car seemed to make more sense to me.

So that is the why I ended up buying a Honda Civic Hybrid and not a Toyota Prius.