The Funny Farm

More Of Our Overweening Pride On Display

^{Fryday, 23 Falltring 2005}

We'd like to share with you some information about one of our more treasured possessions these days*. For quite some time now, we've been trying to find a hybrid vehicle to replace our 2000 Chevy Impala with something a little better on gas (the Impala gets about 25 miles to the gallon, but that has been starting drop off a bit. It seems that 100,000 miles on an engine tends to do that). So we've been searching Cars.com for used hybrids for sale**.

This led us to the conclusion that we would not be able to purchase a used Prius - they last somewhere between four and eight hours on the market before being snapped up. And they often cost more than a new one would. So we turned our purchasing power in another direction - that of the Honda Civic hybrid. we were lucky enough to test drive one last fall, and we were quite pleased with the experience. Unfortunately, we dithered around for a day, and somebody else bought the vehicle we were looking at. Fortunately for us, there have been other Civic hybrids on the market since then. We are very proud to say that we have been driving a 2003 Civic hybrid for a while now, and we strongly recommend that others consider this choice as well.

There are a few things to get used to with this vehicle - most of them positive:

- Once the car has warmed up, the engine shuts off when the car is stopped in traffic (at a red light, when things are backed up, etc.). The silence of the vehicle in this sort of situation is somewhat unnerving at first but it quickly becomes quite interesting - you can hear all of the vehicles surrounding you as their engines continue to idle. You can hear the sounds of the world around you while waiting for the light to change - which is often quite pleasant. The downside to this (at least for the 2003 model year) is that there is some sort of sensor which determines when you have started moving in traffic again, and this sensor does not get tripped if you crawl along. In other words, you have to get up to a certain speed before the vehicle will shut the engine down again. In our extensive experience crossing the border between the Detroit and Windsor, we lose at least five miles per gallon just going over the bridge and through customs.

- Acceleration off the line and at highway speeds is better than a regular Civic - however, you can quickly see how much fuel economy is lost by flooring it when the light changes. There's a cumulative mileage display as part of the trip odometer on the dashboard***!

- Regenerative braking captures some of the energy involved in slowing down the vehicle, and uses it to recharge the batteries. When you coast or use the brakes in most situations, this feature kicks in and starts recharging the batteries. Unfortunately, when you have a panic stop situation or a really bumpy road (both of which kick in the antilock braking system), regenerative braking turns off.

- Everything else is virtually identical to a regular Civic. So, if by some chance we have to replace any standard parts, there will be no enhanced costs for a 'hybrid-only' part to have to deal with.
- It co$t$ more to buy than a regular Civic - enough to almost wash out the savings in fuel costs. Today. Ask us again when gas hits $3 a gallon or more... what? It already has?

- The batteries are only supposed to last for 100,000 miles. We're relatively sure we will have this bad boy long enough to find out about that. Plus, we're reasonably confident that the price of replacement batteries will go down, along with the power that they can store and provide going up. They already have since the vehicle we own was created.

- The climate control system is an 'all in one' system - you don't turn the air conditioning on - it (or the heater) comes on automatically, depending on the temperature you requested vs. the temperature in the vehicle. So you can't just open the vents and let the breeze flow through the vehicle. It is also the case that (unless you set it to the auto settings) the engine does not shut off if you're idling and the climate control system is engaged. In auto mode, the engine will shut down when you come to a stop - but so does the climate control system. So we have gone back to our earlier days, and this summer we have largely used four-fifty air conditioning****.

The only other major difference in our driving experience these days is a reduction in gas station visitations in our schedule. Getting fifty miles to the gallon, even with our increased vehicular activity, gives us over five hundred miles of driving before we have to suck at the oil companies' teat once again. Oh yeah - although we still beat almost everybody off the line when the light turns green****, we are choosing not to accelerate to the posted speed as quickly as we could because it sucks fuel out of our tank at an alarming rate.

We have also been checking out the specs on the 2006 Civic hybrids as well. We'd like to recommend that you consider ordering one of these if you can wait a couple of months for it to be put together and delivered to your friendly neighborhood Honda dealer, since they have addressed some of the glitches in the earlier models, and are using a new hybrid strategy closer to the Prius methodology. The Integrated Motor Assist system in our 2003 uses the engine to power the vehicle at all speeds, whereas the new system uses battery power at low speeds, the engine kicks in at around twenty mph or so, and there is rumored to be an 'electric-only' option available. Which opens up the possibility of a Honda Civic hybrid PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid-Electric Vehicle) which would be able to be plugged in to your house overnight and recharged to give you 100 miles on battery power alone - yet still allow you to fill up at gas stations and take it for long drives. Unfortunately they're not available yet, and it will probably be difficult to get customized in the manner that we desire. We bought the Impala new from a dealer - our first new car ever! - but we have been unimpressed with the service we got from the dealership once they got us to sign on the dotted line.

Hopefully we'll be providing you with some more updates on our experiences with our new wheels. Stay tuned!

* - well, the bank really owns most of it right now. But you get the idea...

** - we tried to consider buying a new Prius instead of a used one, but the only option packages they would allow customers to order added at least $2K to the vehicle price . Hopefully some of our longtime readers will know that, when a company that we would like to buy something from starts telling us that we can place a custom order with them, but we can't get it customized the way we want, well, it tends to cause our enthusiasm for dealing with that company to wane somewhat. All of the Toyota dealerships in the metro Detroit area that will let you order a Prius gave us the same response when we made our inquiries. As did all the other dealership in the state of Michigan that we asked for a quote.

*** - actually, there's two trip odometer displays as well as the odometer for the total vehicle mileage (which unfortunately does not have a mileage display). The displayed mileage is very close (within 1/10th of a mile per gallon) to our own mileage calculations.

We have calculated mileage for quite some time by filling the tank, figuring out how many miles we drive on that tank, and then dividing those miles by the amount of gas it takes to refill the tank.

**** - four windows open at fifty miles an hour.

***** - we have been noticed to be almost turtle-like in our overall speed (in other words, we wouldn't be the best choice to bet on for any sort of foot race). But we have also been told we're very quick in our reactions, and have very good reflexes. Maybe that's why, when we finally got to be a goaler in our pickup hockey excursions, we found that we were pretty good right out of the blocks.

Posted by (: Tom :) at September 18, 2005 08:34 AM