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Testing out my new signature thingy. :D

I'm at a disadvantage because 80-95% of my miles are city. :eek:

Here she is in the driveway:

http://joelwalters.com/misc/civic.jpg

H Jwal, looks, well, pretty damn new, I'm jealous ;)

One thing I can think for improving short trip mileage is adding the block heater, if it's not installed already. Works best if your commutes are at least predictable, and you hook up with a timer. Two hours warm-up works pretty much year 'round.

Neat. I never knew about block heaters. Since it's warming up quickly here I probably won't really need one. Also, I'll be moving to a more temperate climate (west coast). Thanks for the tip though.

I went on a road trip today up to the mountains and I averaged 40 mpg over 6 gallons of gas. Finally got my scangauge calibrated. It required a 13.0% adjustment.

Jwal, the block heater is useful even for summer if you have short trips to make.

My wife said she would like this to be our next car... That is one nice lookin honda!

the block heater is useful even for summer

Yes, we use ours year 'round. It's not common knowledge though, you do get puzzled looks and questions. Traditionally it has to be below freezing to warrant using block heater use, but like a lot of things, the initial application is just the tip of the iceberg.

What does it cost to run a block heater for 2hrs on a timer? Just wondering because if there is little draw there and is cheaper to have on vs without I would consider it also..

For us I think it costs around 7~8 cents per hour to run. The block heater is 400 watt.

FYI, our dealer install was $160 canadian, but they nickeled and dimed the replacement coolant cost above that. If you were doing it yourself, I supect you could get the block heater in (in place of the stock engine block drain bolt) with just a minor coolant loss, if you were really quick. You would still need to replace a little coolant, and do the venting procedure (per regular coolant change).

Look at the website: the block heater (installed) is an option with a set price. You should be able to hold them to that. In our experience, the dealership did not follow the Honda install procedure strictly. They just rolled up all the wiring and zip tied it at one point, and threw away the stock engine block drain bolt (the block heater just srews in in place of the drain bolt), which is supposed to be returned to customer.