Archives

The Honda Civic Hybrid has a base price of $23,235 and EPA city/highway fuel economy estimates of 40/45 mpg. (http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/autos/research/siegel/882325,srch-auto-IS041908.article)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/HCHII.jpgIra Siegel - Southtown Star - April 19, 2008

The smart-looking 2008 Honda Civic sedan hybrid looks much like any other Civic sedan, yet it provides an impressive 40/45 mpg city/highway fuel economy rating.

Those buying hybrids like the Civic are fulfilling a desire to ‘go green’ or they are tired of pumping hard-earned cash into their tank.

But, because the 2008 Honda Civic sedan hybrid looks so much like a typical Civic sedan, your neighbors and fellow motorists won’t be aware you’ve ‘gone green’ unless they see the Hybrid tag on the Civic’s rear fascia.

Under the Civic hybrid’s hood is a 1.3-liter i-VTEC 4-cylinder engine and a 20 horsepower electric motor that both combine to produce 110 horsepower.

Honda refers to the Civic’s hybrid system as Integrated Motor Assist (IMA). The IMA hybrid system uses the gasoline engine as the primary source of power and the electric motor/generator provides both additional power and electricity regeneration capability.

A continuously variable transmission (CVT) is mated to the Civic hybrid’s engine, with the 15-kilowatt, 2.8-inch wide electric motor/generator sandwiched in between the two.

The Intelligent Power Unit (IPU) controls the flow of electricity to and from the electric motor/generator, and a compact nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery pack.

During acceleration, the gasoline engine and electric motor work together to propel the vehicle. During cruising, the gasoline engine and/or the electric motor can propel the vehicle. In certain steady-state cruising situations, the IMA system can deactivate all four of the engine’s cylinders and operate using only the electric motor.

During regenerative braking, the gasoline engine deactivates and the electric motor acts as generator to replenish the battery pack. At a stop, the engine can enter an idle stop mode to save fuel and reduce emissions by turning off the engine…http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/autos/research/siegel/882325,srch-auto-IS041908.article

My Civic lately has begun shutting its motor off while under way. Unfortunately, it's not a hybrid, so I'll have it looked at early next week to have it fixed!

I'll be driving along and the motor shuts off, along with any dash lights, turn signals, etc. I'm hoping a dealer mechanic can quickly diagnose and fix it. The ignition switch might be going bad, or some other gizmo.

While I'm there, maybe I can test drive a hybrid Civic.

Harry

"Around town, you can travel almost 500 miles on a tank (12.3-gallons) of fuel. That’s impressive. "
No, getting 644 miles on 10.7 gallons. That's impressive. And I know there's others that can do better than me. :cool:

My Civic lately has begun shutting its motor off while under way. Unfortunately, it's not a hybrid, so I'll have it looked at early next week to have it fixed!

I'll be driving along and the motor shuts off, along with any dash lights, turn signals, etc. I'm hoping a dealer mechanic can quickly diagnose and fix it. The ignition switch might be going bad, or some other gizmo.

While I'm there, maybe I can test drive a hybrid Civic.

Harry

if you can find one! most dealers i know don't have them, and i bought mine sight unseen because i was lucky enough to call them at a time when they had one coming in.

We have no complaints about our HCH. After 132k miles, it's still on the original IMA battery. It can still deliver 39/46 fuel economy. Buying another Honda hybrid next year is a no-brainer.

My Civic lately has begun shutting its motor off while under way. Unfortunately, it's not a hybrid, so I'll have it looked at early next week to have it fixed!

I'll be driving along and the motor shuts off, along with any dash lights, turn signals, etc. I'm hoping a dealer mechanic can quickly diagnose and fix it. The ignition switch might be going bad, or some other gizmo.

While I'm there, maybe I can test drive a hybrid Civic.

Harry


Our '99 Odyssey would do that. Ours would ussually shut down on a left turn when the keys would swing out. Turned out to be a bad ignition switch. It never did it again after it was replaced. Try putting light pressure on the key while it is running like you are going to turn the car off. Ours would shut off immediately when I did this.

"Inside, I found the cabin to be roomy and comfortable. But I’m not a fan of the unusual two-tier instrumentation. It features a high-mounted digital speedometer separately-mounted above a large tachometer. It just looked weird to me."

I like the 2 tier display. It makes watching your surroundings and the top tier real easy.

I test drove one today that had just arrived. Hadn't been driven at all yet. (Hadn't even had the inspection after delivery, apparently!) The guy had to put a fuse or something in the front to get the instruments to all work. Anyway, the electrical info gauges all seemed to be inactive. As in, if we look here at one of tarabell's pictures:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/Mode1_EV_Glide_with_Regen.JPG
it didn't have any of the grey blocks on the left, and the charge/assist areas stayed empty. What does this mean? I took it for 11 miles and got 38.2 MPG average, which is kind of lower than I expected. It was up, and then back down, some hilly terrain, however.

I test drove one today that had just arrived. Hadn't been driven at all yet. (Hadn't even had the inspection after delivery, apparently!) The guy had to put a fuse or something in the front to get the instruments to all work. Anyway, the electrical info gauges all seemed to be inactive. As in, if we look here at one of tarabell's pictures:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/506/Mode1_EV_Glide_with_Regen.JPG
it didn't have any of the grey blocks on the left, and the charge/assist areas stayed empty. What does this mean? I took it for 11 miles and got 38.2 MPG average, which is kind of lower than I expected. It was up, and then back down, some hilly terrain, however.

Sounds like a dry pack. The MPG would be low because it'd be in constant charge cycle.

I test drove one today that had just arrived. Hadn't been driven at all yet. (Hadn't even had the inspection after delivery, apparently!) The guy had to put a fuse or something in the front to get the instruments to all work.

When the cars are shipped to their allocated dealership they are totally powered off and that means that the 12V subsystem is also off-line. The removal of the main FUSE is typically the method they use to accomplish this.

However, once the power is restored the State of Charge (SoC) will be indicating an "empty" battery pack. In reality, it may be empty or not at all, but the system assumes that it is.
So as soon as the vehicle is powered up and running the system will seek a forced regeneration routine until the SoC is topped off. Once this happens the system will have learned what a "full SoC" reads like and your SoC gauge is said to be calibrated.
Unfortunately, this whole thing can last quite a few minutes and it will kill your mileage while it is underway. Because of this among other reasons, most dealerships do not let the car go out on a test drive until the service department has "cleared" the car.
It appears that in your case they did not not know or care?


Cheers;

MSantos

I see... Well, maybe I just seemed eager to drive it right away, so he decided not to wait. :p Too bad. I'll have to try to drive it again. I'd like to get the proper experience.

I see... Well, maybe I just seemed eager to drive it right away, so he decided not to wait. :p Too bad. I'll have to try to drive it again. I'd like to get the proper experience.

Or, if you afford it, just buy it. Then you can get the proper experiance every day! :D :P

Haha, yeah. ;) But up here, the car seems to carry a $4000 premium over the American price. I'll have to ask about that the next time I go in, but I doubt they'll simply smile and chop it off. That puts it in the range where it's kind of uncomfortable, especially if I'm not sure if it will do better than another similar or smaller car, like a regular Civic or Yaris. (I know it should, based on everyone here.)

Wait a minute.

If you "buy" the car you get at least $4000 back ($2000 from the province of Ontario and $2000 from the feds). Some provinces actually offer up to $3000... I just don't know for sure if Ontario is one of them.

Also check your insurance rates. In my province, insuring a Civic Hybrid is less costly than insuring a standard fare Civic or Acura CSX. No, no joke.


Cheers;

MSantos

Unfortunately...my province is not one of the nice ones offering that rebate. :o I'm aware of the $2k federal rebate, though. I'll factor that into my decision. Thanks for the encouragement. ;)

The cold weather performance of the HCH and the (hopefully) coming diesels and/or improved hybrids in the years to come also concern/interest me. I'd imagine the HCH holds onto fairly good trade-in value, though.