Sportier but Thirstier, a Hybrid Honda Tries to Be Hip

[GreenVTEC]

In overall fuel economy?

Doubtful, yet people will always tout the highway number as the end all be all of normal cars while then comparing that number to the lower EPA city number for the CR-Z. I've seen enough people post about how the CR-Z gets the same FE as a Mustang V6.....of course that means putting city vs highway.

Someone over at vwvortex made a thread about his Vette recently. Made a big fuss about how he got 28 mpg once on the highway. Of course of less interest was his lifetime mpg of 19.7.

[ALS]

Chuck, the heck with the Mustang II go nuts with a retro Pinto.

For those who thought those economy cars of the seventies got great gas mileage?

NOT,

Click link and click open.

Car and Driver Gas Mileage Pinto March 1974 This is a PDF file.

They bumped the mpg's up 25% with minimal cost changes to the car.

[PaleMelanesian]

I'm tired of Honda's "compromise everywhere possible" design philosophy. How many variations of Civic do they offer? DX LX VP EX EX-L SI. Can they not offer a CRZ sport with genuine performance and CRZ eco with genuine economy? What's the point of the 6mt if the gears are as bad as my poorly geared 5mt?

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This weekend I loaned the Odyssey to a friend who needed the third row seats. I drove his 4Runner in exchange. (4 cyl, 4spd auto vs the Ody's V6 5spd)

The Ody's transmission, like most Hondas, is a miserable failure of a design. The gear ratios are fine, but the programming is terrible. If you think about adding some gas, it downshifts. If you blink, or hit a gust of wind, or anything, it downshifts.

In comparison, the 4Runner had a well-designed transmission. I only once had it over 2000 rpm, and that was deliberately flooring it on an uphill on-ramp. It would simply hold the gear as long as needed. It had no trouble maintaining speed on long uphill grades. The Ody has more power and better aerodynamics, so it could easily do the same, except for the transmission programming.

Ody: 1800 rpm @ 60 mph
4Runner: 1900 rpm @ 60

For my next purchase, I believe Toyota deserves my money more than Honda.