Honda Is Entrusting CleanMPG With the 6-speed CR-Z For A Week :D

The 10th gen Civics are incredibly cool cars. So glad you got the hatchback, Markus!

It's rare that I ever see another CR-Z. Someone had a blue one in our neighborhood, but I haven't seen it in a couple of years. I try not to pee myself when I see one on the road! LOL.

 

Hey, Lee, you must get awful mileage with SEALAB on your roof. (optical illusion/impression at a glance at the small picture)

 

I occasionally see a blue CR-Z on my short commute through town...

 

Even though I drive ~100k mi/yr, I hardly ever see these. They're as rare as a Chevy SS, or an Audi A8 for that matter. interesting little cars, I almost wish they fit my needs.

 

I finally got my interior rear view mirror adjusted properly. When I bought the car, I noticed that the mirror was too low and even angled as high as it would go, I couldn't see out the back without ducking down a bit. Initially, it didn't seem like the arm the mirror is attached to could be adjusted. I looked at the mirror more closely today and saw that it did look like the arm should be adjustable. So I applied a bit more force to it today and was able to carefully adjust the arm so that the mirror is up at the height I need it at. I should have look more closely at the mirror the day I bought it but that's what I did today.
Regards Bitcohen.

 

I'm a little embarrassed to share this, but what the heck.
Since the CR-Z is a mild hybrid according to most folks, I think I'm a mild hypermiler. LOL!
Using the techniques I've learned here (to varying degrees), this is what I've accomplished during the 7.5 years of owning the CR-Z.
You can see that I'm not very consistent with my fuel efficiency numbers as a more dedicated hypermiler might be. I bought the car to be efficient and also have fun when the mood hits. The mood hit quite often!
Many of the fill ups were at the last 1/3 to 1/4 tank, but some were while I still had 1/2 tank remaining due to longer trips/storm evacuations, etc.
Lifetime MPG stands at 44.46 MPG. My worst tank was 36.27 MPG while on vacation in Tampa, Florida and my best tank was 63.23 MPG while driving around on Jekyll Island, Georgia for a few days.
I'm pretty happy with what I've achieved with the CR-Z, even if it isn't up to the expectations of the truly dedicated folks here.
Still loving my little car and all the joy I get from driving it!!
Thank you for all the support everyone!

The charts represent data from August 2010 until February 2018. The line chart shows fuel efficiency for every fill up. The bar graph is an unrounded/integer count of how many times I've gotten each MPG.

 

44+ lifetime is fantastic!

 

Thank you, BillLin! 44+ MPG even with SeaLab on top. Maybe not! LOL

 

Thank you, Wayne!!

I've seen a few modified CR-Zs over the years and wondered how practical those with lowered suspensions/extreme camber were. I hope the driver, any passenger, other motorists, passengers, and pedestrians were okay after the accident you saw.

My CR-Z is still completely stock. As a matter of fact, the dealer never put any add-ons on my car before I bought it. No pin stripes. Not even the dealer logo. I bought it on the first day of sales in the U.S. and asked the salesperson to keep the CR-Z completely free of add-ons. I appreciated the car just the way it was designed and shipped.

 

Funny you mention the dealer logo...I grew up in California where dealers seem to just give you a license plate frame. When I left, I saw all these logos stickied onto cars and thought it was very rude. Then I bought my Civic...still has the original dealer logo on the trunk, albeit nicely patina'd. I find it a bit charming, and it was sort of comforting to know it had been a local car all its life.

Pinstripes fall off and/or fade. Then the car really looks terrible.

 

Pinstripes = always tacky. Dealerships around here always give you a license plate frame with dealer name on it. After some problems with Toyota of Lombard in 2003 ,
I took off their frame. No free advertising for those rat bastards. Lee , your 44 MPG for such a fun car is excellent !

 

I asked this question somewhere on the Internet. Maybe here, maybe on the Clean MPG Facebook page.

Over the years of driving my 2011 CR-Z, I've noticed that the car seems to get into a super efficient low speed glide while I'm in my neighborhood (returning home) and wondered if anyone had any idea on what might be going on.

I know that Honda said the CR-Z could very briefly get into an EV mode, but I thought that was on the highway.

It turns out that it can get into a brief EV mode like the 2nd generation Insight at low speed. My 2010 Insight (now my mom's car) is pretty easy to coax into EV mode (13 to 33 mph) and I do that when I'm in our neighborhood. Using the same technique in the CR-Z, I finally started pulling up the energy flow screen on the MID. Tonight I watched the fuel cut off, instantaneous fuel economy max out, BUT power was shown as flowing INTO the battery like I was getting regen. I was able to maintain my speed of 17 mph, but I could slowly increase it up to 20 or 21 mph in this mode. The battery charge dropped pretty quickly (much faster than the Insight does), but then I was getting very mild acceleration instead of essentially steady state speed. I drove further into the neighborhood and turned around to get home and let the CR-Z get me back to a full charge (still getting 53-ish MPG at 25 mph with engine charging.) Perhaps the energy flow display in the MID isn't programmed to show battery usage when in this Insight-like EV mode? Despite showing charging, the battery was being depleted. The Insight shows the power flow correctly.

Anyway, it was an interesting thing to see and experience. And I loved confirming what I thought was happening and learning something new after very nearly 8 years of delighted CR-Z ownership.

If I'm wrong, someone please let me know. Or if you have other ideas on what I've been experiencing. All said, it's an interesting thing, if only as a party trick, to get into this brief EV mode.

 

Just sharing another interesting data point on the CR-Z and EV mode. As a reminder, my CR-Z has the CVT and I've been driving in Econ mode.

Had a chance to take the CR-Z out for a quick drive in the early evening. When I pulled into our subdivision there was no traffic.

I decided to try to coax the Z into "EV" mode and was able to do so on the first attempt by getting up to 25 mph (speed limit in our neighborhood), easing off the throttle, and reapplying very light throttle at about 20 mph. I immediately reset Trip B to catch the fuel economy info. With the power flow display up, I watched fuel cutoff occur and the battery flow was still showing power going into the battery instead of out of it. I started at 7 (out of 8) bars in the traction battery and watched it go down to 3 bars before the ICE kicked on. Speed stayed a constant 20 mph during this test.

During the 0.3 miles of EV only driving, the instantaneous fuel economy was pegged at 100 MPG. Trip computer B read ---.- MPG until the ICE fired up and then it registered 199.9 MPG. I brought the car up to 25 mph and noted that it took approximately 1 mile to bring the battery back up to 7 bars.

So, for me, a neat little experiment to see if the CR-Z really does have a wimpy EV mode. It seems that it does for what it's worth. The nerd in me thinks this is cool. The pragmatic side isn't that impressed. LOL!

 

I always find it's neat to find the nerdiest little behavior quirks that your car has. It was so neat to first find out my Dad's Passat could do 42 mpg at 48mph, to feel my Mustangs kick into high (third gear...C4 automatic) and cruise at 900 rpm, find out where my Echo locked in or kicked out of torque converter lockup, and to feel my Civic's DFCO kick the injectors back on at low RPM. It was fun at 16 to feel my Focus gently drift the back end out with throttle lift mid-corner, or ride the razor's edge when throttle steering my Mustangs, or even figure out how to pack a family of four with a week's worth of luggage into a subcompact sedan (hint: the Echo is a packaging genius). Those dark little corners are where you kind of find a window into how the car works, how it was designed, and gives you a little thrill that you might have found something few others know. So, go you! Keep exploring

 

I decided to go full electric and traded in my 2011 CR-Z for an EV 2 days ago. I LOVED the CR-Z. It had given me a lifetime fuel economy of 45.2 MPG and so much driving happiness over the 12 years I owned the car. A bit sad, but hopeful that the next owner will love the Z as much as I have. The preliminary dealership used car listing says "Immaculate!" and "Superb Condition." I did take a lot of care with my CR-Z! My sales person is a Honda fan (she and her husband own 5 Hondas), so we had lots to talk about.

Thank you all for letting me be part of this community, and especially for all the guidance, education, and support!

I'm taking what I learned here for driving the CR-Z efficiently and applying it to my new EV (new 2022 Chevy Bolt EV 1LT) to get the best efficiency I can.

Thank you!!!

Lee

 

Great choice, Lee. Congrats!

 

Good luck with your EV , Lee.
Goodbye to that sweet chariot.

Hmmmm. I could BUY his car.

 

Hi, Lee. I don’t think we crossed paths on CleanMPG. But, if I can keep my life from falling apart, I want to get a 2022 Chevy Bolt 1LT, too…..but maybe in 2023. You have to keep us informed about your Chevy Bolt experiences, including journeys & destinations! Yeah, start posting big-time!