My experience with a Honda Civic hybrid

I have read several posts about the Civic hybrid. We have had ours for
a year now.After a thousand miles, with the a/c off, I was averaging
34 mpg. I took it back to the dealer and complained. They said that
since it only had 1000 miles, the mileage figure was not what is to be
expected, and after a good break-in (he suggested 4000 miles), we
should be getting close to the EPA 46/48. We therefore drove the Civic
on a 2000 mile interstate trip to get the mileage up. We averaged 40.6
on the interstate trip. We now have almost 5000 miles on the car, and
the last two tanks averaged 33 mpg. I think that is ridiculous. If we
were getting 43, I would feel scammed, but good night, 33? It's
really a crime. Can't wait to see what the dealer says when I take it
back in a few weeks for service.

I also get very disgusted when some say that it's the way people drive
that is the problem. We live in flat-land and drive it normally
without rabbit starts etc. 33 is disgusting.

 

That does sound appalling; I'd be annoyed, too.

A September thread here on Civic hybrid mileage may be of interest to you:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&th=77843a33a6a538ae&rnum=3

Some folks (and consumer agencies) report as you do. Others have better
experiences.

 

A standard engine Corolla will get you better than that...

 

with respect, that's not surprising. the only time the hybrid comes
into its own is in city driving. constant stop/start consumes a lot of
gas with a conventional car. if you live/drive in a non-urban area, the
vehicle needs to get the energy to travel from somewhere, and burning
gas is the only way to do it. that's how hybrids work well in the city
- if the vehicle's not moving, or moving slowly, it doesn't need to burn
gas - conventional cars do.

 

the toyotas give better mileage in the city.

 

40.6 mpg seems like a acceptable mileage for interstate driving, since the
battery's assist during hwy driving is at a minimum. So, the 40.6mpg would
indicate that th engine is working within spec without any assist from the
battery. Also, the 33mpg is a norm for city driving, for a non-hybrid Civic,
that's packing an automatic tranny....

Let us know if the mechanic finds anything wrong with the car's Battery
Assist.

Pars
98 Civic Hatch (36 mpg - combined)

 

People who buy them in my area, get them for the HOV lanes. A person at
work has one and I asked him about the mileage, he told me he did not care
about the mileage, be bought the car for the HOV lanes.
If not for the HOV lanes, they would not sell as good as they do now around
here (Northern VA)

Gary

 

Interesting. Along with a Pilot and a 01 Prelude, we also have an 03 Civic
LX 4 dr 5 speed. I routinely get 36-38 on the highway with the ac on -- we
live in GA and it does get hot. Urban driving -- around 33-34. My
Prelude -- usually around 27 in mixed highway/urban but I usually run a
little harder into the VTEc -- did get 32 on a long trip last year. I run
both cars around 80 on trips.

 

What other cars have you driven, and what fuel economy did you get in
the other cars, compared to the EPA ratings?

 

I'm working on a 1983 Honda Civic FE project. This car was EPA rated at
46 mpg (city) and 59 mpg (highway). Realistically, I would expect about
35 mpg (city) and maybe 45 mpg (highway).

My only new car, a 1961 VW beetle got over 50 mpg on extreme highway driving.

Soooooooooo, I'm inclined to think that this hybrid crap is a scam if
you consider the cost of the car, maintenance, and repair parts/labor.

I'll stick with the older carbureted car and depend more on the nut
behind the wheel...

 

If we
If I may point out, on a 1200 mile Southern California desert/mountains/cities
trip -- 9,000' passes, 85 mpd freeways (cheated a bit for about 1/2 minute
slightly over 90 --was still being passed -- USI5) occasionally significant
traffic, 1990 Honda CRX, I averaged 39.9 mpg.

Quent

 

I've tried to correct Jim's mistaken impressions before.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K3D0211E9
I don't think Jim has a hybrid, and he argued with me about fundamental
concepts of how the Honda IMA system operates.

The thread noted here as a Google reference has some postings from me.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&th=77843a33a6a538ae&rnum=3

I have a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid, and I average 43-45 mpg.
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/Honda_Mileage.htm

Freeway travel at 70 mph can get above 50, but you have to cruise.
"Keeping up with traffic" with goofy speed fluctuations on highway 680 in
the SF Bay Area, will cut severely into mileage. Traffic flow is anywhere
from 60mph to 85+. I was doing just over 80, third in a pack of cars,
when I realized a Chevy Tahoe was running up my butt. The Tahoe changed
two lanes to the right to go around me in a gap that I didn't consider
large enough to pull over into. When I did find a gap, I dropped back to
cruise-control 70mph. I could stay up with the faster traffic, but that
just eats into the mileage.

It's a little motor, 1300cc. At cruising speed, it is working comfortably,
with no hybrid assist. Power for acceleration needs to come from somewhere.
It either comes in short bursts from stored battery power, or from
overtaxing that little itty bitty engine.

I don't believe that hybrid is any sort of scam. I think it works very
well for me. I live in a rural area, and do a good bit of interstate
driving, so the idea that it is a city-only car is wrong.

My daughter has a Chevrolet Metro, which gets over 40mpg on the highway,
but she realizes that is a far different car from mine.

I also have a Ford Escape Hybrid, but I don't have enough miles on it to
comment about the city/highway mileage yet. The electric motor in it is
rated for the same horsepower as the Honda gas+IMA. Different vehicle.

 

I just can't see a hybrid with numbers that work.

CRX models, (especially the low end examples), always got superior gas
mileage with good payback if one kept the car for a number of years.

 

In sum, one could conclude that the higher price you pay for the hybrid will
not give payback over a reasonable period of time -- say 100k miles. Then,
you are also faced with the cost of battery replacement at some point.

 

That's exactly correct.

In fact, my Honda salesman says the same thing.

 

About $680 at current prices. Let's see what happens when they get to
aftermarket.

 

Just wait until AFTER the first lawsuit, where there's an accident and
the batteries are blamed for some serious mishap.

The legal fees attached to each battery replacement from then on will
amount to $2000 per set. That's on top of the battery cost. The
batteries will jump seriously in price.

 

D-Cell batteries? What, are they going to be "ejected from the vehicle"
and fly through the window of some other car?

 

Doesn't matter. All it takes is a lawsuit and some ambulance chaser
feeding the perception that "these hybrid things are death traps".

Remember when airbags were new? Airbags use corn starch as a lubricant
to make sure they don't stick inside their housing. Well, the auto
industry didn't bother to be proactive in getting that message out.
When airbags started going off, fire departments all over saw the funny
white powder and stayed far away, calling for the federal guys in moon
suits and declaring the crash site a Superfund site--all because they
didn't know what that powder was or how airbags work.

(Now, of course, you have firemen banging away at the airbag after the
people are rescued, so that they don't have to worry about the airbag
going off spontaneously. They just want to make sure the airbag is
either set off or taken out of the vehicle.)

Anyway, all it takes is an opportunistic lawyer to make these things the
subject of lawsuits--which drives up the price of the product.

 

The 34 mpg and 33 mpg is certainly cause for concern. But I think that
you must have something wrong with your particular car. I've had my
2003 Civic hybrid for well over a year. I average just at 40 mpg. The
vast majority of the miles are stop and go traffic on the 20 minute
drive to and from work.

I definitely do not think - as others on this thread have opined - that
the hybrid is a "scam". I have thoroughly enjoyed driving mine and have
had zero problems. There have been articles explaining that EPA tests
are not well suited to judging real-world performance of hybrids. I
admit to being somewhat disappointed that I'm not getting in the mid
40's. Still, for the kind of driving I do, 40 mpg is not bad - it's
twice what I was getting with the Mazda I had before.

I hope you can find an answer from the dealer or elsewhere as to why
your car is doing so poorly in the mileage department.