MPG of Civic Hybrid

Todd Bradley wrote:
> So, over the course of the 2 year lease, I'd pay $16,200 for a car with
> a new MSRP of $21,000. That's just not going to happen. Unfortunately,
> my wife is unwilling for us to take on any additional debt and I don't
> have enough cash on hand to pay for a new Civic Hybrid out of pocket.
> Which all adds up to me not getting one for another couple years, sadly.

what about buying an off-lease one? i personally dont see much of a
benefit with the hybrids. theyre NICE, but my 98 hatch is paid off and
gets a steady 31mpg mixed use, and i rarely drive it anyway.

i like the scions. power everything and AC, standard. all for $13k. 4
doors, hatchback, utilitarian yet sporty.

Imminent Vengeance > wrote:
> If you want a hybrid SUV-type vehicle, I suggest you wait for the Toyota
> Highlander Hybrid to come out.

I went sniffing around at the Highlander Hybrid site.
The Ford Escape Hybrid has been "almost here" for longer than the Highlander.
The Escape is supposed to really be here next month. I just realized that
my scheduled preview test drive on October 16th is a few months later than
what general availability was supposed to be.

The Highlander, which doesn't interest me at all as a gasoline vehicle,
does interest me as a Hybrid, but it seems like they went overboard on the
power, at the expense of economy.

Is it actually going to be here in a couple of months? It might still beat
the Escape.

(I have no interest in a "normal" Honda Civic either, but I really like my
Honda Civic Hybrid. It is altogether different from a normal Civic.)

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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

wrote:
> The Highlander, which doesn't interest me at all as a gasoline vehicle,

I saw a couple of Highlanders on the road tonight.
That's not gonna happen for me.

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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

Yea, and at the same time they made the worst cars of any import.

In article <hx93d.461935$%_6.302478@attbi_s01>,
says...
> wrote
> > I had excellent service from my 96 Mustang GT, the only Ford I've ever
> > owned. I have no problem buying the Escape Hybrid. Joint venture with the
> > Mazda Tribute for lots of the mechanicals,
>
> its as "joint" a venture as the mazda pickups. which is, to say, not
> much. basically, a rebadging.
>
> when mazda made trucks, they were pretty bulletproof. sad that they had
> to go to ford on that end.
>

--
jerry

quote (about Ford Escape hybrid): "That one is very aggressively
electric, running on electric alone up to 25mph. That could potentially
give some astonishing mpg ratings for the city. The California EPA
expects that it can go 10 miles of the city cycle emissions test and
use no gas."
==========

If true, then this sounds great.

Susan, Su_Texas

wrote:
> quote (about Ford Escape hybrid): "That one is very aggressively
> electric, running on electric alone up to 25mph. That could potentially
> give some astonishing mpg ratings for the city. The California EPA
> expects that it can go 10 miles of the city cycle emissions test and
> use no gas."
> ==========

> If true, then this sounds great.

I said that. Now that I have 1200 miles on my Escape Hybrid, I'm not sure
if I could go 10 miles without the engine starting, but I can certainly go
a mile or two. In parking lot traffic, I wandered around looking for a
parking place, gave up, went a couple of blocks down the road to a
restaurant to get lunch, and had the engine start up as I went up the
incline of the parking lot driveway. If I accelerate carefully, I can get
up to about 35mph before the engine starts. Anything resembling a normal
takeoff starts the engine within a few feet of the start.

Compared to my Civic Hybrid, the biggest difference would be in very heavy
traffic, moving a few feet and stopping again. If you don't get up to
10mph, the Honda keeps the engine running. The Escape might be off the
whole time. I'd like a kill button in the Honda. There is an "econ"
button, which controls whether the engine will idle-stop or not. I would
like to be able to push that button to kill the engine at a stop.


The Escape is pretty heavy, and works the 2.3L engine pretty hard. It
seems to like a noisy 4000 RPM going up a hill where the Civic is pretty
quiet, and the engine is turning 3000-3500. The Escape has a lot more
power, though. It doesn't seem to use all 94 electic horsepower very
often, preferring to raise the engine RPM. The Honda will peak out the
15HP electric motor while slowly bringing up the RPM.


<http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=8777>
Shows a curb weight of 3839 lbs and a 0-60 time of 11.1 seconds.
MotorWeek says 0-60 is 9.5
<http://www.mpt.org/motorweek/reviews/rt2402a.shtm>

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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

I recently bought a Civic Hybrid and my combined Freeway and city
driving mileage per gallon is around 44mpg. I usually get stuck in
traffic in the morning and evening (commute is an hour each way) and a
good portion of the driving is in stop and go traffic. I am not sure
how people manage to get 60 miles a gallon, that seems a little too
high......

Cat Slave > wrote:
> I recently bought a Civic Hybrid and my combined Freeway and city
> driving mileage per gallon is around 44mpg. I usually get stuck in
> traffic in the morning and evening (commute is an hour each way) and a
> good portion of the driving is in stop and go traffic. I am not sure
> how people manage to get 60 miles a gallon, that seems a little too
> high......

The people reporting 60mpg are probably driving the Honda Insight. The
Civic will get 60 at a steady 60mph cruise. Slowing and accelerating in
rush hour traffic will not be 60mpg. When driving in really heavy traffic,
I have taken to letting a gap form ahead of me so that I can get up to
10mph before stopping again, so the engine will idle-stop. Idling with a
Civic Hybrid is somewhat unavoidable, and is a waste of gas.

My Ford Escape Hybrid was running primarily electric-only for a stretch of
about 6 miles in heavy traffic approaching the Benicia Bridge from Concord
yesterday. On a couple of uphill stretches the engine started and ran for
maybe 20 seconds and shut down again. I was at speeds from standstill
up to about 25mph. I didn't think to reset the mpg reading when I first
hit the heavy traffic, which was at 29.6 from the start of a 50 mile trip
from San Jose at 70-75mph with three people and some luggage. The overall
mpg did go up to 30.8 during the stretch, and then dropped back down to
29.8 shortly after the bridge. That might be 54mpg for the stretch of very
slow traffic.

Otherwise, the Escape seems to average 26 in rural driving, 31 in city, 29
highway.

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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5