review of the honda civic hybrid

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (robert)]

--- Forwarded mail from "Jonathan Payne" <http://www.attbi.com/~jon.payne>

Message-ID: <02c701c31d5c$336f6140$6100a8c0@canoeberry>
From: "Jonathan Payne" <http://www.attbi.com/~jon.payne>
Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 09:40:30 -0700

What follows is a review of the Honda Civic Hybrid that I have been driving 
for the last 2 months.  Those of you who know me probably have noticed that I 
have a history of believing very strongly in "where I am right now" and wonder 
what's up with everybody else who doesn't see things my way.  E.g., when I 
moved to Seattle I thought it was the best thing, and then when I moved back 
to CA I thought it was the best thing.  So I just want to state up front that 
I bought the civic for personal reasons and I don't think that everybody in 
the world should buy one, even though it is just right for me at this time in 
my life ... :-)

---------------------

 My previous car was an 2000 Audi A6 2.7T, 250 Hp twin turbo, 0-60 in 6.0 
 seconds. Before that was 1998 Passat 1.8T. Before that a 1997 VW Jetta VR6. 
 Before that was a 1988 Acura Integra. I loved the Acura and I have been 
 searching in vain for my dream car ever since. The 2.7T was great but it was 
 a gas guzzler and I just cannot see the point of driving fancy cars that 
 guzzle gas anymore. 

I test drove the Toyota Prius a year ago with my fingers crossed that I could 
like that car. I was very disappointed. The Toyota was a big disappointment 
because it didn't drive like a regular car, in particular the brakes didn't 
feel like real brakes. During the test drive I remember trying hard not to 
press the gas pedal too far in case the gas engine started up and ruined the 
gas mileage. Because I had heard about the Honda Civic Hybrid I decided to 
wait a year until that car was available in case Honda did a better job. 

Honda did a much better job. The Civic looks and feels just like a regular 
car. Since the gas engine is always running while moving there's never this "
concern" that if you press the gas pedal too far that the gas engine will 
start. Instead, the Honda design recognizes that fact that cars burn most of 
their fuel while accelerating, and so the little electric motor is there to 
assist during those times. 

How the car works. I think most people researching this car know how it works 
in general, but here are some details on how it works after putting 
approximately 800 miles on the car. 

There's no starter motor. The electric motor is used instead. So the car 
starts very quietly and very quickly. 

The electric assist kicks in a lot when starting from a stop but at higher 
speeds you have to press the pedal a little harder to get assist from the 
electric motor. 

The battery pack is regenerated in two ways: the first is when you take your 
foot off the gas and slow down, the second is when you press the brake pedal. 
It's neat the way it works. You take your foot off the gas and 3 of the 4 
cylinders are disconnected to reduce friction. The car would slow down very 
slowly except that the electric motor is reversed and engaged so that it 
charges the batteries. Then if you press the brakes, the electric motor is 
further engaged causing even more braking and more charging. If at this point 
you press the brakes a little harder then the regular disc brakes kick in. 
When you release the brake pedal the electric motor is not disconnected 
immediately, which I think would be too abrupt, so the braking eases gradually 
and quickly. It feels similar to downshifting a regular manual transmission 
but it's less noticable. 

For the engine to shut off the car must be in neutral or the clutch must be 
disengaged, the brake pedal must be pressed slightly, and the car must be 
moving slower than 20 mph. Some people have said that if the car is stopped, 
and then you start moving but go less than 10 mph and then stop again, then 
the engine will not stop a second time. I have not had that experience. Quite 
the contrary, I have found that I can start the car by putting it back into 
gear and cause it to stop again by taking it out of gear, without moving at 
all. 

You can disable engine shutoff feature by turning off the Econ button located 
right next to the A/C button. 

Some Quirks. So here are a few things I've noticed about the car that I didn't 
notice at first. 

If you are braking while coming to a stop, and you take the car out of gear 
causing the engine to stop if you are moving below 20 mph, then the car moves 
a little bit faster suddenly because the electric motor engine braking is no 
longer in effect. That is, as soon as the engine stops, by definition it's no 
longer doing regenerative braking. So as a result I've found that I have 
started to press the brake pedal a little harder in anticipation of the engine 
shutting off to compensate for the slightly reduced braking at that point. So, 
when I got back into my Audi, I found that I was doing the same thing in that 
car, causing the car to jerk as I suddenly pressed the brakes harder. You can 
stop this from happening if you turn off the Econ button, but I like the car 
shutting off and I think it's not that big of a deal. If I could change it I 
would make the car stay on a until the car is closer to a stop. 

The car shuts off when I am just downshifting and going around a corner which 
I think is a little weird, even though it actually has no effect (other than 
the braking one mentioned above). That is, even though the car stops between 
gears, it starts again as soon as the car is back in the lower gear, so it's 
as though nothing happened. 

I find the car to be quite noisy when going down the highway. I think it's 
tire noise. A smooth highway though is very nice and the car is very quiet in 
those circumstances. I am not sure what the deal is with that since most of 
the reviews I have read say that the car is very quiet inside. 

If the engine has stopped because you're below 20 mph and your foot is on the 
brake, but then you want to keep coasting a little further and take your foot 
off the brake, the car restarts. That's even though the car is not in gear. So 
I assume that this has something to do with what you would expect with the 
automatic transmission, but I am not sure. I have learned either not to care 
about this, or just keep my foot lightly pressed on the brake. 

The radio reception is very poor. I really hope that this is a temporary 
problem due to a faulty connection or something. I haven't taken the car in 
yet to have it checked. 

I took some long drives up hill to see how the car would work in that 
situation. My first drive was up Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, CA, and then up 
Skyline to Highway 92, and then back down 101. On the way up Page Mill the 
battery pack drained down to just 1/3 left. The car was fun to drive, and 
handled fairly well. The battery regenerated very quickly. 

My other drive was down to Santa Cruz from Palo Alto via highway 17. In both 
directions the car did very well despite the long hills and the A/C on. The 
battery back drained to about 1/3 again, I had to downshift to 4th to maintain 
speed up the hills, but in general the car was fantastic. 

Actual Mileage. Well I am sorry to say that with about 800 miles on the car so 
far, I have only gone to the gas station once :-). So I only have one tank to 
test the mileage on so far. That 11 gallon tank was 44 mpg. It was 90% 3 mile 
short trips to work. My 100 mile trip on the current tank of gas to/from Santa 
Cruz with the A/C on and the car full with my family was 48 mph. The trip home 
from the dealer yielded 56 mpg. I can easily believe the advertised mileage 
but I have yet to go on any really long trips. I am dying to just so I can see 
how far I can go. 

Summary. If it seems like I have found a lot of faults in this car, that is 
not my intention. The quirks I have listed here at very minor and I have 
related them here just in case somebody else is as curious about how it really 
works as I was. The car is a fantastic piece of engineering and I just get a 
kick out of driving it and watching it in action. Now if only this country 
would charge the proper amount for gasoline. Then the car would make good 
financial sense as well as good environmental sense. 

Good luck! 


--- End of forwarded message from "Jonathan Payne" <http://www.attbi.com/~jon.payne>