Impressions

It's been about a year (little more) since I got my car, and I still think it's great! I've put a little over 15,000 miles on the car, and have gotten an average reported mileage of about 53 miles per gallon (meaning I used just under 300 gallons of gas!).

I've been keeping track of the mileage on a spreadsheet, and have noticed the reported mileage (the dashboard has an "average mileage for this trip" indicator, and I reset the trip odometer each time I get gas) is always about 3-4 mpg higher than the mileage I calculate based on the distance travelled and the number of gallons I put in the tank. I'm not sure why this would be the case, but it's very consistent. My Honda dealer was no help, so if you have any insight into this, lemme know, as I'm quite curious.

A friend emailed me asking advice about buying a hybrid. I figured I'd post my response in case it helped other folks.

Where to start? Okay - I bought a car because I got a job about 20 miles from my house and couldn't take public transportation. I knew I wanted something that wasn't awful for the environment, and my choices basically amounted to buying a new hybrid or a used, non-hybrid Civic (or the equivalent).

In the long run, you really can't save money by buying the hybrid - you come out about even with buying the non-Hybrid Civic, which gets pretty darn good mileage (around 40 or so). Roughly, the hybrid costs about $3000 more, and that's about what you save in gas money over 100,000 miles. Roughly. But, the hybrid pollutes less and uses less gasoline, plus, you send a good message to the car manufacturers. I decided I had enough money to choose the hybrid. It's a pretty sound decision to buy a used car, too - they're much cheaper, you're not adding another new car to the road, and some of them (like a used Civic) get really good mileage.

At the time I bought my car, the Toyota Prius wasn't really a good option - it was too funny looking, didn't perform as well as the Civic, and basically was too new. The 2003 Prius was a completely new car, not really based on an existing design. The 2003 Honda hybrid was a regular Civic with a dashboard & engine transplant, so I knew the rest of the car would be pretty reliable. Things have changed, and at this point, I'd take a long look at the Prius. They've changed the design pretty significantly, and in the right direction. The mileage is greatly improved, as is the overall feel of the car. Certainly take one for a test drive. As far as I can tell, the 2004 Civic Hybrid is near identical to the 2003. I would ask a salesperson what they changed between model years.

My car handles pretty well in the snow - it weighs enough that it has decent traction, has antilock brakes, etc. When the roads are slippery, it can skid or slide like a regular car, but it doesn't do so any more frequently than a normal sedan. The mileage is definitely worse in the winter (down in the forties), but so is the mileage for a regular car.

There are a few things I dislike, the biggest being the lack of a fold-down rear seat. They put the batteries behind the rear seats, and hence you can't fold them down to carry skis, 2 x 4's, furniture, etc. inside the car. Eventually, I may break down and buy a roof rack, but for the time being, I can borrow a station wagon when I need to make a Home Depot run. Another annoying and slightly dangerous feature (which they hopefully fixed in the 2004 model) is that the dashboard lights don't change when you turn your headlights on and off - you don't get any feedback about them, so it's way too easy to start driving without your lights on.

So definitely check out the hybrids.

I discovered a slightly dangerous way in which the Autostop feature works If you're driving and start to slow down for a stoplight, Autostop comes on when you're braking and put the clutch in - the gearshift doesn't have to be in neutral. Once the engine is off, you can take your foot off the clutch with no adverse affect (even though it's in gear, the engine's off so no stall occurs). This leaves the car in a strange state: engine off, in a high gear (not necessarily first), clutch out. Bizarre.

I've gotten caught a few times like this, and it's always confusing to me.

I recently took the car on its first road trip (down to NYC and back, via CT). It performed quite well (nearly 58 miles per gallon!), and I noticed a few things:

• it really likes to go fast (80 mph) and gets its best mileage then
• although the auto-stop feature works well, it occassionally has trouble sensing when to start up after a stop - I can't tell if it's a software bug or a sensor issue
• I wish its backseat folded down (it can't 'cause of the battery location)

I picked up the car last night from the dealer and have driven it about 30 or 40 miles so far, and so far I'm quite happy.

It's gotten about 40 miles per gallon to date, and the user's manual (and other folks, too) says it'll get much better in warmer weather, and also get better as the car gets broken in.

Some great features:

• the shift indicator suggests when to shift for maximum efficiency
• the Auto Select feature on the radio that temporarily re-programs the station presets to the 18 strongest signals in the area - great for travelling
• Auto Stop - where the car turns itself off at a stoplight to save gas - is the coolest

Some things that need improvement in the next model:

• there's no feedback on the lever that controls the windshield wipers, so you can't tell if they're on, or which speed they're on
• the small container that can hold a few CD cases can't hold them so that you can see the spine (to see the artist/title) and still be able to close

Resources

For parts and accessories, check out HParts.com (not Honda, but a parts dealer in Oklahoma).

Pictures

Reviews

• From Best Stuff
• Users at ePinions
• What the folks at Ars Technica have to say
• Car and Driver weighs in
• Finally the good people of Popular Science reviewed the car