Hi, long time lurker here and I just wanted to throw out a post to the community that I've been watching from afar.

I purchased my 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid (Metallic Pearl) on November 10, 2008. My car previous to that was a 1991 Honda Accord sedan (donated @ 240K miles) so that figured a bit into my purchasing decision. A few days prior to my purchase I had been bouncing around testing between a Prius II and the HCH II, but for me these were the things that factored into me choosing the HCH: 1) the HCH looks like a normal Civic while the Prius has more of a love it or hate it look (I fall roughly in the middle, gravitating toward the latter, tbh); 2) the Prius has a terrible view out back when reversing and I couldn't get over it, backup camera or not; 3) the Civic interior, particularly the gauges, stalks, etc. seemed functional and similar to my old (and cherished) Accord and less space-agey compared to the layout of the Prius (this was kind of a big deal since I knew that my parents would be driving this a few times, and my Mom commented that the Prius gauges were confusing). I did like the hatchback functionality of the Prius, but since I'm mostly a solo driver and doing light grocery shopping, the small trunk the of the HCH isn't much of a big deal. I do get some envy when I think about Prius drivers silently crawling through parking lots or low speed traffic areas, but generally I get over those feelings once I'm on the move. :p

For maintenance I've generally listened to the Maintenance Minder and had my oil change and tires rotated by the dealership, only changing the cabin & air filters myself. Around the first 500 miles I had my first issue w/the TPMS giving a warning on a really cold day (cold for Californians, anyway), but this went away after I checked that the tire pressure was correct and I've never had any issues w/TPMS since. I had tint put in the usual back windows and also some light tint on the front passenger & driver side, but the latter caused my driver's window to get stuck sometimes, so just before 36K miles I had to get the window & window motors replaced under warranty--sans tint, natch. Windows are working fine, which is good since my dog likes to stick her head out of them.

At ~42K miles I put in some Goodyear Fuel Max tires, mostly on Harold's tirelessly enthusiastic recommendation on numerous threads. I was happy that the stock Dunlops had made it that far since others had changed theirs out with far less miles logged. Thus far the GFM's have not yielded any noticeable mileage gain (or drop), but I like them a lot since they are much quieter and grip far better than the Dunlops.

At ~44,154 miles, on a nice long downhill grade, my battery topped off nicely and I was cruising along with traffic doing 65 without any pedal input. Suddenly, the IMA and CEL light came on simultaneously. The car's behavior didn't change at all (charge, discharge, recharge, acceleration & deceleration functioned the same). I had been planning on bringing the car to my Honda dealer to get it checked out, but a family emergency required me to postpone this. On the next fillup, the IMA light disappeared but the CEL light stayed on. On a whim, I took out the fuel cap and tightened it with >3 clicks and the next time I started the car the CEL light was gone. Now with almost 500 more miles logged I haven't had any other warning lights and the car is still performing as usual.

I've filled up my tank ~111 times though I could only reliably count on the mileage for about 91 of those times. Of those 91 times (all hand calculated) my lifetime average so far is ~45.5 mpg. The farthest I've gone in one tank is 535.3 miles @ ~48.4 mpg (11.070 gallon fill up, so I still had some room to go though I didn't know and I probably won't try to chance it in the future). My best tank has been ~52.3 mpg over 485.7 miles and my worst tank was ~39.2 over 273.6 miles (@10% oil change remaining, which seems to make a noticeable difference). I have been pretty happy with the mileage in my car. Sure, it's not Prius-level mileage and it takes some babying to do it, but I haven't suffered from driving it. It's actually kind of fun to try to coax the maximum mileage out of it, though I don't do anything really radical (just accelerate as slow as traffic allows, drive the speed limit on the slow lane, touch brakes only when necessary, leave decent gaps between other vehicles, use assist sparingly, etc.)

Thus far I have been really happy with my car. Some of my favorite things are just an open road with few cars and listening to music through the USB input (which should be standard on every car). In fact, one of the first things I did to break my car in was to drive to Reno from the Bay Area and just enjoying the ride (~400 miles round trip). Long trips do reveal one gripe I have: the seat bottom is not padded very well and there is no lumbar support (which I don't need, but it's a feature even my old Accord had). Also, the car sits very low so exiting some steep areas requires very slow, angled approaches. But other than that I do like being low to the ground--minus not being able to see over behemoth SUV's.

So at almost 45K miles over three years, here's hoping to another three similarly uneventful and happy years. I've read with some discouragement as previously happy owners have come back in to report an issue (mainly with IMA) that crops up prematurely, and I hope those issues are sorted out for everyone since if I ever cross that road I would hope for it to be resolved satisfactorily.

 

I cant believe your FE has not improved with the G/YAFM tires! What have you got them pressed to? Good artical, thanks, H

 

Your list of pros and cons between Civic versus Prius whilst shopping was very close to mine.....

In the end, its about one's choice of mobility being the least detrimental to the planet. No need for envy. If the whole domestic fleet had your fuel economy, imagine the capital freed up for other uses.....

Cheers

Mike

 

Congrats on your three happy years, from another '09er. Thanks for the writeup.

 

Harold, I have the GYFM's @ 40 psi, which makes the ride a little rougher than I'm used to. For my old Dunlops I ran 35 psi all around and still had good mileage. But again, I'm really happy with how much quieter the tires are and how much better they grip.

Mike, you make a good point. Except now when I drive a regular car I always feel unnerved sitting in an idling car.

Thanks, Steven. I took down my Hybrid badge because of your post and pictures. :p I still kept the Civic badge since all other Civics have just that, but I'm thinking about taking that one off too. I hope your 2nd battery is working well for you!

 

I have an 09 as well and share the same (well close) experiences, except I had my IMA battery replaced, it was frustrating during the recal periods but that is all gone now and i am back to enjoying this car.

I will be installing those same tires in the coming weeks. I am at 40k miles now.

 

Nice touch! Now you need front and rear JDM badges. Yes, my new baby battery is working well. Will be replacing my tires with Ecopia EP100s soon (at just 35K miles, eek!)... on sale now at Costco.

 

I hear you. It does seem that stop-start technology is finally starting to become available on some non-hybrid cars for model year 2012 (Kia Rio5, etc).....

 

[quote=navguy12;239155]Your list of pros and cons between Civic versus Prius whilst shopping was very close to mine.....

Yep. Ditto, especially the lack of proper rear-view, more normal car-look, and the 4-star side crash rating when we bought our car in 2008 were clinchers. -ag