These badges really help people know that you're driving a hybrid. Sunday I was driving home from Orange County and two guys in HCH's were looking at them on the freeway. (two separate incidents miles apart) I just smiled and waved.

 

I for one chose the HCH2 simply because it gives me good gas mileage without looking gay. DEBADGING is the only option for me... forget putting MORE on! The dealer sticker and the Hybrid were taken off the day I got the car and the honda symbols will be gone soon just to help the car look cleaner.

The kind of people who feel the need to advertise and feel special about being hybrid owners are the same people that South Park Prius episode was about.

Don't get me wrong, I've purchased TWO 07 civic hybrids... I love the car but I just don't want the badges. I'd toss the rims out if I could find some decent looking rims cheap enough. I plan on at least using a cheap set of rims for my winter tires.

I will be going with 15% tint all around the car and upgrading the stereo too... So i'll be unmarked and thumpin while getting 45+MPG

 

I think the badging is more for personal safety:

If your driving down the road and find yourself behind a slow driver in a buick or a marked hybrid you might figure oh well, slow *** old fellow or green liberal.

If you find yourself behind and unmarked slow car, with tints and feel the ground vibrate then you might think "oh some young ***** I'ma paas this ******* then slam my brake in front of him!!!"

 

Fair enough. According to you, a good number of us look "gay" and are "smug".

Nice...

There are other "less selfish" reasons for some of us to enhance the badging factor. Caring about the first responders and emergency service personnel is one of them.

I wish you (and the many EMS people out there) good luck .


Cheers;

MSantos

 

So if he took the hybrid badge off, he must be ashamed, and is "in-the-closet"... hybrid-ownership-wise???

 

I took the Hemi badges off of a couple other vehicles... Unmarked simply looks better.

Saying you're doing this for safety of first responders doesn't make any sense at all. Have you spent any time under the cars? They seriously won't be cutting around those wires... Crawl under it, at least change the oil once on the thing and look around a bit.

the only times I drive slow are when I'm right behind a semi. Any other time I'm doing 5-10 over the speed limit or flow of traffic. On a recent trip I got a ticket in atlanta doing 82 in a 55. Most of the time I really am not driving slow. I've had this civic over 100MPH...

I drive an HCH because I can drive however I want and still get over 40MPG where in my previous vehicle I got 16 most of the time. When I slow things down and try I can get 60MPG. I'm just not patient enough most of the time.

 

Yes, we been down this road before.

We have discussed the contents of the EMS training documents at length in this and other forums over the last years and it is generally agreed even by those who undergo the training (we have a few here) that the badges play an important role in helping identify the attributes of the vehicle - more so, if the body style can be shared with non-hybrid versions of the model. If you do a little search on this forum you'll even find the links to these documents.

The sleeved orange power lines help only if the vehicle's under-body is exposed and visible to the rescue personnel. On the HCH-2, these run not on-center, but slightly to the side of the passenger so a side collision on that side would narrow the gap considerably.

Assuming irrelevance or disregarding the contents of this type of training remains a personal choice with remote but undeniable collective consequences. Of course, some of us say this because we're fallible and we choose to heed prudent advice.

However unlike some of us, I would more easily believe that you are a safe driver and hence accidents never happen to you. With that said, I agree, having the badges on for someone else's safety would really make no sense at all in your case.


Cheers;

MSantos

 

I've never been in an accident.... my previous HCH2 was totalled by water... in a flash flood and I wasn't the driver. Water up to the windows though will do a LOT of damage to the car though LOL.

From what I can tell is if during a side impact crash it hits just right and the passenger has to be cut out there's a CHANCE they might cut into the wire.... Doesn't really make much sense to me. Most collisions are front or rear. As long as you're paying attention to everything around you nothing will EVER hit you on the side. If you get smashed on the side you misjudged how fast traffic was going and its YOUR fault. Even if somebody runs a red light chances are they hit the corners of the car and not smack in the middle. You're talking very slim odds as the reasoning to make your car UGLIER?

I'm all for using hybrids, in 2 years I will be buying a mariner hybrid or the Highlander once the family gets another addition. Unless we finally get proper diesel's in this country.

 

You will say that as long as you will not be hit. I have been hit by somebody "who didn't see the stop". I do a very preventive driving and It was a total surprise to see that append to me. Such "it append only to other" or "it append to strupid driver" is a wishful thinking I hope for you it will never catch you up.

PierreM

 

was that crash on the driver or the passenger side? Was it the type where its more to the front or rear? Or was it a solid T-bone? a solid T-bone is probably less than 33% of those side collisions. Then factor in that side collisions are what like 25% of the accidents? Passenger side is everybodies fear because the hot wire is slightly to that side.. That's what likely half of that? Then think about the percentage of your civic driving is solo... Basically if you were in 20 MAJOR accidents only 1 of them would even need to be AWARE of that wire. Chances of it actually going in far enough to worry about the cable brings things down more since most accidents are at slow speeds. It would take a HIGH speed solid T-bone to smack something in far enough to even need to think about the wire. Since most of the drivers here are set on doing 55-60MPH with the bulk of any driving over 40MPH being freeway where nobody can possibly T-bone you I can't even begin to understand why anybody would worry about this. If you're in town doing 40MPH and under somebody blowing a stop sign/light and hitting you just right are incredibly low odds.