This is my public self-introduction to Green Hybrid. I'm LoudMusic, and I just bought an `04 Civic Hybrid. Yeah!

My wife and I were rear-ended in our `03 Civic EX and traded it for an `04 Civic Hybrid, which we wanted to buy when we got the EX but were about five grand short. A year passed and we found ourselves with a handful more cash. Oddly enough when the dust settled I had $1,500 more value than I started out with. And now I'm getting 550 miles to the tank where I used to get 450.

I've scanned a few threads already and discovered what appears to be a generally intelligent group of folks. Polite too. And LOTS of discussion about "why did you choose X hybrid over Y hybrid?". So I'll answer there here.

We chose our `04 Gray Civic Hybrid CVT because:

• Our previous car was wrecked and we needed something promptly.
• We like Hondas.
• Wanted better fuel economy.
• CVT because I would have had to have re-learned to drive a manual transmission. My style does not work with a hybrid.
• Thought the Prius looked like a turd on wheels.
• Could not afford a newer Civic Hybrid, Accord Hybrid, nor an S2000 (first choice!).
• The only other available 'pre-owned' Civic Hyrbids were poor color choices.
• We think we got a good deal.

Civic VS Prius? I personally think the Prius is a better car. The technology is better than the Civic. But the Prius ... it looks like a turd on wheels, and I can't see myself driving that.

Hybrid VS not? Might as well give it a shot. Do it now before it's not "the cool thing to do" anymore.

For my wife and I it wasn't a Save The Environment, Save Money, Save Man Kind decision. I mean, those things make it nice, but mostly we bought the car because it was there and we wanted to give it a try. The `05 S2000 we drove was much more appealing, but was another 10K we couldn't come up with on the spot - and we didn't want to drive our busted *** Civic home (:

So we've had our hybrid for nearly two weeks. So far it's been good. The little MGP guage is saying 44.2 currently. How accurate is it? I'm **** so I'll probably keep doing trip-o-meter / fuel every time I fill up until the numbers are the same 100 times in a row.

 

I think that the numbers are fairly accurate but not completely. I have been tracking both from the computer on the car and from the gallons added/the miles driven. I have found that the computer is about 1 - 2 mpg lower than what I calculate. Not sure which is accurate...

 

Welcome to the "Intelligent and Polite" group .

I agree with what you said, I am also very partial to Honda cars, I still love the s2000 and the "Del Sol".

We always want to have a car that is different to what everyone else drives. In the past I would get a litlle disappointed when I see a lot of cars identical to my new car ... with a hybrid I am now dissapointed and surprised that there are so few.

 

Yes we are fairly polite.
I hardly ever see any fights here.

Oh BTW I think that the Prius looks more like a cockroach than a turd.

 

Should have gone for an S2000, now that's a car. I like the Hybrid but loved my S2000, sad day when I sold it, but it's in the family.

 

Welcome to GH! Congrats on your 04 purchase!

As for the guage, I've tracked the variance for 20+ tanks - average margin of error for me is about 3.2 (on the high side). So if my guage is up around 48, for me that's EPA (45). Trust the pump, not the guage.

As you've no doubt read, your driving style has a lot of impact. Takes a while to change some old habits. Weather's another big influence. I get 43 in the winter and 50 in the summer, so it will vary. Good luck!

 

Congrats on the purchase!

My previous car was a 05 S2000. I miss the car dearly but i had to sell it because it wasn't practical to have 2 small cars. I know the civic is not a big car, but it's big enough for now.

Have fun with the car!

 

Well at least the Civic has four seats (:

Looks like I'll be keeping an eye on my fuel consumption. Might even make myself a spreadsheet.

Also, my wife and I are planning a two week trip from Arkansas (home state) through Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, western New York, around Lake Ontario and Erie through Canada, and back south to Arkansas. We figure we'll be cruise-controlling at 65 most of the way. Should be interesting! And it will be fun to compare it to the west coast trip from two years ago - 3 weeks in a `93 Accord. We averaged 30.5MPG for the trip. Not bad at all.

 

Loud Music,

Welcome to GH. Be sure to check out the Compare tab, and enter your mileage. I've found my mileage steadily going up since the warmer weather has come to upstate NY. I have an '06 Opal Silver Blue Metallic. I love the car! My current lifetime MPG is 46.08 MPG (calculated from total miles/total gallons). I use Trip B to keep my lifetime, and Trip A for tanks and/or trips. My worst tank was in Feb - 40.0 MPG. My best tank was my last one (5/7/06) - 58.51 MPG. I believe I've learned to drive smarter and the weather is a big factor. BTW my Trip B is showing 44.7 MPG. It has been about 97 - 98% of my calculated. I'm fairly **** about my mileage calculations. I always use all the digits (tenths, hundredths, and thousandths) of the gallons/miles when I do the math. I never round up or down. I've found that the gague (Trip B) is always 1 to 1.4 MPG less that what I've calculated. After each tank calculation, I do a total cumulative (Lifetime MPG) by adding the last tank gallons to the previous total cumulaive gallons and divide this into the total miles on Trip B. Best of luck with your new ride!

 

Hmm. Forgot to follow up on this.



At one point on the fourth tank of gas the dash was reading something like 53MPG late in the tank. Not sure what happened to drag it back down so much so fast. The final tank of gas was us driving from Pennsylvania to Arkansas in one day - sort of lead-footing it

If you remove the last anomalous tank the trip average would be 43.26mpg. Not bad, not great either. If you remove the PT Henry anomalous difference tank the average difference becomes 0.78MPG, which isn't bad, but again isn't great either.

And pictures: Great Lakes And Stuff

In short, we had a blast. Any questions? I'd love to comment further (: