Yes! The difference is, you might see a 10% improvement with a regular car, but with a hybrid, you have more "tools" to work with so you could easily see a 20% improvement (and if you become fanatical, you might even see a lot more). The difference is that 10% on a 30mpg car is a hardly worth mentioning 3mpg. 10% on a 40mpg car is getting a little warmer, and 20% is 8mpg on a 40mpg car.

We hit 55 degrees here today and I got a 53mpg on my way home. 50 degrees seems to be the barrier to 50+mpg for me on my commute for what it's worth.

You could look at Edmunds.com at the regular Civic and the Corolla (which it sounds like you already have). The thing here is that little your actual mileage may vary disclaimer in the fine print. Did you calculate your mpg on the 325? How was that vs. the EPA?

That is SO tough to say. If you look at Edmunds, the Civic EX gets 25mpg (2008 EPA) in the city. Since you are at 80% of the HCH mpg, it's a fair guess that you would get ~20mpg in the gas Civic during break in. However, there are lots of people out there who are getting over your current 32mpg city in gas Civics now--it's all a factor of how one drives.

There are a lot of people on this site who drive normally and exceed 40mpg in the HCH (my wife is a great example). I think that is a realistic average for this car under normal driving after break in if you average winter mpg with summer. That is substantially better than a similar gas car would deliver, although a similar gas car would have a few more horsepower.

HOWEVER, you might actually catch the hypermile bug like I did. Previous to owning this car (which was my wife's before I took it from her), I was only concerned with getting from A to B as fast as possible. I was the driver who was always weaving in and out of traffic, and slamming on the brakes at the last second before the red light (or gassing through "orange" lights). This car has changed my driving style 180 degrees and I couldn't be happier.

Give it a few more months and see how you feel. Besides, if you change your mind, resale value should be excellent this summer when gas hits $4.00/g so you should be able to get out of the HCH without a whole lot of pain if it's not working for you.

 

Wow...i really appreciate all the input, I truly do. I didn't mean to have a debate over driving etiquette although it has been informative for me.

As someone hinted at, the 2008 civic does have a 140hp 1.8 140hp engine. But I guess that would be the closest to fair comparison I guess.

Alot of people seem to have strong opinions about driving habits. I wanted to make a point on acceleration. I suppose this holds for many dense suburban/semi-urban ares, perhaps especially in NJ--

1) one frequently needs to merge onto 50mph traffic without a ramp
2) other drivers are relatively aggressive (will not let you change lanes..etc)
3) Redlights on highways every 5-10 miles that requires acceleration/deceleration from 0 to 50.

There are probably many other factors that I havent though of but I wanted to make the point that going from 0-50 3 times in a 10 mile trip is normal traffic flow in many metro areas. I've read other people talk about their poor mileage and people instantly jump on them for being drag racers.

Now that I think about it, a smaller engine maybe less efficient than a BMW engine at high RPMs.

Nevertheless, my point was to talk about the technological improvement and not solely behavior modification.

I will fully look into all the advice on the hypermile guide and report back.

 

Good move.

Hopefully, you'll discover an alternate wisdom (like many of us have) and who knows... maybe some of the urban road-warrior-survivalist concerns you have will become a thing of the past.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

Just another reference point...

I picked up my '08 HCH a couple of weeks ago. It had 3 miles on the odometer when I picked it up and I have around 200 miles on it now. According to the car's computer (reset for each trip), I have been averaging around 31 MPG during ~5 mile trips with stop and go suburban driving in temperatures averaging around 30-40 F. However, on an 80 mile round-trip drive I took last weekend, I saw 49.4 MPG on the way to my destination and 46.1 MPG on the way back. So I definitely see that the potential for high numbers is there.

I have modified my driving by doing the speed limit or no more than 5 miles per hour above, coasting to red lights longer than I used to, going a little bit slower than the speed limit when I can coast to the next stop sign or my next turn and traffic permits (i.e. during the day when roads are empty), not gunning it when the light turns green (although I have still found that I get out in front of people behind me more than I would expect even at 1500 - 2000 RPM), etc. I've also been trying to master some of the other techniques mentioned in the various "hybrid driving" articles (i.e. Tarabell's article on CleanMPG, etc.) and I have seen positive results so far.

I traded in my '05 Acura RL for the HCHII due to a commute that I'm facing soon that's double the distance at around 80 miles round-trip. According to the RL's computer, I was averaging around 19 MPG on short trips, around 26 MPG on my previous commute, and around 30-32 MPG on long (i.e. 400 miles) high-way trips. I definitely didn't drive it for MPG, but I don't think I was doing too badly. Of course, those numbers might be skewed higher by the odometer error that Honda admitted to. I'll miss some of its creature comforts and AWD, but I actually think I'm more relaxed when I arrive at my destination driving the HCHII than I was with the RL. It must be the AS at red lights and when I pull into a parking spot

- Lawrence

 

One thing you might have read about haven't experienced yet with only 200 miles is that the computer is actually conservative. I keep trip A for the tank lifetime and reset B each drive and the Trip A mileage is usually 1-2 mpg lower than I calculate at the pump.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yup, I've read that. I plan on doing manual calculations when I fill up. I used to use Two Peaks Software's Personal Vehicle Manager to keep track of my RL's gas and maintenance information, but I switched to a Treo 700p a year and a half ago, so I stopped since it's a Windows Mobile app and the 700p runs the Palm OS. I'm looking around for a good Palm OS vehicle app now (with a companion desktop app), but I might just end up with a simple spreadsheet.

I've been keeping trip B as the car lifetime, and using trip A for each trip. I might change that after my first fill up and switch to the system you're using.

- Lawrence

 

Try TealAuto. It is awesome and produces good reports and graphs.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

Just an FYI, that "lifetime" will only be the liftetime of the gauge which is a maximum of 9,999 miles (four digits) before it rolls back to 0000.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...mi-reset-9481/

 

Thanks, I'll take a look. It looks like iambic, Two Peaks Software's new owner, just released a version of Personal Vehicle Manager for the Palm OS as well, which I'm also going to check out. I like their desktop companion software.

Ah, thanks, that's good to know. I'm now less worried about resetting trip B by mistake

I should probably add some more data to my current HCH experience...

1. My tires were at around 30 PSI on the dealer's lot, so I inflated them to around 34 PSI last week at around 35 degrees F. I haven't checked them this week to see what they're at. I'll eventually go higher.

2. I do not have a block heater, nor a garage. I probably won't have either in the near future. I know the block heater is almost a must have but I don't have a convenient way to plug it in due to the parking situation in front of my house (i.e. there's a sidewalk between my house and my spot that I can't leave a cord laying across).

3. I've been keeping the climate control at around 60 - 62 degrees in Auto mode. During this past winter, I kept my RL at around 66 - 68 degrees with the butt warmer on (at least for 15 minutes or so into a drive). For some reason the HCH feels warmer to me in the cabin (different glass or darker interior contributing factors?), and the seats aren't as cold in the morning due to the cloth instead of leather.

I'm happy with the numbers I have seen so far, but I'll be disappointed if they don't go up with higher temperatures in the Spring/Summer, a broken-in engine, and more experience on my part. I guess I'm referring to the city numbers, since my highway miles so far have been better than the EPA rating.

- Lawrence

 

I would suggest you stop trying to be the drag race champion at traffic signals. We got 52 MPG on our first tank, and consistently get 46-48. But we do the speed limit and drive reasonably.