Has the HCH driven anyone crazy? I get 45 mpg in combined city/highway driving. BUT. I am sweating all the time because the AC decreases my mileage substantialy. I watch the mpg guage all the time and almost hit things. I find myself being furious at someone in the city who pulls out and adversely effects my coasting down a city street (like hollar, curse etc.). Someone gave me the you know what today because I was accelerating so slow (my mpg indicator was on about 5!). The worst looking woman I have seen in years, came up to me and said "that is a lovely car" and now I feel old and unattractive. I fear this car will drive me mad. Then on top of it, some people on this board talk of hypermiling!!! As if I am not harassed enough now. Maybe I can short it out or something.

 

I've been getting pissed off at lights lately. My wife thinks I'm crazy. I think I'm going to make a green and then the **** thing turns yellow at the worst moment and I scream as I am forced to stop. I'm running a lot of reds too, but safely if that's possible. I also pull my car way past those white lines that you are supposed to stop behind while I'm in autostop. The hypermilers make me a little crazy too. My car is taking over my life and going to kill me if I keep running these reds.

 

Speaking of old hags and Civic Hybrids: I saw a lady getting out of her car, a 2003 HCH, in the handicapped spot at Target last evening.

She had to be every bit of 80 years old, nicely dressed but severely aged and decrepit in body, and her car (hold on I have to stop to laugh again.....................OK) had about 4 or five dings in it, a huge paint scrape on the rear fender, and another hole in the back bumper. She is obviously past her best driving days, let's just say that.

My first thought was "That sorry a$$ car salesman probably sold her a Hybrid without her even knowing a dang thing about them, except he knew he could get an extra $3000 over a standard Civic from her."

Then I thought, "hey, as a Hybrid advocate, that's one more Hybrid on the road at least, right?"

I was with my kids or I would have stopped and asked to see her two trip meters. You think the lifetime MPG was over 32 mpg? I'd bet not, but maybe if she "really drives like a Granny" she might have had it in the low 40's. I was dying to ask her to let me see, including the total miles - I bet they were under 20,000 !!

 

BigBearBalls,

Interstate 35 must be the worst public road in Texas to hypermile. Of course I do it on my work commute, but it's by 6:30am before the traffic gets real bad.

My Insight is not senior citizen-friendly. The seats are low and my grandmom needs elevated seats to get up.

 

to keep this alive:
I saw this haggardly looking woman get into her BEATER HCH at the bank this past weekend. It had commercial plates, some half worn-off business stickers on the outside, the front bumper appeared to be used for battering ram practice and there were NO REAR seats! But at least she's saving gas... I didn't really want to speak to her about anything. My wife and I were laughing at the car though!

 

I'd rather go mad in a hybrid than continue to let my friends and neighbors see me crying at the gas pump while I fill-up the 33 gallon tank ($100) on my Bronco. Do you know what it does to your mental state to accelerate and watch the MPG indicator (gas gauge) move downward. It used to be a joke I shared with passangers. " Hey watch me stomp on it and make the gas gauge move!" "He he he!" Hypermiling for me right now is 15/mpg instead of the avg 12. I too, try to conserve momentum. You should see the looks and gestures I get when my Bronco with 35" tires, 6" lift, and large bumper come within inches of the back of another car that pulls out in front of me. At least the hybrids are not so intimidating. One good thing about slow acceleration in the Bronco is the drivers behind me can't see that I'm not keeping up with the traffic in front of me. Unless it's a little hybrid that can see under me. But the Hybrid driver is only thinking "Wow this is great. This guy is so slow that no one is honking at me this time!"

I've got to keep the Bronco because of situations like Katrina. I live between Houston and Galveston and my familiy will not be stuck trying to get out. But I don't plan to drive it daily after Jan 06 when I get my new Prius with the nice tax credit.

 

My cat just lurched off my lap and put a nice gash in my arm as he jumped with his hind claws because I laughed so hard at your description. That's priceless hybrid driving...I can't wait to see the numbers you'll put up in a new Prius!

The psychosis is definitely setting in. In a manner, my driving has become schizophrenic because my bag of tricks is so drastically different from any other car I've ever driven - it's like a whole new me. Yes, I'm going out of my way to hypermile, but it's always with safety and care first, and my last few tanks have started to show it in a big big way, so that's all fine and well. I do have to concede that I've unconciously formed a new driving vocabulary that's little...mmm...not so tidy. I've found myself loudly muttering (when alone) certain phrases for environmental setbacks, and certain phrases directed toward other drivers that act as setbacks. I never shout to anyone and I rarely have to lift a favorite finger from the wheel, but when something drops my live MPG display, the dictive dookie hits the ICE fan.

 

Yep, I went from the angry guy who was always blasting past everyone to the guy who gets mad at the people riding his rear while I'm doing the speed limit in the RIGHT lane. We have such a mixture of people in my area, you can't blame the locals as theres just a handful of us. Everyone else is transplants.


All those people riding my rear while I do the speed limit is what makes me absolutely lose it.

 

Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough power and acceleration to get on the freeway. i've had my hch for a few months already and i'm still only getting 28 mpg. Sometimes I trip out on dashboard lights.
i find myself getting angry at pedestrians everyonce in a while too.

 

Having a hybrid makes people think i give a ****.