Here's the full text of an article on the 2005 HCH that appeared in the Highway 1 section of the LA Times. Automotive journalism at its worst.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/au...autos-highway1

Just admire your mileage By Steven Cole Smith, Orlando Sentinel

• It's a kick seeing what Honda's Civic Hybrid can do with a gallon of gas, but that's where the excitement ends<

I have yet to join the True Believers who insist that hybrid vehicles are, flaws and all, the answer to our problems of oil dependency, global warming, pollution and the heartbreak of psoriasis.

I like hybrids and admire what the manufacturers have done, both mechanically and with regard to their public spiritedness, because at this point none of them is making money from hybrids, regardless of what they tell their shareholders. No one has yet amortized the cost of developing such an innovative product.

As I spent a week in a 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid, I tried very hard to enjoy the experience, and ultimately I did.

Here's how: You know that with, say, a sports car, you get a certain amount of pleasure from the acceleration, the swoopy styling and the cornering?

In the Civic Hybrid — base price, $20,950 — you get a certain amount of pleasure from looking at your running fuel-mileage total and seeing that you are getting 38.3 miles per gallon, which was my average over about 380 miles. This is considerably less than the Environmental Protection Agency ratings of 47 mpg in the city, 48 mpg on the highway, but still, 38.3 mpg is pretty good. Right? Right.

I don't think there was any way to get 48 mpg in the Civic, but I know I could have done better if I turned off the air conditioner, which, I understand, some True Believers are willing to do. In August, it might be a bit warmish, but anything to save a gallon.

Actually, I have been in contact with some hybrid owners who did not realize that when you pull up to a stop sign, and the engine stops, the air conditioning does too. The fan keeps blowing, and for maybe 30 seconds, the air is cool, but after that, it gets warmer. With the Civic, the "economy" setting on the air conditioning lets the engine shut down at a stop, but on the regular setting, it won't. The majority of my driving was done with the air on economy, and if it hadn't been, I would have averaged less than 38.3 mpg. But I would have been cooler.

Otherwise, the Civic was just not much fun to drive. Its electric-boosted power steering was notchy and annoying, and there was a remarkable amount of road noise from the tires.

The Civic, like all Honda hybrids, is a "partial" hybrid, meaning it won't move using its electric motor alone; the electric motor just helps Honda's little 93-horsepower engine accelerate, and therefore the engine uses less gasoline. With its 11.88-gallon fuel tank, you could expect a range of about 450 miles between fill-ups.

And with the CVT, or continuously variable transmission, which works like an automatic but doesn't have a set number of gears, acceleration wasn't bad.

Typical of Civics, it was built like a little tank. There is no scheduled tune-up until it reaches 110,000 miles, and I have little doubt that it would be trouble-free for a very long time.

Satisfying? Yes.

Fun? Sorry, not so much.

 

Journalism is and always will be the most powerfool medium of human communication. And I have a BA in it.

 

While I understand some disappointment about the article, which I share, I still think that this was a reasonable response from somebody who:

- is only mildly interested in fuel economy and all that goes with it
- makes a living test driving fast sports cars and luxury sedans

Given that scenario, I think that his response was somewhat along the lines of what I would expect. The car is not going to impress folks who are used to the acceleration and power and cornering ability of other more sporty, or more expensive, vehicles.

Maybe I'm jaded. I've come to expect articles that say "hybrids stink, only eco-freaks and fad-followers will like them." And this article seems to be fairly refreshing in comparison.

Just my opinion.

 

Absolutely fair, and on track, I'd say. But why, I wonder, have we all become so jaded of the tireless slash and burn article that is nearly every hybrid review? This was less abrasive but unfairly so nonetheless, which I've long since come to expect.

 

What?

 

BTW, has consumer reports done any long term testing of any of the hybrids?

 

Get your FACTS straight boy, the EPA mileage estimate is 48 City, 47 Highway! It's little errors that make me discount articles like this.

 

Actually the PZEV is 48 highway, 47 city. What state was the car tested?

 

Ahh, I stand corrected, thank you lakedude. In my egocentric world, I don't think about the PZEV brethren. Being an LA Times article, it must have been a PZEV vehicle.

 

What *does* tick me off is he is not comparing apples to apples. The Civic Hybrid can only be compared against the Civic EX, it's closest non-hybrid equivalent.
Under the conditions he was driving it (hard starts, A/C on all the time), the Civic EX probably would have gotten only 25mpg. And yet he gripes that the hybrid got 38.3

He also fails to mention the emissions. In LA, the most polluted city in the US, you would think he could have mentioned that the HCH was helping solve the problem.

I see nothing wrong with the steering, but the tires do make a lot of noise and have very poor traction... not a big deal if you are "driving in LA" but still.....

Of course the HCH does not do well in high traffic, and LA is famous for unpredictable gridlock. Nevertheless, I am seeing a lot of hybrids popping up.