I decided to purchase a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid. I have a new job starting in July. The commute will be high mileage between home and work. that is the major reason why I purchased the Hybrid, My first question is: Should I go straight from the dealership, put in synthetic oil right from the start, or wait until the oil indicator light comes on, then put synthetic oil in at that time. If I do 90% highway driving, can I expect higher than average mpg? I look forward to sharing my experiences on the "Green hybrid" website. Please, I look forward seeing your feedback. Let me thank you now.

 

First, welcome! 2nd, wait to change the oil, the oil they put in is special "break in" oil. How long to wait is everyone's personal opinion. I personally am waiting until it tells me to change it.

You may or may not achieve awesome mileage. It depends on how you drive it. If you don't car about mileage, it won't care. If you try to get awesome mileage, you will, in time! Be patient, you will learn. Also, read through this forum. Many tips await you...

 

Welcome to the club!
Sounds like you picked the best hybrid for your driving profile. GOOD LUCK!

Bob Wilson

 

as one who also has a long highway drive to and from work, there are several ways to increase your mileage.

first off, it will take a little bit for the car to break in and for you to get used to what it can do. the MPG gauge on there helped me right away, and is invaluable.

then you will have to decide what's more important....getting to work fast, or economically. i find that driving about 60 gets me the best effort on the 4 lane, even though the limit is 65 and even that is slow most days. i am lucky in that my drive is rural, so traffic is lighter than it would be in a metro area. that might affect you also.

drive like there's an egg under your shoe, accelerate moderately, if you can see there is a slowdown, stop light, exit, etc., ahead, let the car slow down by itself rather than waiting until the last minute and using the brakes. take advantage of hills for coasting, that can make a difference.

i am sure there will be a lot more information coming your way, these are just some things that come to mind. after a while, it will become second nature and then the MPG really goes up.

welcome and have fun with it.

 

I'm sticking with the Honda 5-20. Mobile #1 is $9.00 a liter her were I live. I like the FE its giving , so no reason for me to change! H

 

Marvin- congrats on the new hybrid and welcome to the forum! It does sound like your commute will be a good one for getting great FE out of the HCH, but even though the car does most of the work, if you put in a little effort and try out a few driving techniques, you can achieve efficiency that is insanely high.

First off, don't be discouraged if your miles per gallon look a little wonky or aren't what you expect right away- the first few hundred miles, at least, are the 'break in' period, and it disappoints some people, though others report better results. You just never know. My first few tanks were about what I expected, in the 47.5-48 mpg range, and I was satisfied with it, but it's impossible to predict what anyone else's might be. Since then, I've done much better.

A few things to keep in mind when you're taking the hybrid out for a spin:
1) use your brakes as little as possible. This means conserving momentum when you're slowing but not stopping and making careful use of the following distance in front of you to coast towards someone who is stopped or braking in front of you - if the regen kicks in while coasting, you might find yourself slowing down faster than you expect. When braking, energy goes to the battery, which at least means it isn't lost, but the energy you use getting back up to speed again will be more than that, so if you don't have to brake, you use less gas. Unless you're going downhill, perhaps... which brings me to point 2
2) use the terrain. Accelerate on downslopes, don't waste energy trying to maintain velocity at all costs or pass someone when you're going up a steep hill. Use downhills and flat places to get up to speed - let gravity work for you.
3) Auto-stop (AS) is your friend. minimize use of defrost and the a/c, and always keep the car in Econ mode so that it will AS whenever possible. so much gas is wasted while idling, it's just ridiculous.
4) small things make the difference for FE. Keeping your tires properly inflated helps, keeping your windows shut to minimize air resistance makes a bigger difference than you might think (using the fan takes less energy) and just generally driving a bit slower and accelerating more gently can cut down your gas consumption enormously.

Good luck!

 

[quote=leahbeatle;131427]always keep the car in Econ mode quote]

No econ mode for HCH 2nd gen! It will still autostop, but doing the things that the HCH1 couldn't autostop for will drain the HCH IIs battery really quick. In other words, just because you can run A/C or defroster while you're autostopped, try not to unless you have to.

 

I have a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid and have heard people mention ECON mode. Can you tell me where I can see whether or not it is on?
Thanks

 

There is no "ECON mode" for '06s and '07s. The cars will still autostop even if A/C is on. It will just drain the battery that much quicker.