xamracer

My coworker is looking into a hybrid and has a few questions. Is anybody here driving a Hybrid? How do they compare to a regular civic? Can you put rims on them too or would it mess with the gas mileage? Any complaints about it?

Jrfish007

iTrader: (3)

Well, my aunt looked into it and then I did also. We both decided agianst them because of the high price. They are nice cars, but they have a high intial cost, and then you have to replace the batteries, and that's like 1,500 bones. She wanted MPG, so she just got a HX and gets around 50MPG, but it is a rather stripped car. but she save 7,000 on the intial purchase (20k for a hybrid and 13k for an HX) and saves on the battery thing (she would have had to buy a battery pack by now too), so that's almost $8,500 she's saved, and that buys a lot of gas.

So if your buying the Hybrid to save money, that's the wrong car. If you want options, it's nice, but you can by a much nicer IMO Accord for that kind of money.

And yeah, rims will screw up you MPG, not horribly, but they will. They lowered the MPG in my EX.

zadscmc

I have a 2004 HCH, and I love it. Contrary to popular belief, the battery life is extremely good and the pricing for replacements has comedown tremendously since the introduction of the Insight earlier this decade.

The HCH is fairly well equiped, with few options. I get well over 60 mpg on my 56 one-way commute. I have almost 40k miles on my HCH and have only done the following:While you may think that the price tag (over the CX) model may be steep, it is better to look at the ride the hybrid replaces. My hybrid replaced my Ford F150, which got 15 mpg. I figure, at 35k per year, I have saved well over 1000 gallons of gasoline. I have airbags in the car (which the F150 did not) and a trunk for my golf clubs.

This is my first Honda, and I love it so much I am cosnidering trading it for the 06 HCH. The resale value on the HCHs are tremendous.

I can't say anything about changing the rims, however, the tires are special low rolling resistance tires that may not fit on other rims. You mpg WILL suffer if you put a non compatable tire on the vehicle.

HondaSales

iTrader: (5)

^well said, good post.

Jrfish007

iTrader: (3)

Well, she drives 75 miles one way, and like I said, the price difference bertween the two models is 7k, that can still by alot of gas. When you figure she gets 50 and you get 60, at $3 a gallon, she would have to drive about 700,000 miles to break even between the two car (and that's not including batteries). Even at gas prices of $5 a gallon, you still have to drive 420,000 miles before you break even.

I will give you that the Hybrid is a much nicer car to ride in, infact it is by far the nicest of civic to go in long trips in IMO. But it's not a car for those who are tring to save a penny.

I will also say that you are absolutly right they have a high resale value, but the long term resale has yet to be esteblished for these car. Nobody knows what a 5 year old hybrid goes for yet. My guess is that they will drop in price pretty quickly once they become more common, but that's just my guess. As of right now they have great resale, far better than most other cars on the market.

As if looking at the ride it replaces, you should be looking at your other options when buying a car. I mean a taurus is better on gas than an F150, but it still isn't as good as your HCH.

zadscmc

BTW, I haven't yet heard of anyone who has had to change the batteries in a Prius or HCH that wasn't a defect and covered by warranty.

Though it may be of concern, I wouldn't make the speculated replacement of a failed battery has a major influence on buying a hybrid. Just as I wouldn't make the speculated replacement of an engine as a major cost. Both are designed to last the "life of the car".

Now, if I knew what, exactly, the life of the car was, I'd sell it 1000 miles before that time.

AggressiveAdam

iTrader: (4)

Well, my buddy has a vic hybrid and well yes the gas mileage is excellent and the fact that you shut your engine off at redlights just kicks ***.

I read in Car and driver the batteries are expeted to last about 5-7 years and to replace a toyota's battery it was around 5k usd and 7k for the ford.

Are hybrids really worth it? Maybe yes, maybe no. Your saving gas and helping the enviroment everytime your engine shuts off in traffic. The engine starting up from its off state is so seamless its cool!

the hybrids also come with cool guage clusters

lewal

iTrader: (9)

there is an article about hybrids in Car and Driver this month... basically, the writer was saying that Hyrbrids aren't anything more than a "feel good" car. idunno how precise his statements were, but he did bring up valid points.

InOvAtStyL

iTrader: (7)

My uncle recently purchased 3 Civic Hybrids. I got one of them. I have no complaints about the car. It's a REALLY smooth and quiet ride. My friends always trip out how the engine shuts off when I come to a complete stop. My only complaint which really isn't even a complaint is that it picks up so slow. But then again, I understand cause it's a hybrid and it only has something like 97 horsepower.

zadscmc

My lmpg is almost 52 mpg. My last 10 tanks mpg is 59.72. It does FEEL VERY GOOD.

04on15z

my father has a 04 civic hybrid, his has decent accelleration but its 5 speed. it will chirp second gear. He put rims and tires on it, and eibach springs on it. I can post pics if interested. he says the gas hasnt changed much, but he drives it more agresivly now.

seattlex19

It's pretty well established that the Hybrid Civics do not achieve their stated mileage right out of the gate, and, according to most folks I know who own them, it is hit and miss that they may still come in just a bit shy of what the sticker claims. Some seem to do better than others...

It is my understanding from friends who have them that buying the Civic hybrid for the fuel mileage is really not the best reason. If you want mileage go search for the (pretty uncommon but still out there) Civic HX. 45 to 50 mpg on a lean burn vtec straight up gas engine = cheaper and simpler maintenance over time, and you can get them really really cheap compared to a hybrid.

The real reasons to buy a Hybrid imho are if you want mainly to be an advocate of transforming powertrain technology, be an alternative fuel vehicle supporter, feel good about your reduced emissions, and be allowed to ride alone in the carpool lane

As for resale, it's been nuts so far. In some parts of the country the hybrids are almost APPRECIATING when you buy them! Extremely short term of course, but still, even with 30k or more miles on I've seen some selling for almost the SAME price as a new '05! I personally know a couple folks who have bought them, driven them for a year then sold them for pretty much the same price. Drive a new hybrid Civic free for a year, what a deal!

I agree that kind of euphoria won't last though, at least for the ones that are out there aging as hybrid tech continues to evolve. The NEW '06 Civic Hybrids for example are a notable technological improvement in that they can cruise entirely on electric power at lower speeds a lot of the time. See:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005...mation_abo.php

Peace

Boilermaker1

iTrader: (16)

I won't touch the hybrid issue, but to answer the rims and MPG thing....
If you kept it on 14s and put fatter tires on it, you'd see a minimal loss in MPG. If you put it on 15s and kept the same skinny tires you'd see a minimal loss in MPG, if you put it on 15's and substantially fatter tires, you'd see maybe 1-2 MPG loss (simply because this would be on a percentage basis, and it gets such high MPG, that a percentage loss of that would be higher than a gas only car). Any bigger, start maginifying it. I suspect the regenerative brakes rely on the light rims to help them out... making them drag around more weight makes heat, which is wasted energy. This would be an instance where the purchase of Volks or something of similar <10 lb weight would be extremely justifiable. I wouldn't plan on turning the hybrid into any sort of performance car.... it simply doesn't loan it self to it. to change the rims from those aweful things honda picked for 06, I'd agree with you completely.