I'm no car expert, but here are my unqualified impressions of the car. I love it! Lots of room in front and back seats for adults. Car is extremely quiet. The kids love it, the wife loves it...its all good.
My only complaint at the moment is the smell from the rust proofing we got at the time of purchase. Hopefully that'll go away soon.
We are still on the first tank of gas, so far we have about 700km on the car (Woohoo!) with a quarter tank remaining. It has a 47 litre tank.
There's no manual on how to drive a hybrid, so I did some research and found all kinds of stuff on maximizing the fuel economy (hypermiling seems to the be going term for it). Basically, try to keep the RPM's down below 2000 and all is good. I'll dig up some of the posts I ran into and link them here. (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1306)
Driving from home to Kingston Ontario, I managed to get 4.8 l/100km (~59 mpg) taking the highway 2 with a top speed of 90 km/hr. Taking the 401 netted me about 6 l/100km range (~47 Mpg). My wife isn't too concerned about the technology behind the car and maximizing the fuel consumption, she drives it as we did our previous car and gets around 6.5 l/100 (~43 mpg) km on the 401.
By the way, the mpg - l/km display displays it's mpg's based on the US gallon, which is smaller then the Canadian gallon...which we don't use anymore...so I guess it doesn't matter anyway hehe.
The car doesn't have a regular automatic transmission. It has a electronic controlled continuously variable transmission (CVT) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuously_variable_transmission). Basically this means that there's no shifting gears like a normal vehicle. The car just accelerates smoothly until to get to the speed you want to go. The higher you rev, the quicker you accelerate. The higher you rev, the more gas you burn as well. So there's a trade off between how much you want to tick off drivers behind you, and how much gas you want to save hehe.
The motor isn't typical either. It has a 20 hp electric motor/generator bolted on. What does this mean? When you accelerate, the electric motor and the gas engine both kick in to get you going. The harder you press the gas, the more both motors kick in.
Whenever you coast, brake or go down a hill really neat things happen. The most common thing is that the battery pack (located between the rear passengers and the trunk) will get a charge. They get a huge boost whenever you use the brakes. You see, the car doesn't normally use the brakes to stop, it uses the generator to stop. The harder you press the brake, the more of a charge the battery gets. The technical term for this is called Regenerative Braking. I'm not sure of the ratio of regenerative braking / break pads are used when stopping, but I'm guessing that its mostly the generator braking you and the pads kick in when you want to stop fast.
Ever drive a manual transmission car, and shut off the engine going down hills? Works ok as long as you dont have power steering hehe. This car takes that to a new level. If the hill is steep enough, or you are travelling at lower speeds, the gas engine will 'coast'. It basically shuts off. Infinite gas mileage, 0 l/100 km....its awesome.
The motor also shuts off whenever you brake at a stop light or slow down for other cars turning etc. It's not burning any gas, its recharging the battery. When you stop or slow, the car is silent except for the vent fans. As soon as you take your foot off the brake, the gas engine fires up again and away you go.
At speeds less then 60km or so, when you are going down hill, or on a straightaway, the gas engine will sometimes shut off. There's a 3-4 km stretch of downhill road heading into town from work. If you time everything right, the motor will be off the whole time.
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6 comments:
Nice car!
I can't wait until it's time for us to purchase one - unfortunately it may not be for awhile - until my current car kicks the bucket. I look at the gas mileage/money savings as a bonus. What I'm interested in is the low emissions.
The total cost of ownership is an interesting issue. I assumed that repairs and insurance would cost more since these cars aren't main stream (yet). However, I did find this link - http://www.kanetix.ca/ic_auto_info_auto_articles_48 - which appears to be good news.
I also asked my mechanic about repairs costs, but they haven't dealt with any hybrids as yet. I suspect garages will have to undergo a learning curve as these cars get more affordable and popular. I wonder how the "handy-man" will fare - will the average Joe have access/afford the specialty tools required, if any, to do repairs at home (not that I'm one of those - I can add windshield fluid but that's about it).
I was also browsing around for pics - these might be interesting - pics of the motor itself and dashboard - http://www.hybridexperience.ca/Honda_Civic_Photo_Gallery.htm
How's the trunk space?
Since you are saving gas, do you feel you want to drive more than you did before (ie taking more short trips into town vs saving for a bigger trip)? I guess, since it's so new, I'd want to drive it more just because it's so cool!
We are driving more atm because it's neat to drive.
We always take our car to the place of purchase for repair, at least you know that they've had training on thier own models.
Trunk space is fine, our usual grocery trip this morning didn't fill it up. Most of the time the trunk is empty anyway.
You know I love gadets, this is the gadget mobile heh..gogo gadget car!
Only problem is that I find myself trying to optimize the l/km and watching the gauges alot.
It does make driving more fun though (for me anyway)
Economics heck we'd have saved more by keeping the focus until it died. New cars are just too expensive.
It got ~8.8 l/100km (sucked) we drive around 50k per year, so we'd almost cut our gas costs in half - not to mention the co2 emissions.
I will be getting a 2000.00 rebate whenever the government figures out how we can apply, but that's only what 4 car payments?
So that's approximately 4400 l of fuel, @ 1.00 /litre = $4,400
The new car gets ~5 l/100km @ 50k is 2500 l = ~2500.00
That's a savings of 1900 /year or 158 / month
The car will cost us ~400 month if we pay it in 5 years. We're below prime for the loan until october, then at prime after that.
Well, I certainly think you have good timing - we've heard rumours on the radio (but could be fear mongering) that gas is going to start to soar again because of crap going on in Iran. Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that the nice weather is starting and people are coming out of hibernation, does it! Our oil companies wouldn't take advantage of political unrest, would they? (Wow, I'm pretty sarcasic already and it's only 8:53 am!)
Maybe I should start seeing what kind of mileage I get. I never really thought about it too much. I'll have to write it down because I'll forget what it was by the time I shut the door.
I just had an e-test, and passed so that was good. Do you still have to do e-tests I wonder? What would be the point, besides $35?
They should put the mileage meters on all cars manufactured. If you saw that you could cut your gas consumption by driving a bit slower wouldn't you?
E-tests? That's a government thing, everyone has to do those. The testers keep saying that the government is going to discontinue the tests, but noone knows when.
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