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Honda Civic Hybrid Driving Tips & Tricks

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Comments

  • johngalt007johngalt007 Member Posts: 7
    frednjudik, I bought a 2009 HCH a month ago, and my overall avg has been 37 only with a combination of city and highway driving. I have seen that it does worse during city driving. Last week I was driving in NYC, and my mpg dropped to 33.

    At the moment since last 5 days with just suburbia driving. my mpg has stayed close to 35!! I am yet to see an EPA claimed 45 ever. :mad:
  • MsAdventureMsAdventure Member Posts: 15
    Hi John,

    That all sounds incredibly frustrating. I'm sorry you have to go through that hassle. Nothing like a bad experience to take away from the enjoyment of a new car. I would say at the very least, the dealer should offer to make copies for you of another set of manuals they have for the vehicle (never mind that what they *should* do is get you an actual set). I wonder if there's anything in your contract about what you're supposed to get with the vehicle and I wonder if the manuals are a line item on that? I thought I had my contract handy, but I can't seem to find it at the moment. Otherwise, I'd suggest starting a hunt on eBay for 2009 manuals. Good luck!

    MsAdventure
  • ramirojmramirojm Member Posts: 2
    I am about to "get" a '05 hybrid from a friend at a rock bottom reasonable price (he is wealthy). Since then, i learned that batteries could cost almost as much as what i would be paying for this car!!!

    My question to the technical folks is this, Can i disable the battery or configure it in such a way that if it goes dead the car does not go dead also? i read somewhere on this site that if the IMA battery goes dead the computer will try to charge and will eventually give up and then after a while it will not try charging....not even the smaller/regular battery

    also that the car could lose power, and this can occur while driving? WTF???

    So, mi concern and question is can i drive the car without a battery installed

    p.s if the answer is no, i might buy a regular engine+transmission and do a conversion maybe
  • targettuningtargettuning Member Posts: 1,371
    While I do not own a hybrid, Honda or otherwise, common sense would tell me that since you are getting this car for a little bit of nothing, AND you do not know if the battery is in need of replacement why worry about it?? If it turns out the battery needs replaced, replace it, since you got the car cheap otherwise why buy a hybrid in the first place? As to your other choices i.e. disable the battery/configure the car to run without it, I'd say nope...same as your other option of replacing the engine/transmission to make it a "normal" Civic. Again...nope, if you are worried about the cost of replacing the battery why are you so willing to spend at least as much to try to make the car something it isn't? And you don't even know if the battery IS bad...don't bother buying it if you want a normal car.
  • targettuningtargettuning Member Posts: 1,371
    After posting a short answer to your proposals I thought further and figured I would try to expand why I said "nope" to both your ideas.
    a. regarding your idea about disabling the battery, I said no because a hybrid is designed around the entire package and that design includes the battery as the central part of the overall system. There may be a wild eyed blogger somewhere on the web who has the complete set of instruction on how to do this but I wouldn't even consider it...it won't work, and I'll go out on a limb here, AT ALL!!
    b. regarding your other idea of replacing the engine/drivetrain...again, the car is a hybrid from engine to transmission to various computer modules designed to make the hybrid system operate seamlessly to the instrument cluster to wiring harnesses to...well you name it. Make no mistake, it may look something like a Civic of the same year but it is a HYBRID and the costs of changing it over (if possible) would make the battery replacement cost look like an oil change in comparison. I'll finish up the same way I finished the previous post...If you are concerned about replacing a battery that may well still be OK do not buy a hybrid, especially if you intend to follow through on one of the two options you outlined.
  • ramirojmramirojm Member Posts: 2
    OK. Thanks for the help. I think i will sell the car after a year or so then. I'm just scared that this car will stop working in the middle of a trip and i will have no mechanic able to fix it....
  • targettuningtargettuning Member Posts: 1,371
    First, I don't think you should be so afraid of hybrids since they have generally proved themselves to be reliable. Second, like all well maintained cars, it probably will not just stop in the middle of a trip. Like all cars you would probably get ample warning that some mechanical part is on its way out...again ALL cars can have mechanical problems but you will have minimal suprises if you keep up the maintainance per Honda's recommendations. The battery would not just die without warning. While I don't know the cost of a replacement Honda battery (but I don't think it is outrageous) hybrids have been around long enough to prove that their batteries are not usually trouble prone.You never mentioned the mileage on this car but some hybrids in taxi service have over 200,000 miles on their original battery. As to a mechanic, well, the engine is pretty much like any engine in that it has filters, spark plugs, etc. that any mechanic should be able to handle but the hybrid system is best left to a Honda dealer of which there are plenty in almost any city in the USA. If it were me I would buy the car taking advantage of getting a cheap hybrid and drive...drive...drive!!!
  • coolhandmikecoolhandmike Member Posts: 1
    Hi when I first bought my Civic Hybrid 2007 the dealer told me that I should try my best not to brake suddenly. That it could actually cause damage to the car. I figured that's okay because it's not like I got it so I could drive like a speed demon. Brake early and often, right? Well unfortunately what do you do when someone pulls out in front of you? This has happened a couple of times and moderate braking doesn't help you from T'ing some idiot who doesn't know how to look both ways. One time it seemed like the shocks or something was going to blow right through the frame (obviously I'm not mechanically inclined).

    Is there something I can do to improve the braking? Better pads? Better shocks? I've had one at fault accident and one speeding ticket in my life. So obviously I'm a safe and conscientious driver. But the stopping distance IMHO sucks!!!
  • gauger01gauger01 Member Posts: 13
    Thought I bump this up a bit. After reading some of these posts, I guess I should be happy with the MPG I get on my 2009 HCH. I have just over 6000 miles and over that time period I averaged 42.8 MPG. 90% of my driving is local, 10 miles or less trip. I have the Trip B set for when I bought the car to get the "lifetime" avg MPG which I posted. On Trip A, I reset it on every fill up and as of today it was 40.7.

    The 40.7 number is with AC off (since it's winter) but here in SC the winters are mild.

    My driving style is I would say is fairly aggressive for a Hybrid owner. I don't try to drive it too easy, but easier than I did with my 2004 Honda Accord EX with a V6 which I drove like a sports car.
  • frednjudikfrednjudik Member Posts: 22
    You are very fortunate to get 40 plus mpg in city, stop and go traffic. Thank you for your input, as you sound like an average driver. My 2009 gets around 42mpg on long trips, interstate driving, going around 70 mph, the speed limit in California, on Freeway/Interstate driving. This is with AC on, another occupant, and luggage in the trunk. There are so many variables, it is really hard to get a good average reading. If everyone that owns a Honda Civic Hybrid, and replys to this forum, we would definately get a decent average irrespective of driving conditions and loads, and honesty.
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