Hi guys

I'm looking to pick up the new civic hybrid for my pizza delivery restaurant.I will be useing this car strickly in the city lot's of stop and go and we are always in a hury.

What kind of mileage can i expect to get.Also in the summer the a/c will be on most of the time.

If i'm not beeing carefull what can i expect?

Thanks serge

I think a Prius is a much better bet for unmotivated drivers.It is roughly $2000 more, but once warmed up it will get you much better mpg when driven by drivers who are just driving(as opposed to the folks here that use what most folks would consider exotic techniques to get outstanding mpg with the HCH 2).
CR's drivers drive like "normal drivers".They got 35 mpg in their city loop with the Prius; I think they got 26mpg with the HCH2. Your vehicle will have the advantage of being throughly warmed up between stops. I would guess you would get 35-40 mpg with the Prius in typical delivery driving-AC blasting. They-you- probably delivery 1 or 2, return to the store, and go out again almost immediately??
I get 35 mpg on a 2 mile trip with a cold motor(cold meaning not driven in 12 hours, but cold is a relative term in summertime New Orleans).I usually never get to "all electric" in just 2 miles-it takes closer to 3 miles to go EV with a cold motor.
I think the Prius is 9-10 mpg better than the HCH2 in city driving with normal drivers.My only evidence is CR's controlled results; however their results are the only real world controlled results that are available. The results posted here aren't controlled-the drivers aren't average. Luck,Charlie
PS in pure city driving the Honda Fit or the Yaris would probably get within 3-5 mpg of the HCH 2.They are fairly light-2500 lbs-and $5000-$7000 cheaper.I don't think there is any vehicle that will match or beat the HCH 2 in the city-other than the Prius(The TCH would get close, but $30,000 is a lot for a delivery vehicle).If things calm down gas price wise, you should be able to buy a base Prius for $21000 or so.You can currently buy a PK 3 for $24000 even-.(Miller Toyota-near DC I think) has 15 on their site)

Yet another Prius owner trying to spread the myth that their vehicle is so much better with no proof of that being the case in the real world.... in a thread where nobody even asked their opinion.

Look at the 10th percentile in the milage database. Prius = 42MPG, Civic = 40MPG. In other words, 9 out of 10 people on this board exceed those numbers. One would hope that you'd at least be close to that... considering the car will be warmed up much of the time.

Do they really drive like "normal" drivers? Based upon their numbers, I would have thought that they were driving with a "let's see what this car can do" attitude. With the Prius, part of that is checking out the novelty of its electric only mode. I have never driven a Prius, but it seems that you have to drive it at least moderately conservative to stay in the electric only mode. This will lead to higher fuel economy. With the Civic, their is no such novelty of a legitimate electric only mode. I doubt the people at CR are driving these vehicles with fuel economy on their minds; I would think that they just report the numbers after the fact. However, in the process of exploring the electric only mode of the Prius, higher fuel economy is more likely.

I do not know the details of CR's testing of vehicles, so this is pure speculation.

Not to totally get off subject here, but you also might want to look at scooters for pizza delivery. My local scooter shop had some scooters (I think they were Stellas, but I don't remember) specially fitted with a pizza-carrying thing specifically for delivery. These scooters cost like $2-2.5K or so and get 80-90 mpg. Of course, there's no air conditioning and at least in RI if the scooter is over 50ccs you need a motorcycle license for it. But you might want to look into them, maybe just getting one scooter to add to your fleet of hybrids and see how it goes. At the very worst you spend $2K and sell the thing for $1K a few months later if it doesn't work out. But if it does, you can buy a dozen delivery scooters for the price of one delivery Prius.

Honestly, I think his assessment is accurate. Think about it: The Prius is practically tailor-made to city driving with a much more functional electric mode than the Civic's IMA. Does that make the Civic inferior? No! It just gives the Prius the advantage when all you are doing is stop--go--stop city driving. Likewise, I happen to think that the Civic ought to have decent advantage in steady-state driving. They are both excellent vehicles, but with drivetrains that are completely different. They are bound to have different strengths and weaknesses. This isn't a competition.

Wow... well... what can I say?????

I generally agree that the Prius-II is a better(if not superior) choice for city driving with frequent stopping... but ...

....this thing about, normal drivers, exotic, Honda Fit getting within 3-5 mpg of the HCH2... Gee, I am speechless!!


MSantos

If:
1. the Civic can use up the electricity at the same rate it stores it in city traffic
and
2. the Civic can store excess momentum in the form of electricity at the same efficiency as the Prius
Then:
the Prius would have absolutely no advantage.


Running a short test could fool you into believing the Prius is superior because it would run almost exclusively on battery for a while. But then, reality sets in as the battery needs to be charged, and the charge comes exclusively from the engine.

This is why I think you see that overall in any milage database on the web, the Civic and Prius are neck and neck.

Having delivered thousands of pizzas myself in younger years, and having put 20k on my HCH1, I think you'll be getting between 35 and 40 if they don't hot dog it too much. If they're flooring it a lot and putting all priority on delivery speed, then 35 (or maybe even less) is more reasonable. In all-city driving without doing much conservation techniques I get 39-40. If I were in a hurry all the time I wouldn't expect much better than 35. We're talking about young people who don't own the car and have financial incentive to go fast, so I suspect the novelty of gas savings will wear off quickly (if it even takes hold in the first place).

One of the places I delivered for was extremely busy and the more pizzas I delivered the more money I made, so I would do 60-75 deliveries per night and take home at least $150. There's no way I could do that driving like I drive my HCH for MPG priority. That said, I am sure I'd do better in the HCH than most other cars.

I would hesitate to suggest that the HCH will be much of a money saver. But if you're mainly in it for the do-good aspect, then definitely go for it.

Based on the type of driving required for delivering pizzas, you would definitely get much better mileage with a Prius. We own an 05 Prius and an 06 HCH2, and although similar in 30+ miles per hour traffic, our Prius consistently averages 6-10 MPG more than the HCH2 under the same driving conditions (and same drivers), mainly because of how the Prius performs in normal city (i.e., stop and go) traffic. When driving in rush-hour traffic, our Prius averages 99+ MPG (for 10-15 minutes at a stretch) because the gas engine never comes on. The HCH2 Hybrid System is not designed to perform this way; as such, your stop and go MPG will be relatively low. Don't get me wrong; the HCH2 is a great car, but for the driving you'll encounter when delivering pizzas, the Prius is a much better choice.