Help. Having gently completed my break-in period (plus). When and why , apart from overtaking ' in extremis' do you use the third stage of the ICE from 3500 rpm and up? Obviously Honda have some normal use in mind but I find 2000 rpm to be my chosen top speed with occasional higher bursts to 3500 but the upper reaches are an as yet unexplored region for me.

You don't unless you want bad fuel mileage or if you have to get somewhwere quick! I always try to stay under 3000 RPM. One time, after breaking in the car, I mashed the gas hit passing gear and went up to about 5800 RPM to see what the car could do. It is no slouch in higher RPM when the HI VT cam kicks in and you recieve the benifits of i-Vtec. But a big a sacrifice in FE.

Adam

Thanks.
Test reviews tend to concentrate on speed 0 to 60. But in my book 40 to 60 or 50 to 70 are much more important for the average driver. I am not interested in the traffic light Grand Prix.

Much more useful is the ability to pull away rapidly at speed and as you say the car is no slouch at that where the EV torque answers your request immediately.

Your right, I believe car and driver did a 0 to 60 test on the HCHII. They actually say in the 0 to 60 test that the car does better with a full battery than with a slightly discharged battery. One benefit is the massive amount of torque avaliable at lower or any RPM for that matter because of the Electric motor. I do believe that the car would really suffer without the motor because the 1.3 is too small and under powered alone. The 1.3 L in our car alone, I believe would recieve poor FE because one would almost always have to floor the car to get it up to speed. In a ligther car like the new FIT it would be a good motor.