My kids keep saying, "Why do you turn the car off, Daddy?"

I tell them, I am just rebooting the computer on the car. My son, smarty pants he is, then says, "When you are done booting the computer, then can I play my computer game?"

-Charlie...

The A/C will be ran anytime temps are over the mid 80's. My wife cant help she has to wear makeup and wear hose and other garments that make her hot during the work week. And I wont roast the grandkids. I hated being hot when I was a kid.

As far as FAS with wife or anybody else in the car. Dont like it?? You can walk. Its not a problem for my wife. This is a woman that hangs on the back of my motorcycles as I do 100 mph wheelies. Fas is nothing.

I hope your laptop doesn't get sizzling hot if it's on her lap. Mine does, but I used to have a desk that was in my SUV to eliminate that problem. Installed it in my HCH but it does take up a bit of room in the Civic compared to my old 14 MPG K-Blazer.

'00 Insight "Wazabi" -75,000+ miles
'03 Toyota Matrix - 81,000+ miles
'03 HCH-CVT-OSBM-41,000+ miles (retired 04-10-06)
"I'm very secure with my little Insight, no Prius envy here."

Your trip may be over by now but good luck with that. Totally depends on your wife's temperment. Now my wife and I are best friends and get along great, but if I drove her around like that I wouldn't be more than 5 minutes into it when I'd get, "If you're going to drive like that, will you drop the kids and I off at the next bus stop so we can get where we're going before we grow old and die?".

If it's me, I'd rather arrive at my destination with a happy wife than one who's suffered a terrible drive. Because of the wife isn't happy, no one is happy.

*** Retired after 65,000 outstanding miles ***

I still laugh from the trick that krousdb pulled, very slick.

Clipped from his post:

This morning I packed up the wife, two kids and a small puppy and headed to Cleveland to visit my brother's family. At the time, the MFD read 77.4 MPG at 316 miles. Concerned about ruining a perfectly good tank, I decided to place my hat on the dash, conveniently blocking the speedometer from my wife's view. After entering the PA Turnpike at 10:15 AM, I set the cruise control to 60MPH. It was 75F outside, so I set the fan to medium, no AC.

About an hour into the trip, Caroline asked me if there was something wrong with the AC. She started fiddling with the MFD until she found out that the AC was shut off. I feigned ignorance. Next there was a discussion about hot flashes. We eventually compromised on a setting of 75F. Still no comment about the speed. She dozed off while sounds of dualing gameboys came from the back seat, and the panting of a 9 week old Shetland Sheepdog in my ear.

When Caroline woke up, I told her about the darned traffic jam that she slept through and how it would cause the trip to be about 20 minutes longer than usual. Still no comment on why the trees seemed to be going by slower than usual. I noticed that we had a nice 5-10MPH tail wind. Life is good.

We arrived at 12:15 PM without further incidents. When I powered down, the MFD showed 73.6 MPG, 438 miles, 86F. That calculates to about 65 MPG for the first half of our trip. We enjoyed the next several hours with my brother's family and my parents and got back on the road again at 5PM, the MFD showed 88F.

Before I even powered up, Caroline reached for the AC button while I strategically placed my hat on the dash. Soon everyone was asleep. Can you believe it, another @#%&*^ traffic jam! About 20 minutes worth again this time. Darn out of state drivers on a holiday weekend! Trees still going by at 60 MPH, and much to my delight, another tailwind, but from the looks of the flag at the service plaza, it was only about 5 MPH. Life is good, very good.

We arrived home at 7:20 PM. The MFD now shows 70.5 MPG, 559 miles. Mission accomplished! I have maintained a perfectly good tank. Live is very, very, very good.

I love it! Maybe try his trick?

Regards,

Funny thing is I got the laptop for my s2000 since it is turbo'd and has an AEM EMS. (I can do realtime tuning whilst driving - not very safe, but manageable). I installed a semi-permanent bracket from a manufacturer called RAM mounts(http://www.ram-mount.com/). The thing is adjustable, bulletproof, gorgeous, and completely hands free, but cost nearly $200 and I'm not sure if I want to invest that kind of money for the Civic knowing that I might use it once every 14,000 miles. I think she might have to suffer from "hot lap syndrome", or perhaps I can "rig something" out of a slab of thick cardboard - lol.

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Covering up the HVAC controls is certainly an option I'll keep in my back pocket.