Terry they must LOVE YOU at your local dealer. Can you say, "Ka Ching"?

I think you'll have more fun than most people with your new 06. Can't wait to see pix.

Hey, let me know if you put blue neon underneath and NOS on her. People would say, "dang, that car moves pretty good for a Hybrid!"

Kansas, not as flat as you think...

I think the biggest thing that can work against you is weight. The few additional pounds added to the car isn't the right way to think about this. It's moving mass, so it plays a bigger factor here. You want the lightest rims possible along with a rim that causes the least amount of turbulance. If both of those factors are better than standard rims, then go for it. Otherwise don't buy a hybrid. It just doesn't make sense.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you there. I would rather the whole world drove hybrids, not only those of us who are willing to make significant sacrifices in driving style or automobile aesthetics in order to maximize our mileage.

I would rather we support people like Delta Flyer in an Insight who is still able to happily drive at his own chosen speed, even though it limits his MPG. I would have Maroon 5 with a slightly lowered and tricked-out HCH, out there letting people know they have a hybrid, rather than telling them not to own a hybrid, because their fancy rims and suspension doesn't make sense.

That's just my opinion, and I may be in the minority, but to me it makes sense at a macro level to allow and encourage anybody to own a hybrid, no matter how they may drive it, or how they may customize it.

It's going to take awhile to live my past down. Believe it or not, this morning, a guy behind me in a large SUV was doing the bright lights and waving his hands at me for gliding into position for a left-hand turn at the 35mph speed limit instead of his preferred 50+.

Yes, my lifetime mpg is 56.8. In recent months, I get over 80mpg to work, still get 70 returning from work. I'd characterize my current driving as 90% hypermiling, even though that can be compromised in the evenings. Another 5% is what I'd characterize as "necessary agressive driving" to avoid being run over by the pack. The last 5% or less is the totally unnecessary agressive driving I do when someone hisses me off and I go to "The Dark Side .

I estimate that my mpg over the last few months is around 70.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Sorry delta, I'm guilty of reading your humorous signature. :-)

Perhaps you should change it to read "... could have been about 65 if I didn't speed when I was young and irresponsible."

Actually, your situation sort of makes my point. While you initially didn't follow some of the improve-your-mileage suggestions found here, yet you bought your hybrid anyway. And now look at you: a happy, law-abiding (mostly), hypermiling citizen! :-)

No problem, coyote.

I'm reformed, was deformed.

I avoid "The Dark Side" most of the time, but to be honest I'd LOVE to have laser-sighted guns under my bumper to flatten out the tires of the Yahoos that incence me....

_____________________________________________

Back to the administration of www.greenhybrid.com. I've help moderate forums on both extremes:

• Forums that let anything go that become troller - infested
• Forums that are too controlled. Members leave or hesitate to voice an opinion

It's hard to strike a balance between the two, but Jason has found it.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Somebody puts dubs on an HCH and I will question their stupidity. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should. And it goes against the whole point of owning a hybrid. So I would discourage people from modding a hybrid in a way that makes it less efficient. To the point that maybe a hybrid isn't the right car for them.

Also, there is some thread posted here about somebody getting terrible gas mileage in their HCH. Everybody was giving pointers and all that, somebody here actually went to meet with this person to see if he/she could transfer some driving knowledge over... then the surprise, a set of rims and tires that were anything but efficient were on the car.

So we have people whining about how bad a hybrid is because there mpg isn't at the advertise level yet they lack the common sense to realize that it's their own stupidity to blame.

ADDED WEIGHT = LOWER MPG. Simple as that. Anything you add to your car will increase the weight. That's kind of a duh! I'm trying to lose weight. (in more ways than one)

Howard

I was going to post this in about a month, but I'm about ready to replace the wheels/tires on my 03 HCH. I'm VERY excited about the potential. If you're interested, here's a bit of what I've been thinking of. My goal was to a) do something that looked better and b) increased mileage. Yes, cake and eat it too.

I've done a LOT of research on wheels, weight, unsprung weight, etc. The "as-is" state of the wheels are:

Stock 14" wheels: 15 lbs (to the best I can tell - Honda did not/could not/would not tell me exactly, but I found this weight on a web site selling replacement OEM parts).

Dunlop SP20 FE 185/70/14: 17.6 lbs (I got this from Dunlop).

"As is" wheel weight: 32.6 lbs

I elected to replace with 15" rims, mostly due to weight. Even the lighest 17" rim is ~15 lbs, which is a push. I wanted a weight reduction, so I'm going with Motegi Track Lite 2 (silver), at 10.5 lbs. I have the Blue Opal color, and I think the dull silver six-spoke wheel will be a nice match.

Tires I'm going with Continental ContiTouringContact CV95 195/60/15. The CH95 is one of Green Seal's low rolling resistance winners, and the CV is just the "V" rated version, but takes 51 psi (as opposed to 44) and is 1 lb lighter - 18 lbs.

New wheel weight: 28.5 lbs.

That's 4.1 lbs off each wheel, for a total of 16.4 lbs of unsprund weight reduction. I've found on the web that 1 lb unsprung weight equals about 8 lbs in the car, so think of it as reducing your car weight by 131.2 lbs.

I'm very exited to get all this ordered. Once I have it installed and go through a tank of gas, I'll post some pictures and the FE results.

Almost forgot - all told this will be about a $1600 job installed. Lightweight wheels are not cheap - $170 - $300 each. Those Motegi's are ~$225. So, I'm not expecting this to be a payback thing. I want the new look just as bad. So you don't have to sacrifice weight for looks - you just have to be prepared to pay for it.

Terry - Those Motegi wheels come in 17" and are 14.5 lbs. I also looked at OZ Superleggera - I think the 17" is comparable. They're 4x100, which I assume the 06 is. Now most 205/50/17 tires are closer to 21-24 lbs if I remember correctly (mostly because they are higher speed rated). I bet you could find a 17" wheel config that's at least equivalent in weight to your existing setup.

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

Remember, the first couple of tanks with new tires will be lower than when the tires are broken in.

My hydroponics experiment

You ever notice how hard it is to lip read cartoon characters?
"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"