Hello fellow tree huggers! Just kidding. :-)

I've finally decided to help out mother nature and purchase a Civic Hybrid, but I'm a little concerned about performance. I'm currently driving a 2001 Saturn L300 V6, which has 182 hp and sadly gets only 20 mpg city and 26 hwy.

Anyway, I'm committed to purchasing a more environmentally friendly vehicle but I'm worried about going from 182 hp to 93 hp. Really worried. The standard Civix EX seems to fair a lot better with 140 hp.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Unfortuantely no dealers have a Civic Hybrid in stock so I was forced to test drive an EX instead, which seemed okay, but is probably not a good example of a hybrids performance. I also looked at the Accord Hybrid, which is a lot faster, but not as environmentally friendly. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions on this topic?

Thanks,
Kelly

My other car is an M5 with 396HP and a ton of torque. I bought the Civic purely for ability to ride single in HOV lane. That said, the car has reasonable horse power. I can merge perfectly and pass cars doing say 65 in the fast lane (but not much faster). I'm actually quite surprised at how well this car drives around town.

The only real annoying thing is the stupid engine always shutting off at a stop because the start up isn't that smooth. The Prius is much better as startup happens after car is already moving. But that car is butt ugly so I went with the Civic.

If you go fast on the Civic Hybrid, expect sub 40mpg. I did a stretch at 95mph on rolling hills and saw 34-35mpg.

M5's are awesome! You lucky dog you.

Unfortunately I too was attempting to "stick it to the man" and was looking forward to driving in the HOV lanes in Virginia, but VDOT just pulled that perk the end of June. According to VDOT statistics, 1 out of 4 vehicles in the I-95 HOV lanes that run from Washigton to Richmond are now hybrids. Apparently, a lot of the regular Joes that were sitting in rush hour traffic got pissed off at the Hybrid owners because they were beating the system--in more ways than one. Go figure.

I'm actually considering a regular Civic EX as well. I'm a little worried about the negative hp shock. Thanks for your input.

Kelly

I'm a former V6 owner (Toyota Tacoma). I traded/purchased for many reasons. Performance wasn't one of them. I'm happy with lower performance as my payments + gas on the Hybrid are cheaper than the gas on the truck alone (I had no payments). That said, I found out this weekend, as a SCUBA diver, who has two sets of gear (1 for me and 1 for my wife) the car performs awefully. In fact, I cannot use the car for SCUBA. I have to use my wife's Acura otherwise I can barely get on the freeway and be up to 60 miles per hour after 90 seconds or so. Even longer if the gear is wet.

I suppose the gear is about 300 LBS, + 220 for me and 135 for my wife. It'll have hard time getting over freeway overpasses (which are a dime a dozen in Los Angeles). Sometimes I have to go to hilly areas for the dive site (I'm in the LA Scuba program for this year www.lascuba.com/adp.html). I've been contemplating trading in for the Camry Hybrid buy my wife today told me "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO". So, ... that answers that.

If there is no SCUBA gear in the car, then it performs well. Acceleration is acceptable (won't win any races but it's sufficient), handles steep mountainous terrain okay (I drove about 600 miles in such terrain last week (I have 3k miles having owned it now about 18 days) and does good. I put a sunroof in the car and leave it open quite a bit. The car performs well with AC on but it drains the MPG quicker. If you're on a Auto stop with air on, every 30 seconds (on lowest fan setting) you can watch as you lose 1/10th of a MPG.

Overall, I like the car. have some gripes, but I don't "regret" the decision to buy it. But coming from a 4.0 liter engine to a 1.3 takes some "getting used to".


Thanks,
Shawn

I also have a couple of sports cars so needless to say the HCHII is pretty gutless. But, that's not why you buy the car. It is a great daily gett'n around car and I don't regret that aspect. BTW, I think this is the future to have an economical car for the majority of driving and something else for the fun weekend stuff, that is if that's your thing. Plus a vehicle for haul'n stufff

This is a BIG concern for me. Instead of Scuba equipment I have kids. I'm really concerned about having my entire family in the car and not being able to accelerate quickly if needed. This is why I'm also considering either the Civic EX or perhaps an Accord Hybrid.

How about the new Camry hybrid? Much better FE than the V6 Accord Hybrid and still powerful.

Good suggestion, but I hate dealing with the Toyota dealers in my area. They are very snobish, and like playing high-pressure sales games. At this point I'm leaning towards the Accord V6. Thanks for the suggestion.

That's because the Accord hybrid was tuned for performance rather than efficiency (It actually out-accellerates the non-hybrid version).

Someday I might even beat that wascally kenny!

No whammies... no whammies... no whammies...

You could take your family with you for the test drive and see if it will be an issue for you. I don't have any problems driving with my wife and two kids--then again, my kids are 5 years old and 2 months old and have a combined weight of just over 50 pounds. I would also suggest looking at the Camry Hybrid.

I have never experienced that. It is common for me to see one change during an AutoStop. This is because the mpg display is updated periodically and it takes into account the fuel that was consumed and the distance traveled before the AutoStop. For me, this is usually an increase because I am coasting into stops. After that, no gas is being consumed (because the engine is off) and no distance is being traveled, so the mpg should stay the same.