I picked up the car today at 4pm which was the earliest I could (job). The sun was very low but still up so it did afford me the opportunity to take daylight pictures, though they're not as good as they could be. I took them all at the dealer before I even drove it. Click each picture link to view the picture.

Side View #1,
Side View #2

My legs aren't really 10 feet high, but these pictures do a good job of showing the car's color... the second is probably more accurate than the first since the setting sun seems to red-shift the first.

Rear View

See the yellow fire hydrant to the left of the driver's-side door? The red car behind it is my VW Jetta I was trading in. My first and only car for 6 years. Well, out with the old, in with the new.

Shade

This picture is of the side facing away from the sun. Also you can see the tan interior.

Impressions:

A full review, and more pictures, will come this weekend, so for now I'll just post my impressions after a single drive from the dealership back to work, and shortly afterwards back home.

Steering is alot better than the previous HCH; when I took a '05 onto the highway, I nearly careened off the lane on a turn (exaggeration) because I wasn't expecting to have to steer so sharply just to follow a smooth gentle curve. The new HCH has much better steering, though it seemed oddly slippery to me at highway speeds. I don't know if this is due to the tires or the steering... I'm hoping the former since that would mean it can actually be fixed. At least there was no dead zone.

The controls are done very very well. Everything is easy to access and push, analog controls are used for fan, temperature, volume, and radio tracking, and everything lights up in a really cool teal color at night (pictures of this on the weekend). The steering wheel does light up its audio and climate controls, but at less than half the brightness of everything else. Since the Prius had the same fault, if I remember correctly, I'm going to assume this was by design. They are easy to read when looking directly at them but they are impossible to see when looking away, which is probably a good thing so as not to be distracting. At first I didn't think they lit up at all until I glanced down at them.

The view out the front windshield is quite good, especially compared to the Prius. The cowl (bottom of the windshield) is a bit high but definitely not excessively so, and the windshield is very wide so the corner pillars aren't a problem. But I should mention I'm 5'6 and sit relatively high up and forward.

I won't report mileage until I've gone at least a full tank, but preliminary observations suggest I definitely won't be seeing Prius-like figures the way I drive, but I find this car so much more enjoyable that I don't mind at all.

Oh, and the car had 5.0 miles on the odometer when I picked it up. I guess that's what happens when you buy the car ahead of time; most dealers honor the fact that it's yours and don't let others drive it.

Thank-You very much for the Pics. and look forward to reading and seeing more of your personal reviews and opinions of the 06 HCH you just took delivery of.I think one thing that I would like to here alot more of from you is your statement about your driving and FE based on your driving style. So how do you drive it and at what speeds so I will know way ahead of time what to expect as far as the performance side of this vehicle. Don't forget to tell us about the idle-stop feature and the A/C when at idle-stop and it is working. Like no ICE running and the car is being cooled by the Electric compressor only.

Regards;

Terry

BTW: If I forgot to say it I meant to: CONGRADS

Congratulations!!!

2005 Honda Odyssey EX-L RES & NAV - Desert Rock Metallic

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid NAV - Magnetic Pearl

2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser - Black Cherry (First Toyota, Third non-Honda)

really? the steering wheel does light up?
And, if you change the tires, let us know which one's you get.

Congrats!! Looking forward to your review.

Were you able to get a good deal? Did you get a good trade-in price on your Jetta?

It looks like your old Jetta is clean across the street. Since the new car never moved, how did that scenario come about? Is the dealer's used-car business across from the new? Never heard of a dealer with that kind of layout before.

BTW, that color is really cool! My wife is looking to buy a HCH, and that's one of the colors she likes (white is the other one).

Thanks
What a beauty!

How's the visibility out the rear window when you look over your right sholder?

It looks like those rear headrests are really in the way.

(I keep mine on my 04 HCH in my trunk since I usually drive alone.)

Congratulations CGameProgrammer!

That sure is a nice looking 06HCH. Is that with Navi?

ftlum posted on another thread that he just got his 06HCH-Navi. I better call my dealer tomorrow since I'm #2 on waiting list for a navi model.

Enjoy your new baby.

To answer the questions in order,

1) If I decide to get new tires, which I fully expect I will at some point, I am thinking of the Michelin Harmony tires since Consumer Reports rates them well and declares their rolling resistance "excellent" but they don't sacrifice grip or noise much.

2) I got what I consider a great deal. I paid MSRP with no accessories and the only fee they charged was $45 paperwork which I had no problem paying. They gave me $3200 for my Jetta which had 97000 miles and numerous small dents and chipped paint, and even a couple of dents on the inside (idiot passenger threw a temper tantrum and kicked around a bit :/). It ran well but looked like crap. Oh, and it had been keyed once. All in all, with tax, title, and trade-in, the total that I paid the dealer was less than $21200 (no financing, thank you parents). Oh, and the Jetta is simply where I parked it; the dealer moved it later, but they'll be sending it to a wholesaler; they won't sell it themselves.

3) I haven't noticed visibility out the rear windows but I did notice the side-view mirrors are excellent. My Jetta had crappy mirrors that always had a huge blind spot regardless of how they were positioned... these ones are much nicer. EDIT: Oh, did you mean the rear windshield as opposed to the rear side windows? Well, yeah, the headrests are visible in the rear-view mirror but I don't find them annoying in the least. But if you removed them from your current car then I'm sure you'd remove them from this car because they technically block a part of the view.

4) No nav. It's useful, and I could afford the $1500, but I simply like the regular dashboard better than the nav. With the nav, you have to use small identical-looking context-sensitive buttons and read the LCD to do things with the radio, whereas there are nicely laid-out radio buttons in cars without the nav, and they look alot better at night (simple teal backlighting) than a lit LCD screen would, in my opinion. I don't expect many others to feel the same way I do about this.

Thanks for your feedback; I'm loving the car and the color. I was originally strongly considering having it repainted since I assumed I'd be settling for an ugly color but I think it looks great. I did order seat covers a while ago and they arrived several weeks before the car did, so I'll take pictures on the weekend with the seat covers installed.

Congratulations on the new car!

To me this is a good example of how hard it is to see true colors on a screen. In this case I think the color rendition of your camera has a lot do to with it too.

When I looked at the first photo I though you have bought the Alabaster Silver. Then the second photo looks quite greenish, and the third is outright green. The last photo is closest to what I imagine the true Opal looks like.

2006 HCH Alabaster Silver w/Navi
2003 Honda Accord LX