I've heard mixed reviews on the HCH in general. I'm more concerned with the fact the Kansas has long winters. Does the HCH get good gas mileage even in the winter on snow and ice? How does the battery hold up? Any problems with the defrost?

Also I had questions about the power of the vehicle. Is there enough to pass someone on the highway without hurting mileage? Does anyone have trouble seeing while reversing?

Please let me know what you like and dislike about the HCH. Thanks.

 

To answer your first question, the HCH II (2nd Gen Civic) is a decent car. You have to go at it as a basic small car. There is no luxury items in his car that will make you go WOW... I live on the east coast where we did not get a lot of snow, but from what others have stated here on the forums is you will need to purchase a separate set of snow tires and wheels when the heavy winter starts in your area.

2. The battery is a beast of its own mind. Which basically means, it takes care of itself, no real maintenance is needed.

3. Defrost works well. I am kind of ticked that Honda choose to provide the Canadians heated side mirrors and a larger windshield washer tank. You will find that it takes a long time for the car to warm up so front defrost is useless UNLESS you purchase an engine heater.

4. You can pass people on the highway as long as they are not speeding up to stop you from over taking them. You will really kill your mileage gains once you SMASH the GAS!

5. Backing up is definitely a task with this car. I wish Honda would allow the optional backup camera as found on the CRV (it is using the same NAV system).

6. Overall I like my HCHII, it takes me to work and back home. It is definitely a second car type car. You find not having fold down seats and a smaller trunk really sucks if you visit a hardware store or grocery store and purchase in bulk.... Honda should have offered a fully luxury version of the HCHII complete with Leather, upgraded stereo, heated mirrors and seats, etc. Would have also liked them to install run flat tires and use the spare tire space for the batteries to allow fold down seats.

Otherwise, it is a good Honda. You will also be amazed at the quietness of the car when the engine is off at traffic stops!!

 

Where in Kansas are you? I drive that way every 3-4 months to visit friends.

I know about the cold winters...I strongly suggest the block heater and/or garaging the car during the winter months. You'll lose 5-6 mpg trying to get the engine up to operating temperature on those winter mornings. I have no complaints about my car in the snow...it certainly does better than my Miata did with summer tires EEK! and I'm as comfortable driving the HCH as I was in my Deville with FWD and traction control.

On the last tank of gas (since I'm out of the break-in period) I really thrashed the engine a bit. It makes decent power when prodded...but it's a couple of seconds slower than a standard Civic EX and on par with the last Jetta TDI I drove. The HCH really lends itself to a more relaxed, deliberate driving style anyway.

Backing up is not great, but certainly nowhere near horrible. Of course the HCH replaced a very large Cadillac and a very small but huge blindspotted top-up Miata in my garage, so I was kinda used to using the mirrors.

I disagree with the comments about the HCH not being luxurious enough...the only 2 options I would have added would be a sunroof and heated leather seats. The heated leather seats are a fairly easy install for anyone with moderate handyman skills. Sunroof, I understand why it wouldn't be offered.

 

I agree with arbittan, except for the backing up. My old car was a 'small suv', and the HCH is much easier to maneuver. It does not have a hatchback-spoiler-thingy blocking the rear view like the prius, so it's probably a bit easier.

 

I bought the 2008 HCH2 in December '07. I live in the middle of the prairies, where it can be very COLD (-30 deg celcius) and winters are long.

Mileage is not great when it is this cold. I am not heavy on the accelerator and was still only getting about 7.8-8.8 L/100km for FE when we had a cold snap of several weeks of the really cold weather in a row. But I also only do city driving where there are LOTS of stop and go's and I often drive less than 20 mins at a time, so these things are a bugger on the fuel efficiency as well. Hoping to see an improvement as the weather is finally warming up. But I am overall still happy with the FE becasue I think a regular gas car would have performed even worse under the same conditions.

As for the battery in the cold, no problems at at all. Started every time perfectly. The engine does seem to take a long time to warm when the weather is really cold, even with the block heater, but the front defrost works to clear the windshied in a reasonable time for me, even in coldest of temps. The rear defrost, however, takes a long time and only seems to melt the ice immediately around the heating elements when it is really cold. Its OK though as long as you clear off as much of the exterior snow and ice before taking off.

Personally, I have trouble seeing both the front and back ends of the car. I think it is the slope of the front and rear windshields that are causing this. Don't know if others have the same problem. I have to take a guess at where the end of the car is when parking and reversing. Fortunately, the engine and end of the trunk don't extend far past the front and rear windshield (which also makes cleaning snow and ice off the windows really easy because you can reach easily) so you can make a reasonable estimate of the ends of the car when parking and reversing.

Can't get the nagivation system here in Canada, nor the tire pressure guages, which is too bad.

I also agree that the non-folding rear seats are the one thing I would change if I could.

I also wish that when you lift your foot off the accelerator after the car is is autostop that the transition was smoother. But this is not really a big deal, as you get used to it.

All in all, it is a solid car and l I am overall happy with the choice and would by hybrid again any day.

Good luck with your car search....

 

oh yes, i forgot to mention some of the things that I really like about the car....

-I love all the nook and crannies for storage
-Body styling is nice, looks quite aerodynamic and modern
-It handles great
-The guages for the IMA and instant fuel efficieicy are terrific and make driving fun
-Althoug the gas engine is on most of the time, it is still quite a quiet car. The stillness of it in autostop is still very neat too!

 

Here's the truth about buying a hybrid:

You need to drive 20,000 miles per year for it to pay off. And don't buy one unless you're ALREADY planning to spend more than $20,000 on a car.

Having said that, I can testify that everything about the Civic Hybrid is fine -- comfort, power, and mpg. After 10 months and 21,000 miles, I have no regrets, and I'm averaging 47 mpg.

see here: http://www.elementownersclub.com/for...ad.php?t=43671

The Kansas winter will cost you about 5 mpg; maybe less if you drive mostly on the highway. The main enemy to mpg is speed. Keep it below 65 mph, and you'll do fine.

I don't know if Honda still offers 2.9% financing, but it was a big factor in my purchase decision. If I had to pay 5% or 6% on $23,000, I might have said no.

The hybrid income tax credit was another big factor. Getting $2,100 cash back from the federal government made my purchase much easier. But this year, the HCH only gets a $1,000 credit. So that's another consideration.

The bottom line is that buying a hybrid is definitely NOT a 'no brainer.' You need to crunch a lot of numbers and decide whether that kind of car fits your specific needs.

Plenty of cars today get 35 mpg, and cost a lot less than a hybrid.
.

 

I just wanted to say thank you for your responses. I haven't been able to talk to many people who have bought a hybrid. On average I drive 300 plus miles a week, as I work out of town so much of my driving will be highway. I have a Honda Civic right now and average 36 miles per gallon and I do drive it like I would a hybrid. I drive roughly 65mph on the highway, instead of the suggested 70 mph and try to drive by the book. Is there anything else I would have to do in a hybrid to get the mpg they suggest. The highway is mostly hills but in the town I work and the town I live, it's mostly flat.

I like a simple car, as I don't need all the extras that may come along with the average car. I'm not so concerned with the price of the car, however the rebate is nice.

Is there any extra maintainance involved? And I've heard from some that the oil change price is quite about higher than a regular car, is this true? Thanks for your time.

 

I don't know about the 08, but I have a 07 HCH

To me it feels that they released this car without proper testing.

I think the car is great, but needed some more testing. I've had the car for 1 year and put on ~ 40,000 km.

Problems I've had
- Upper control arms (camber problem)
- rear bearing seals
- paint rubbing off the truck lid underneath the spoiler
- absolutely the worst handling car in the winter that i've ever driven
- inside trim (below the small right window) keeps popping up
- front windows not closing properly

All the problems were fixed except the bad handling in the snow. I'm still working on that one. The car pulls to the right slightly while on the highway. If I hit any bump or slush on the right front the car will pull right suddenly and require input on the steering to correct. Left side bumps etc seem fine. It's had 4 alignments. I'm thinking that my dealers alignment machine is not right or the technician isn't heh. If it gets any worse I'll take it to a third party for an alignment.

On the plus side, it's a quiet smooth vehicle. I drive mostly highway ~80-90 km/hr and in the summer got an average of 4.5 l/100 km, winter driving dropped my economy alot and I got discouraged and didn't keep track quite so well...I figure around 6-7 l/100 km

There's lots of room inside for my wife and 2 kids. The trunk space is small, but most of the driving was to work and back - no trunk space needed.

 

Kevin--Did you get the rear control arms replaced? The rear camber problem keeps the front from "settling down", especially as you go faster. The sense is you need an alignment, but the problem is built into the rear (upper control arms) and cannot be adjusted.
See posts on this site for complete information.

--Peterg