Hiya,

I've got a UK Honda Civic IMA on order (no delivery date but either July or August) and have some questions that I didn't get a chance to answer on the test drive.

1.Engine braking
Okay so the IMA doesn't really have engine braking but how strong is the regnerative braking at low speed? I got so distracted with the car that I spent too long on the open road and ran out of time for a proper urban test. I'm used to driving around town in third gear without using my brakes so I wondering if I can continue to do the same in the hybrid. On the open road it seemed about the same as fifth gear.

2.Waiting when stationary
What's the procedure here? When I've driven automatics in the past I apply the handbrake and put them in neutral as I would in a manual. I read on a couple of web sites that the IMA engine restarts when you lift your foot off the foot brake so does that mean I have to sit with my foot on the pedal blinding the poor sod behind me? Should I shift it into neutral at all?

3.CD player
Several websites say this is a 6 disc autochanger but it only has one slot. I know the two facts aren't contradictory but is it an auto changer?

4.Windscreen
Is it one of these modern heat reflective ones? I have a portable navigation system that I can currently park at the right hand edge of the windscreen. Will this have to be moved to the bottom front?

 

Hi AndrueC... congratulations on your (soon to be finalized) purchase. The Civic IMA is a great way to minimalise the carbon tax, eh ?

Honda does content their cars differently for each continent. Generally, in the US, we see less features relative to our global counterparts (we only have 1 CD capability in our players, for example - we would have to move up to the Accord to gain six in the dash player). However, they're usually priced more attractively as a result. So I'll comment relative to the US / N. American cars, not knowing every last feature of the UK ones.

Engine braking - you'll find it more pronounced than coasting down in an automatic, but less so than a standard shift (especially in the lower gears). In the US, the car is only available with a CVT now - no 5MT option as in the past. If you're driving the car in order to use the least amount of petrol, you want the car in the highest possible gear at the lowest RPM without lugging the engine. The CVT takes care of this for us, as it has infinitely variable gearing between it's upper and lower boundaries.

Generally, the higher the car's speed, and the abruptness with which you disengage the throttle, controls how much energy the AC motor will put out in regenerative mode. I drive gently, so as to use less petrol, and generally see about 3-4 bars on the 'charge' meter lit up when I coast down from an initial speed of 40mph. If I then apply the brake, I'll see the charge meter increase to about one bar shy of maximum.

Note that at lower speeds (whether you coasted down or not), you'll see much less 'charge' - sometimes as little as one bar until you brake (where you'll then see about 3 bars worth). However, if you run down the traction battery's state of charge, by using more assist than regen, the IMA's electronics sense this, and tells the AC motor to act as a generator even when you're accelerating / cruising. You'll notice an efficiency decrease during this period, because the engine has more load upon it to deliver the same desired speed / power. The LDA2 1.3L that we use here in the States is a very load sensitive engine, but at a cruising speed, it's very, very efficient.

Waiting when stationary - In the US, if you remove your foot from the brake, the engine will restart. Period. You may shift to neutral and still be able to keep the engine off, but if you remove your foot from the brake to cancel the brake lights, the engine *will* restart. Don't worry about the poor sod in back of you. You're decreasing emissions (and improving on your amount of petrol being used) by having that engine off while stopped. Don't defeat it.

CD Player - as mentioned beforehand, the US / Canadian in-dash player only can hold one disc. However, other N. American Hondas can hold six in the dash. You feed the discs in one by one, by pushing a 'load' button and waiting for the system to tell you when it's ready to accept the next disc. You can eject them one by one, in any position (ie; you can eject *only* disc four, if you choose to, without having to unload any others), or all at once. When one disc finishes playing, the unit switches to the next CD in sequence, so yes, it is an autochanger.

In N. America, we have to purchase an auxillary changer that mounts in the trunk or in the center (arm) console, if we want to have multi-CD capability. However, our USDM CD players can read MP3 / WMA content, and we also get an AUX jack - thus, you see many blokes just burning their own CDs, since they can fit many hours of content on that single CD.

Windscreen - we don't have a reflective one in the US model. Our side glass does have a special UV coating on it, relative to the non-IMA Civics. In your case, you may have a problem, and you may not. In the event that you do, and you cannot receive GPS reception at all, many manufacturers do sell an externally mountable antennae that counters the effects of these windscreens.

Enjoy your car, and please do post some pics when you get it - I'd like to see the differences between the US / Canadian saloon model and what you lads get over there. I saw some pics of the non-IMA UK model and it looked like a spaceship


Acronym glossary (for our US-based members who are challenged):
US: United States
CD: Compact Disc
N. : North
UK: United Kingdom
CVT: Continuously Variable Transmission
5MT: 5-speed manual shift transmission
RPM: Revolutions (of the engine) per minute
AC: Alternating Current
LDA2: Honda's engine code for the 1.3 litre engine with IMA assist, installed in the 2006-up Civic Hybrid.
L: Litre
USDM: United States Domestic Market
MP3: MPEG1 Audio Layer-3 - Compression scheme used to transfer audio files via the Internet and store in portable players and digital audio servers
WMA: Windows Media Audio
AUX: Auxillary
UV: Ultraviolet
GPS: Global Positioning System

 

Thanks for the reply, very interesting.

As for the funny design that's only on the conventional Civics and I for one am glad of that. The hybrid is basically just a right hand drive (with poss. equipment changes) version of the US vehicle. Basic market economics - Honda figure they can sell more in America than Europe.

Personally I like the saloon shape but I'm a bit odd in that. Most Europeans apparently prefer the hatchback design. The mainstream Civic not only looks odd from outside but the inside is like an airplane cockpit. Almost a wrap around console, lol.

 

Actually, I love the UK Civic hatchback's exterior. The dash looked a bit busy, though.

But I assume that the hatchback car would have fold-down rear seats, so if they did a hybrid version, they'd have to move the battery.

 

Personally I would have prefered a hatchback design. It's way more functional. I remember back in the day I had a CRX and there wasn't anything I couldn't carry with that car.(with a roof rack )

 

Welcome to the world of Hybrids!

The UK version sounds exactly the same as the Australian version. Except we only have the 4 door variant and no Sat Nav option.

The CD is an "in-dash" six stacker...just keep feeding the CD's in.

As mentioned in a previous post, if you take your foot off the brake...the engine will fire up, no matter what. I used to do the same as you and put the car in neutral with the hand brake on. Now I just sit there with my foot on the brake pedal...not that bad once you get used to it.

The regen braking is pretty good actually, and if you do it right the disc brakes get very little use. It's a bit less than driving a manual and a bit more than an auto in braking effect.

There's heaps of guages to watch so be careful with cars in front.

I find the most important and easiest to view is the MPG or (as in Australia) litres per 100klm's guage (top left). After reaching your required speed as briskly as possible - 1/2 to 2/3 throttle immediately back off and try to get the l/100k down below 6. Don't worry about what it does as you accelarate, it will go through the roof. You'll soon peg it back once you get cruising.

This is a really fun car to drive and squeeeeeze for the best fuel economy.

The CVT takes some getting used to though...no gear changes like a normal auto. But once again, when you get used to it...no problems.

By the way, I find the Civic Hybrid is at its best on the freeway between 90 - 110 klm/ph.

Enjoy.

 

How much is petrol in the UK and at what octane rating?

Ta

 

Prices varies by region (of course) but where I live most cars fill up on 95 octane and we are paying around 97 pence a litre. That would be slightly less than US$6 a gallon.

I can imagine that some areas are paying as little as 94p a litre and some might be over a pount a litre.

I have read that European cars are tuned slightly differently to US cars. If I remember correctly ours are tuned to reduce emisions at the expense of economy.

I was in America last November and the first time I filled up I thought the pump was broken or the fuel gauge wrong. I put half a tank in the hire car and it came to less than $10.

Edit:
http://www.petrolprices.com/

 

Andrue,

I would think that your cars run hotter since the Octane ratings always seem to be about 91-99 in Europe-unless we all measure differently...

 

Ok...so that works out to about.......$2.50 Australian per litre....ouch!

We are paying around AU$1.50 per litre....I'll stop complaining now!

Right now in Melbourne - 91RON = AU$1.35
95RON = AU$1.41
98RON = AU$1.46
Diesel = AU$1.45 (diesel is normally the most expensive

We also have LPG (Liquid Petrolium Gas) $0.50 per litre...but you get about half the milage on gas.