Hi forum,
I have a 2007 hch and I'm going to Denver in a few weeks from southern California. I'm wondering if anyone has taken this or a similar trip to high elevation and can give feedback.

I might rent an SUV, if necessary, but I'd prefer to take the civic for the obvious reasons of saving on the rental and fuel.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

ehch

I did a ski trip last year in my 07 hchii from Richmond, Va. to Beckly (sp) Wva. I am sure your elev. will be higher, but interstate 64 had some extreme slopes. The car did great and we had 5 people in the Honda. It took awhile for me to get use to the rpms going way up from my normal driving....ie 5k rpm for 10 miles or more at a time.

By the way it was snowing the whole time, the original tires Dunlops sucked, I did average 43 during the whole trip though. 46 is my lifetime average with 90% being stop and go around town driving, 41.5K.

I would have no fears in taking your car on the trip, if the car has enough space for your trip.

Brian

 

I've done lots of high elevation driving in my HCH, and it does a good job. If you are running the original software still, it will dump all of its charge on the first decent size up hill, but once it regains the charge on a downhill it will be more thrifty on the next uphill. Now that I'm on the latest upgrade (TSB 058), it manages that first uphill better, but uses the ICE more (higher revs) on long climbs.

You will find that on long descents, you will fill up the battery. When this happens, you will notice a distinct change in the braking behavior since regen braking is gone--be ready for this as it was a little un-nerving to me at first. Don't be afraid to dip down into "L" to keep your speed in check, even at freeway speeds (which is 60-65mph for me). Even so, the little 1.3 liter engine doesn't have a whole lot of engine braking potential. I try to use as much assist as possible on the flatter grades if I'm on an extended downhill like I-70 eastbound from the tunnel to Denver. This drains the pack a little so you get more regen braking.

All that being said, as hchluv mentioned, the stock tires blow in the snow--to the point I would actually call them as unsafe as summer tires. I really hate to promote SUV usage over a hybrid , but renting an SUV is probably a good idea for this trip if you're going in the winter (since you're probably not going to pop for snow tires for one trip).

After three years of driving my wife's MMH whenever it snows, I got snow tires yesterday for my HCH finally. It did a great job this morning cutting through the 4" of untracked snow we got last night, so the HCH is capable of winter driving, but the stock tires are not.