Just bought my new '07 HCH today, magnetic pearl non-navi. My first car I've personally owned (once I pay the loan off haha.) I went in yesterday not planning on getting one. I just wanted to have a test drive. Of course, the dealer was apt to convince otherwise with the usual pitches plus the "end of year sales" they needed etc. They also gave me a 3.9% loan for 5 years which is pretty nice considering I am 20 and have almost no credit record. I've also been wanting a hybrid ever since my dad got his '05 HCH. I really like the improvements made in the HCHII.

Since I've driven my dad's hybrid a bit and have been reading this forum for several months (though I hadn't registered until recently) I was able to get 50.9 mpg on the 9.7 mile drive home in 40 degree F weather. I was pleasantly surprised because I've read it can take a while to break the engine in. Based on it's performance so far I am looking forward to a long and enjoyable ownership of this vehicle.

 

Welcome to the club!

Are you thinking about going into submarines?

Bob Wilson

 

I am actually planning on going subs. I am going to apply next semester for it.

 

owlmaster:
sorry I missed this last month (the holidays are crazy) and I think I've seen your postings since this intro. post, but have a belated 'Welcome to GH!' I hope you love your HCH and that you and your dad both have fun with your bookend hybrids. Any plans for a little friendly intra-family competition to get the best mileage? You may potentially have a built-in advantage, because the database here seems to reflect improved FE in the HCH II that's a bit better than the HCH I (I'm not going to concede this absolutely, however, since I have an HCH I and there's such a thing as loyalty!) but maybe he has better driving conditions than you, longer commutes, or something of that nature. I think if my dad had a hybrid we'd knock ourselves out keeping data, like keeping 'score' in a game. Anyway, best of luck and enjoy the hybrid.

 

Haha Thanks. My dad is quite jealous. I think he really likes the HCHII. He made some comment about how maybe he should've sold me his HCHI and how he should have gotten the new HCHII. I was wondering if he was serious but he made a comment how my mom wouldn't appreciate that based on their current finances.

I am still on my first tank, I plan on filling it up tomorrow. I am at "school" right now, so I don't really need my car that often. I made it from Columbus OH to Annapolis MD in 48.2 mpg. I think it could have been better because I think the AC might have been on for a good portion of the trip accidentaly. The climate control is slightly different from the HCHIs, I didn't realize how to work it at first! It was on auto I think and it decided to use AC...I didn't realize I had to put it on AC/OFF mode. It didn't say auto so I thought it wasn't in auto? It took me a rest stop to realize it was very warm outside and cold inside. I thought to myself "Why is my car so cold?" and then it hit me. I felt pretty dumb!

Yes, we will have to have a little informal competetion! The problem is that everyone else in my family drives his HCHI around, and ruins his mileage! I don't have that disadvantage!

 

Owlmaster08-
It sounds to me like you will probably win in this informal competition with your dad- no one to ruin your mileage, plus the HCH II advantage. However, if you don't drive it much to practice good techniques, and if you accidentally leave the A/C on when you do (oops!), he could still give you a run for your money. Should be fun to find out- Enjoy!

Someday, hopefully, my parents will get a hybrid, and I will have built up lots of practice with driving techniques, so even if they get a newer, better model, I'll still be able to compete with them to get the best FE. This is my hope, anyway.

 

Leah, I see you are from the Chicago area. I lived a couple years in the "western suburbs" when I was younger. I don't think they were really suburbs at the time but I think they are now? Aurora, Yorkville, and Geneva, IL. Are you familiar with this area? Or are you from more downtown/North/South Chicago?

 

Very familiar. My mother actually works in Geneva. Yeah, I live in the 'Far West' suburbs, or so they're called on the phone book. You probably know Wheaton, Naperville, Warrenville- right? I've lived there all my life. I work further north, though, and drive up, so it's a bit of a commute through suburban traffic, getting more crowded all the time as the sprawl moves west. Plainfield, Batavia, Elgin and Aurora especially, really seem to be filling up. Once you cross 47 or get south of Oswego, though, there's still not much there. How far back are you thinking of?

 

Well, when I was 1 years old, back in '87 i lived in Aurora until '90, of which my family packed up and moved to Yorkville. After a few years there my family moved to IN, then we moved back to IL at Geneva. I went to Jr High there, '97-'00. Then we moved to Ohio, and now I'm at "college" in Annapolis MD at the US Naval Academy. Thats my geographical history.

My dad actually worked in Naperville/Lisle. Lucent...That's why we made the last move. Batavia is grouped with St Charles and Geneva as the "tri-cities," so I'm very familiar with Batavia of course. Everyone knows about Batavia anyway, right? Its where Fermilab is!!

So when I say back in the day it might not be that far back for some people? All I know is 2 years after we moved to Ohio we went back to Geneva to visit old friends, and the growth just in that time period was amazing! Strip malls/stores were all over the place and the traffic was twice as bad. I'm sure your hybrid is quite useful in this traffic! I'm only 20, but even in those 2 decades I've seen quite a bit of change in this world.

 

Yeah, Batavia is 'where Fermilab is' in a sense. They picked Batavia as their postal address, but really the whole thing is fairly random. Fermilab is much bigger than Batavia- it's bigger than Warrenville, West Chicago, Geneva, St. Charles- all the nearby communities. Fermi is roughly the size of two medium-sized suburbs, put together. In terms of mail, it's basically its own post office. Same thing with Argonne, a little further south- Argonne says it's in Lamont. Still, if you send something to Argonne, IL it arrives there, and if you replace it with Lamont, IL, that works, too.

I think of Fermilab and Argonne as separate little cities, communities, almost worlds in and of themselves. One thing I love about my area is the high number of educated people, local and from distant parts, who are living here and doing scientific research. It adds an international flair that is rare in suburbia.