Over in the TCH forum, there is an identical thread. I thought it would be interesting to find out similar information from fellow HAH owners.

So, what car did your HAH replace, if any? Why did you buy it? What other cars do you own?

For me, the HAH will be replacing our 1999 Mazda Miata (with turbo kit) (it's for sale -- it can be babied to well over 30mpg on a freeway, but gets about 19-20mpg on my commute). We'll still have our 1997 Jeep Wrangler Sport. Both my wife and I prefer cars with power. We also prefer manual transmissions, but what can you do? The older HCH power just wasn't enough.

I needed a comfortable commute car. Commuting for me in a 97 Wrangler was getting quite annoying -- for those that know the area, I drive over Highway 17 from Santa Cruz county to Santa Clara county (and back) everyday. I also wanted a care that wouldn't have to be replaced immediately if a new family member were to enter the picture.

Fuel economy was a large reason in getting the hybrid over a non-hybrid and power (as well as some creature comforts other hybrids (except maybe the lexus line) didn't) was the main reason for going with the HAH over others.

Anyone else care to share?

 

Traded in a 2001 Mitsubishi Diamonte for the Honda Accord Hybrid.

The Diamonte had 92,000 miles on it, had good power was a decent car, but was not trouble free. I think it was the dealer more then the car as after switching dealers for warranty service things did get fixed and the car was pretty trouble free after that.

Bought the Honda Accord Hybrid for fuel mileage and wanted a car that was loaded with features, The Accord Hybrid fits that to a Tee.

Mileage Diamonte 18 City 23 Highway

Mileage Accord Hybrid 29 City 38 Highway

So far the Accord Hybrid has required no dealer visits and runs very nice, very happy with the car.

My other vehicle is a 2005 Dodge 3500 DRW with a Cummins Turbo Diesel engine.

Mileage 18 City 22 Highway, but I can pull your house off its foundation! LOL

 

I bought my HAH ('05) to replace a 96 Buick Riviera. That was the car of my dreams. Powerful and every creature comfort known to man. But I got tired of 21/22 mpg (best I ever got was 25 over 400 miles of highway) and had been waiting for the HAH to come out. Wanted the V6 (love to outrace those trucks on the on-ramps), wanted a four door, and wanted the knowledge of helping the environment without sacrificing style. Now in LA traffic 25 mile commute each way I average 33 mpg and 30 on the weekends with lots of little stop/go trips. I love!!!! my HAH....

 

I cut and pasted this from my introduction post:

I'm not really a hybrid guy, I'm an old BMW 2002 (the model, not the year) kind of guy. But at 33 years old and with ~387,000 miles on the Bimmer it's starting to show a distressing combination of metal fatigue and rust. So time to look for a new car, and of course I want to get a newer BMW. But the wife has other ideas and wants to help save the planet. So last October I did my homework, and one morning after my wife (who is a nurse) worked all night, I called her at work after seeing that the Honda dealer 50 miles away had two Accord Hybrids on sale for $2000 off of sticker. It actually turned out that they really only had one Accord Hybrid for sale when we got there.

So on the way to the dealer I showed my wife a bewildering amount of hybrid information I had found and printed off of the internet. No way were we getting a Ford. Our friends down the street bought a Prius a couple of months earlier and were very happy with it. But the local Toyota dealer was where I had had some horrific experiences with our Chrysler Town and Country minivan (they're a Toyota, Ford, and Chrysler dealer), and I really never ever wanted to set foot in that dealership ever again. And I'm a bigger guy (6'2", 215 lbs.), and I've always liked having a big trunk like the BMW rather than a hatchback.

So me and my sleep deprived wife get to the Honda dealership, and we almost didn't even go in because my wife doesn't feel that the Accord *looks* like a hybrid like a Prius does. I explain that I'm not comfortable in a smaller car like a Civic or a Prius, and I never want to set foot in the local Toyota dealership ever again. Then we got interrupted by a most pleasant young saleswoman who knew all the green and safety virtues of the car. We need to act fast because this is right after the last gas scare, and we want to take advantage of the tax credits ($3500 combined federal and state of Colorado) on our 2005 tax return. So to make a long story short we buy the car and drive it home that same day.

One thing that I liked about the Accord was that I didn't have to get into an arguement with my wife about stuff like leather seats and XM radio. And she really, really likes the heated seats in the winter. And we were looking for more of a highway cruiser to go to Santa Fe and Phoenix rather than an around town car because around here we can just ride our bicycles instead. So after we buy the car a couple of weeks go by and finally my wife figures out that she's been snookered. At dinner she expresses that she can't believe how fast this Honda Hybrid car is. Well, of course I explain that I'm not going to embarrass the hybrid movement by holding up traffic. She's a little irritated with me until my daughter chimes in and says "Well mom, you got what you wanted, and dad got what he wanted, so what's wrong with that?". After dinner I told my daughter to remind me to raise her allowance.

So our HAH basically replaced both my '73 BMW 2002tii and our Chrysler Town and Country minivan, and we also now have a '99 QX4 Infiniti (fancy Pathfider) for pulling our popup camper and trips to the ski area in bad weather. A year later we both agree that we made the best choice for our needs with the HAH. It satisfied my desire for a high performance sports sedan and also my wife's need to own an environmentally friendly car. Sometimes you really can have it all.

 

My 2006 HAH replaced a 2005 HAH. Simple choice there - the 06 has a sunroof and a spare tire and a better tax rebate (plus I was only out of pocket about 2 grand for going from the 05 to the 06. The 06 was EXACTLY the color combo I wanted the first time around. But when I bought the 05 it was the last one on the lot. I finally ended up with "what I wanted" rather than "what they had."

But the 05 (even though it only lasted 9 months) replaced a 2001 BMW 325i that went bye-bye because it was doing 21mpg at best, and required premium gas to do that, and was running out of warranty (you NEVER want to repair a BMW out of warranty!) Plus the Honda has a higher (combined) horsepower rating. And we already had the Civic hybrid (2003) so we were pretty happy with the Honda products.

Unfortunately, this year, we REALLY needed a car that was as close to "station wagon" as you can get, AND be a hybrid, AND not be a SUV. The only model that fit was the Prius, so we traded the Civic for the Toyota.

So we've managed to go through FOUR hybrid cars, so far.

 

I bought a 2006 HAH to replace a 2000 Nissan Maxima SE. I bought Accord primarily to get better safety. I have two kids now and they both sit in outer seats in the back, so I wanted a car with side curtain airbag and better side imapct rating. Accord fit the bill as safer, reliable and still fun to drive car. I went with hybrid to get better fuel efficiency than Maxima. Maxima was hovering around 17 mpg in all city driving. So far I am seeing close to 23 on HAH. I sure hope to see that number climb up a lot once the engine breaks in and I have some summer and highway miles on the car. I did have to give up manual transmission for hybrid and I am hoping I will not regret it. This is the only car I have ever bought with AT. Normally I would have considered lower emissions as factor but on the last emission test on my Maxima in May of this year, it had non-measurable CO and HC emissions at idle as well as at 2500 RPM. So I probably do see lower emissions from HAH in terms of ozone and possibly NOx but overall difference from Maxima may not be huge.

 

My 06 HAH replaced an 03 Toyota Corolla LE 5sp. I wanted equivalent mpg with lots more room and creature comforts, especially navi. So far, I'm moderately pleased with the HAH, look for my other posts about the engine mount vibration.

 

My '05 HAH replaced my '93 GMC. Well, I shouldn't say it replaced it, as I still own it. But, it's no longer my daily driver. These days, I mostly use the truck to haul landscaping stuff home. I went from 19-25 (GMC) to 27-35 (HAH) real world MPG.

We bought the HAH for a variety of reasons:
-fuel economy
-cleaner burning
-plenty of power
-great interior room
-comfortable for long trips
-wonderful handling
-safety features
-vcm
-styling
-Navi
-XM
-leather (synthetic, but still leather)

Our other vehicles are listed below.