The HCHII is so gutless and the CVT so worthless I can't seem to load drive the thing worth a darn. I loose so much speed on any incline it's embarrassing. For reference I learned to drive back in the 60's and learned on a Fiat 850 Coupe. And yes as a child I was taught basic mpg driving as part of my instruction from my father.

Then when I FAS it the CVT balks like a snot nose kid when you tell them to do something. I can not for the life of my get that crap CVT to reengauge smooth come hell or high water. I could bump off my 06 Civic MT EX Sedan smoother than this CVT junk. Lets not even compare it to the 5AT in our 05 I4 Accord. You could not make that tranny and control system complain coming off a FAS,,, at any speed.

What am I missing here? I can refire and try to rev match. But it's like you never know what the CVT is going to do. It's like a women PSM'ing. Or does no mean yes or yes mean no.

 

I find the CVT to be a very smooth tranny. I have never had any jerky or lurching since new. I do find it to be very slippery and would love to be able to lock it up at time! When using CC I find my speeds are all over the place unless your in the flat lands. When cresting a hill it will normally go 10 kil over the setting and just the opposite at the bottom of the hill. I am not familiar with driving with load, and I don't fast. One good thing about it is you never work the ICE , ever! Hal

 

If it makes you feel any good I am still learnin to drive my car and I owned it for a longer time. what is FAS anyway ? I think the cvt is great but maybe your cvt is pooched.

ks

 

Odd – my CVT couldn't be smoother.

Side note to your original post: I raced a lot of Fiat 128s and 850s in the '70s. While I loved those cars, the shift linkages were horrendous. Can't wait to get a new Fiat 500 to find out how they've improved!

 

FAS . Forced Auto Stop. They do this, then shift to neutral and coast with the ICE off. Hal

 

I don't really see the point in FASing an HCH II... If you close off the valves, you aren't using any gas, and the pump losses are minimal enough to glide for a pretty long distance. In my opinion, a solid glide is 9/10 the savings at least, and that extra 1/10th isn't worth sacrificing the tranny (which even though it's beefed up, is still the weakest link in the HCH). I guess that school of thought is kinda anti-hypermiler, but you have to remember, on some level hybrids are like "hypermiling for dumbies"...

I find it a lot easier to DWL in the Civic than in the Mariner. At least the Civic's CVT is predictable--the Mariner tries to adjust too much. I wasn't really into hypermiling back when I had my last manual, but I can imagine DWL it is a lot easier with a stick...

 

Yes, and if you're interested in trying this, READ UP EVERYTHING YOU CAN about doing this on Cleanmpg.com before trying it. The HCH has electric power steering so you won't have any steering impact, but you only get a few stops before you're going to miss having hydraulicly assisted brakes.

 

Yes I agree with your thoughts on this Kristian! Nice to get the regen , but if you don't need it feather the throttle until the green bars go away. I like to extend the glide in EV mode as long as my SOC is above 5 bars. Hal

 

Holy cow, Hal. Lately I've been forgetting about that trick. Let me read 'Hybrids For Dummies' one more time!

So little to remember... yet so little brain matter left.

 

Thanks guys. I forgot about FAS. yeah, I tried it a few times but then I learned to glide with the gas pedal so I figured why turn off the ignition the way you do to other cars when its built in to the HCH?