Whew, I thought it was a serious. Good.

If I live on my road much longer I'll probably end up having to get one after the crash (EVERYONE gets in an accident on my road, my number just hasn't come up yet - knock on wood - it'll probably happen the day I pay it off)

I did see a non-hybrid '06 Civic today and it broke my heart to see it wedge in between two big trucks. I just know that the owner doesn't care about dings when they do that.

 

Hmm... myself, I think I will just enjoy having no car payment! And still saving massive $$$ on gas. Provided of course, that no other problems come up.

 

I don't know about you but I am still excited when I get into my 2004. Not only is it a great car which feels very solid and of a high quality, but now that I have 27K miles of faithful service on it I am more impressed than I would be with a brand new one.

Driving at night, with the Magnesium Metallic color I have, it simply looks spectacular in the cockpit between the blue instrumentation, the silver around the shifter, and the metallic-looking radio area......

 

When all the HCH I owners get HCH III's it will be our turn again...

 

Well; I would personally like to say to everyone of you that (Do-Not) own a 2006 HCH ll that speaking for myself You all have made me (Feel-Bad) in away, I don't think that you all will find to many New Owners of the HCH ll's or like myself and others here that are waiting to take delivery of their HCH ll's in Jan. 2006 that we feel better or superior to the owners of the 2003-2005 Civic Hybrids.I think the majority of us are talking about the 06 Hybrid because as has been pointed out on this Thread that it is simply New to Us and therefore we are excited to be getting them not anything to do with making other owners (Feel-Left-Out) or anything of a Negative Fashion towards owners of the 03-05 Hybrids. I bet when everyone purchased their 03-05 Hybrids they talked about them everyday and were as excited as we are to be getting our new 06's.

So; lets all (PLEASE) shake hands and wish each other the very best for each other this (Christmas-Season) and all enjoy which ever year of the Hybrid we own. I like personally to talk with everyone and share information on the Hybrids regardless of the Year of the Vehicle.

A Hybrid Friend

Terry

 

I don't feel left out, but certainly bored. I'm not at all excited about the 06 because it's too much like the prius and I didn't buy a prius for a reason. I love my 04, and still think its the best one out there for me. So... when I come to the HCH page and see that all the posts on the first page are about the, ho hum, 06, I just go back to myebay. I find myself visiting less often and perhaps losing interest in the forum in general.

That said, it does not mean I have any hard feelings, I'm just answering honestly. I don't feel bad about it, or feel like the 06 fans have taken over or ruined anything, just that I don't find items of interest here as often so I visit less frequently. This forum is for the users and what the users post is what it should have, so I have no problem with the current state of things.

 

What do you mean by that exactly? Too much like the Prius in what way? You mean body shape, features, or what?

Personally, I think the HCH-II is still far different from the Prius. It's a Civic, it kept it's price fairly low, it shares the body style with the other Civics, and it's still got the IMA system, although a larger engine, and it's still getting very nice MPG.

I'm looking forward to about this time next year when I plan on trading my 2004 HCH for a 2007 model.....

 

HCH I = car
HCH II & Prius = space ship.

I am not a little green man. I like driving a CAR. :-)

Seriously, I really didn't like the prius because of all the whacky controls, silly animated screen, touch menus for for everything, gauge cluster in the middle (WTF?), some indicators way out by the windshield, etc. I felt like Data driving the enterprise. The 06 HCH seems to be some large leaps in that direction, plus I think its butt ugly design and the interior is ugly too.

I really love the HCH I because it is still just like a regular car. Still has regular controls for everything, still has the gagues where they belong, no touch screen menu controls, etc. Plus it has grey interior. Baby puke beige, no thanks, and the 06 has it in every car. There are some serious flaws with the HCH I but I don't think they're fixed in the 06 anyway, so it would not be a step up for me.

If they really wanted me to want a truly modern car, they can't do it by simply putting indicators in wierd places, using crazy big screen graphics, and making the controls hard to use. Rather they should put truly modern features in it. MP3 player (come on guys there's no excuse), programmable options (too many interlocks trying to think for me, I want to turn them off - modern electronic devices are all customizable, so why shouldn't your car be?), truly advanced fuel saving tools (like programmable cruise control - setting speed thresholds, having a choice between "speed priority" and "economy priority" where you can control some perameters), stuff like that. To be truly innovative takes more than spacey design and cosmetic bells and whistles.

Just my take on it. Please don't be offended, if you like the 06 by all means enjoy it. I have no intent to rain on anyone's parade, just answering your question.

Cheers.

 

You mean it's a "space ship" because of the body shape? Have you sat in a new HCH? I know "beauty" is subjective, and no one can convince you the new HCH is beautiful if you don't think it is, and I'm not trying to do that, and if it's just beauty that you want, then go for a car with "beauty." ( I agree about the beige interior stuff too - that's just not my favorite color for the inside of a car. )

But as far as "being a space ship" in regard to the interior controls, I don't see that at all. With the non-NAV version HCH-II, things inside are pretty much like the HCH-I, other than the dual row instrument panel.

And the list of cars which contain your personal wish list of features (MP3, Programmable options, speed or economy cruise control, etc) does not exist anywhere, as far as I know, and certainly not for the $22K you can get the HCH-II for.

I understand most of us would love for Honda to produce perfect cars with perfect options and perfect controls and perfect interior colors, but no one is perfect. You take the car that most matches your needs.

I think the vast majority of people see the HCH-II as an improvement in the HCH line. That does not diminish the awesome MPG capability of the HCH-I, just as the Prius II did not diminish the MPG of the Gen 1 Prius.

 

I understand that no car is perfect, but to get me to abandon a nearly new car for another brand new car to the tune of thousands of dollars, it needs to have some pretty significant improvements.

The point is, that in absence of the improvements I wish my car had, why should I "upgrade"? I do not see them in the 06, so I am not interested. There's some new stuff in the 06 but it's not stuff I want or need so I don't consider it an upgrade. If it did have some of those truly innovative features then I might be excited, otherwise it's just an uglier more expensive version of what I already have.

Then again, I'm not the type to go after the latest bells and whistles - I tend to like older simpler things, so the 06 wasn't likely to appeal to me anyway. It seems like they made minor changes, generally cosmetic - most of which make it uglier IMHO, so there's really no reason for me to consider it. Especially since my 2004 required shelling out $18k for a used car - the most I've ever spent on a car before, newer than any car I ever expected to own, and how I am generally against buying brand new cars anyway, the 06 is again not likely to appeal to me.

We all have different needs tendencies and styles. The 06 HCH just doesn't do much to appeal to mine.

Oh, and since you mentioned beauty, that's not my pursuit. I am after practicality. The two seldom seem compatible when it comes to modern design. They always want stuff to look cool and pretty - to the sacrifice of utility. I think my 04 HCH is more "beautiful" that way than the prius and HCHII because it's more practical and less flashy. That said, there's cosmetic things in my HCH that are totally stupid - like the cover over the cup holders - what the hell is that for? Does anyone really close that to make it look cooler? No, they fill up the cup holders with stuff (and cups) and never close the lid. The lid, as far as I can tell, is only there to catch on my coffee cup and make me spill. In fact I wish they would think more of utility and less of beauty sometimes so I could have some egronomic beauty for a change.