Thanks to Jason for providing this good forum.

Because of our more than satisfactory experience with our 2001 2-dr Honda Accord 6 cyl, I leaned toward Honda when deciding on a hybrid purchase. My brother purchased a 2005 Toyota Prius in 2005, and when I prepared his taxes, I noticed that the income tax deduction significantly reduced his taxes. Did some research (this and several other forums, Consumers Reports), then pitched the Honda Insight to my wife. She shot it down - didn't want to perform acrobatics every time she entered or exited the car. So, I made a down payment in Oct 2005 on whatever Civic hybrid came in next to the dealership in McCook, NE. Took ownership on 3 Jan 2006 of 2006 white 4 dr Honda Civic Hybrid (HCH, I think) non-nav. Paid sticker of $22,400 plus $550 shipping.

Really, really enjoy driving the HCH, in south central Nebraska. So does my wife. Interior, instrumentation, security features, safety features, 4 drs, handling, etc, etc. The Accord isn't racking up much mileage at all. We have immediate family members who we usually visit twice a week (60 miles away) and twice a month (210 miles away) so we log a lot of hiway miles for both of us being "retired" (myself Navy, my wife public school teacher). I walk 10 blocks to work at Block. My wife does an average amount of driving in the "city" (of about 12,000 people).

With just over 1000 miles on the HCH, and into the third tank full, the manually computed mileage is about 43 mpg. I have not deciphered the meaning of the milage indicators in the vehicle so I divide miles traveled by gas needed to trip the nozzle. I am hoping for better, because neither one of us drives aggressively, I cruise at 60 mph tops and I used regular gas, not ethanol. I have noticed the effect on instantaneous mileage of semi-tractor trailers passing me on the interstate.

I gave up using the 10% ethanol blend after reading an article by a management scientist involved in the Nebraska state ethanol production area. His article advocated mandatory use of ethanol by ethanol producers in their business vehicles. It seems they don't use ethanol because on average ethanol achieves 20% mileage than regular gasoline. I ran the test myself - on 5 vehicles - 1992 Ford chassis medium RV, 1998 Lumina sedan, 2001 Honda Accord 2001 Chevy 3500 wheelchair modified van, and the old 1986 Ford 150 extended wheelchair van. On average, running two tanks of ethanol then two tanks of regular through each vehicle, the mileage using regular was in my case 20% better.

Enough already.

Doug Lynn

 

Keep reading these forums and you will find many useful ways of increasing from that 43mpg. Have you looked at some of the pulse and glide threads? Thats where you get up to a top speed (the speed limit or what ever you want to set yourself) Then you take your foot off the gas and then reapply it until you don't see any charging coming from the car. You will slowly slow down. Pick a low speed you want to hit and just continue until you hit that speed. Then Accellerate up to your top speed again and repeat.

Another thing to do is to keep an eye on the instantanious FE gauge and see what it takes to keep that thing as high as possible.

 

Welcome to GreenHybrid. Which state are you in?

 

south central Nebraska