Hello everyone... last night I traded in my 2003 Volkswagen Golf diesel (42/49 mpg) for a 2005 Civic Hybrid MT in Opal Blue. Since I was active on VW boards I thought I'd join up here. I will miss my Golf but will not miss smelly, smokey, less eco-friendly diesel fuel and multiple expensive trips to the dealer for all sorts of issues. Let's put it this way... I could have replaced Minute Made as the top lemonade producer in the world. Thanks I'll be here all week...

I've only put about 40 miles on the car so far (including 2 test drives) and so far there is absolutely nothing I am unimpressed with. Quite the opposite, from the beautiful color to the automatic A/C, I love everything about this car. Acceleration is almost idenitical to my Golf and EPA fuel economy ratings are better! Well you guys already knew all that...

Proud to be a Civic Hybrid owner! :)

happy :) welcome to our forum

Hi Memory-minus:

___Welcome indeed. Now that you have joined the hybrid family, I hope you can learn much from the many Hybrid drivers that came before as well as the game gauge you will be watching over the next 200 + thousand miles ;)

___On a quite different note … Did the Honda dealership give you a decent deal on the HCH as well as offer you a decent $ on your TDI Trade? Your Diesel supposedly holds its own rather well in the used car market given the scarcity so I am just curious what you received and how it was equipped? Secondly, it sounds like you are a disappointed VW owner? I wouldn’t own one myself but my parents wanted a New Beetle (non-diesel) last year so I went and picked one up for them. Now that it is broken in, they just like it. Not love it, just like it.

___Lastly, don’t forget to insert your tank over tank fuel and fuel economy data in the Real Hybrid Mileage Database as you fuel up over those next 200,000 + miles.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Welcome to GreenHybrid!

<I need to get a new line...>

Hello memory-minus and welcome to the community!

Glad you like your new HCH. I've crossed over 26K miles in mine since last February and am still continuously impressed!

Have your friends asked where you plug it in at night yet? :D

memory-minus,
Good to see another HCH as part of the GreenHybrid group.
Sorry to hear about your "lemonade-making" experience with your Golf, but glad it encouraged you to make a change.

Everyone, thank you for the warm welcome.

Wayne, I paid $19,300 for the HCH down from an MSRP of $20,315. The dealer gave me KBB dealer trade-in value for my Golf. I felt both those numbers we fair, especially since I took an HCH off the lot instead of having them go out and search for any particular color (of course, the moment I saw the opal blue I loved it, but I acted wishy-washy so they'd come down in price :lol:). It had obviously been test driven about 3 or 4 times... why it would require any more than one test drive before someone would snap this car up is beyond me.

As for VW, I am mostly disappointed with the service I recieved from ALL dealers in this area, and VW of America. It was abysmal. Routine maintenance is much more expensive than the Honda. They took weeks to make warranty repairs. I also had a couple out-of-warranty repairs that cost me a bundle. It was just time to make the trade... glad I did!

VW dealerships are fairly rare, most of them are stealerships....

The only way to make a good purchase out of a VW is to maintain it yourself, like I do.

With a few plugs, you get top quality parts for less than the stealerships would sell them to you.

If you're not fanatical, don't buy a Volks, period.

Hope you like your Opal blue Hybrid, btw.

Any pics?

Honestly I didn't have the time nor the inclination to maintain the VW myself... you are also not the first person who has told me VW is for fanatics only (of course, after I bought the car). I bought the Golf for style, utility and fuel economy and I got those, but what I was missing was reliability. Consumer Reports now rates VW as the least reliable make on 5 year old models, and that is unfortunate because I did love that car. The more practical side of my brain took hold because where I live it is nearly impossible to get around without a car, so losing it for a week at a time with no loaner (no matter how hard I *****ed) was a real pain.

So far, so good on the Hybrid. The engine is eerily quiet compared to the TDI. Unfortunately it was dark when I took delivery and rained the very next day so once I get it cleaned up I will take some pics! :)

I'm sure you miss the diesel symphony... :P