Driving In The Hybrid Lane

2 months

2007-06-02T23:12:00.000-04:00

I'm coming up on 2 months of having the Honda Civic Hybrid. So far I have been extremely happy with the car. We've put on almost 3600 kms on it already. The overall FE for the life of the car has been 4.59 litres / 100 kms (51.18 mpg). The display says 4.7 but I'm calculating it based on distance travelled and litres of gasoline filled. So both numbers are pretty close.

All my driving so far has been in the city. Absolutely no long distance trips on the highways. The city rating for the car is 4.7 litres / 100 kms. I'm getting 4.59 overall. And the last tank was a super 4.12. So obviously I'm super pleased :)

The car has remained fairly reliable so far. (knock on wood). The only time I had to take it in to the dealership was to fix the windshield wipers. They replaced the blades and things have been good since. I have noticed a slight hiss sound when I press the brake pedal at times. It hasn't really affected braking or anything else. I'll still take it in for a check up in the next couple of weeks.

I am currently on the 6th tank of gas. Not all fill ups were after the tank was empty. Twice I filled up when the tank was only half empty. Most people prefer to wait till the fuel gauge shows E or worse. I tend to fill up as soon as I see cheap gas (well relatively cheap :)). I'd rather fill up 25 litres when the gas prices are $1.03 a litre than filling up 45 litres when its $1.11.

Best tank so far ...

2007-06-01T22:59:00.000-04:00

The previous tank was my experiment tank ... and the results while pretty good were definitely not as spectacular as when using hybrid techniques. But the following tank has more than made up for that experiment.

Distance travelled on tank - 857.4 kms
Litres of Fuel used - 35.315
FE on tank - 4.12 l / 100 kms (57.11 mpg)

Gas prices had dipped just a bit so I decided to fill up rather than wait till the tank emptied. I still had 3 bars left on the Fuel gauge and the low fuel light hadn't yet come on. If I had waited it out ... I am pretty sure I could have hit 1000 kms on this tank.

Oh well ... hopefully I'll get more chances in the future.

Lower EPA numbers

2007-05-24T00:41:00.000-04:00

Ever since cars started advertising the EPA mileage numbers there have been complaints that those numbers are ridiculous and no one can ever achieve them in real world situations. So the EPA standards were re-done and the 2008 model year cars will have new numbers. Obviously ratings are lower for all cars including Hybrids.

And that has started this silly argument amongst people that hybrids are no longer worth it. And that it will take much much longer for people to even out the hybrid premiums with the gas savings.

My 2 cents ... that's all crap. The cars are not changing. They're not suddenly using up more fuel. All that has happened is that the new EPA specs bring the fuel economy numbers for most cars closer to what the average person gets. It is essentially a PR exercise so that less people bitch about their cars only getting half the claimed fuel economy.

In my case ... the 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid (using the old specs) is rated at 4.7 (city) and 4.3 (highway) litres / 100 kms. My use of the car has been purely city driving so far. The lifetime FE that i have achieved is around 4.7. Except for the initial dealer supplied tank and my driving experiment tank, I have been getting between 4.2 and 4.7. So I am already achieving better than EPA fuel economy.

What FE people actually achieve depends entirely on their individual situations - climate, terrain, distance travelled per trip, driving habits etc. So the likely hood of exactly hitting the EPA ratings is very very slim.

Instead of using these numbers in isolation ... what people need to do is use them for comparative purposes. So if Car A is rated at 4.5 and car B is at 9.0 ... most people will find that car B uses twice as much fuel as car A. And this will hold true even if you're a crazy speed demon or the guy that's holding up a huge line of cars on a single lane highway driving at half the posted speed limit.

If everyone uses these ratings for comparative purposes only ... there are going to be very few angry drivers (well ideally there would be none but I'm sure someone would find something to complain about). Most of the people would be satisfied with the information they receive and there would be less issues.

Color

2007-05-23T23:34:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before ... I love the exterior color of our Civic Hybrid - Fluorite Silver. And apparently so do a lot of other people. A bunch of my friends have commented on the "niceness" of the color. Based on the angle and the sunlight ... you see either a plain silver car or silver with a hint of blue.

Last weekend I was in downtown and had to park my car on the street. As I was coming back I noticed a few people walking by the car and looking a it. As I walked by them (they didn't yet know that the car was mine) ... I overheard them exclaim that its a lovely color and the blue makes it really start out from the other silvers. And then I unlocked the car ... slid inside and drove away with a smile :)

Final Results

2007-05-23T22:09:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned earlier, I was experimenting a bit with the hybrid. I was driving it as I used to drive my previous car(s) while ignoring the iFCD and avoiding hybrid driving techniques. It wasn't easy doing it because a lot of the habits seemed counter-intuitive. That's funny coz just a couple of months ago that used to be "normal" driving.

Anyways, the experiment lasted a week. I didn't end up using the whole tank because the it seemed pretty obvious where the results were heading. I used 25.87 litres of fuel to drive 536.9 kms. That gave me an FE of 4.82 litres / 100 kms (48.82 mpg).

Comparing that with the previous tank which gave me 4.47 litres / 100 kms (52.6 mpg), it appears that my "non-hybrid" driving techniques give me about a 7 - 10 % hit in FE. Had I completed the entire tank ... I suspect that me FE would've been close to 5.0 litres / 100 kms.

So what does this mean ... driving carefully will save me about 10% in fuel costs. That translates to roughly 1000 litres of gasoline over the life of the car. Definitely not insignificant. So I have gone back to my regular hybrid techniques with one slight change ... I no longer use EV glide. i.e. I don't try to use the battery-only mode to maintain or increase speed. I dropped that because I think it'll help reduce the strain on my battery. And so far I am not seeing much negative impact from that change. More details on the new tank in the next post.

Early Results

2007-05-11T17:02:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned earlier ... I've started a mini-experiment to see what kind of fuel economy (FE) I can achieve with my old driving habits. I have some very preliminary results.

So far I have driven about 60 kms using this style and have been pleasantly surprised. I have made 3 trips ... a very short trip of about 5 kms on a residential streets, the second one driving about 16 kms away and back mostly 80 km/hr streets. I was driving roughly 5 km/hr over the limit. The 3rd trip has been a 25 km drive again on mostly 80 km/hr streets.

FE seems to vary between 4.3 and 4.6. If this holds up till the end of the experiment ... that'll be a real surprise. My observations so far ...

Battery charge level stays pretty high if you avoid Glide / EV Glide. Since the fill up it has start pretty close to maximum charge for the most part.

FE obviously degrades when accelerating from a stop but it appears to catch up when driving at a consistent speed (so far its mostly been between 65 and 85 km/hr).

The Civic Hybrid's fuel management system seems pretty efficient in that even though I am not trying to coast / glide ... it is able to give me good FE.

Over the next week or so I should have a result on this experiment. Stay tuned.

Driving Style Experiment

2007-05-10T22:23:00.000-04:00

I expect gas prices to go up tomorrow (more on how I know ... later) so I filled up even though the tank was not yet empty. The car took a bit over 20 litres (I don't have the actual numbers right now... will post them when i get home) and we'd driven about 550 kms on the tank. Based on the calculations ... we got about 4.47 litres / 100 kms. Again ... excellent as far as I am concerned. The FED indicated 4.5 for the tank and 4.9 overall.

I am starting a mini-experiment with the car. So far we've tried to drive the car "carefully". No speeding. Gentle acceleration. Coast and glide as much as possible. And obviously the FE has been great. But I wanted to switch back to our pre-hybrid driving habits and see where we land. We aren't aggressive drivers. Mostly I used to drive at or slightly above the speed limit ex 110 or 120 (km/hr) on the highways (speed limit of 100). But I was rarely the guy holding up all the traffic. I would go with the flow of traffic. Sometimes speed up to avoid getting caught on a red light. I used to accelerate a bit more aggressively than now. So now I am going back to that ... for the near future. I hope to figure out how much of an impact "careful" driving has on FE.

Over the last couple of tanks we've got between 4.4 and 4.5. I wanna see if using the old habits I get anywhere near that. Coz that would be a truer test of how much more efficient the Civic Hybrid is compared to our previous cars.

My driving style is going to be ...

Do not drive based on the iFCD ... well the occasional glance is allowed but I will not stop accelerating because of what I see on the iFCD.
Drive with the flow of traffic ... no lagging behind at 52 on a 60 zone. Drive at or slightly above the speed limit. Accelerate "normally" rather than "painfully slowly". Don't start coasting a mile away from a stop sign hoping that momentum will carry me that far.
No conscious attempt to Coast, Glide or EV glide. No conscious attempt to manage battery charge level. And no conscious attempt to change driving style to get lower (or higher) FE.

In short ... I will drive normally without paying too much attention to the iFCD and FED. Lets see how this goes.

Switched to Shell

2007-05-07T01:39:00.000-04:00

Prior to buying the hybrid, I had no favorite gas station. I knew some friends that stuck to a particular brand of gasoline and even to a particular gas station. But I didn't join that party. A big reason was that until recently prices varied from station to station. And they changed during the course of the day. They started out high and then slid down slowly hitting their lowest point between 10 PM and midnight. So I used to fill up at whatever gas station carried the cheapest gas.

But that changed a while back. Sometime in February, the stations changed tactics. Instead of lowering their prices during the day ... they started keeping the prices constant all day. And all gas stations now keep their prices in sync (are you thinking price fixing?? me too). So now it doesn't make much sense to be on the look out for the cheapest gas. Well coz there is none. All stations price their gas the same and it ain't cheap any more.

And as I was investigating the Honda Civic Hybrid prior to our purchase, I read on the Honda website about "top tier" gasoline standards. A group of car makers have come up with standards for gasoline that cleans the engine as it burns. This standard is called Top Tier and here in Canada, Shell is the only one to carry Top Tier gasoline all across the country. So it only made sense to switch to Shell. It costs the same as everyone else. And Honda is approving this. So sure I'll give it a try. And to top it all ... there are a couple of Shell gas stations nearby with one that is on the way home from work. So fairly convenient.

So now I only fill up at my neighbourhood Shell gas station. Well its not too often since I only needed to fill up twice last month. But still ...

So sorry Petrocanada, Ultramar, Esso, Sunoco etc etc. I still have a few points on my Esso and Petrocanada points cards that I tend to use for car washes in winter.

Honda Civic Hybrid on TV

2007-05-07T01:22:00.000-04:00

Nope. So far, I haven't seen a single commercial about the Honda Civic Hybrid. Has anyone else? I've caught a few about the Toyota Prius. And recently one starring the Toyota Camry Hybrid caught my eye. And there is the Ford Explorer Hybrid with the deer. But where's the one that showcases our dear Honda Civic Hybrid.

So does Honda not care about its hybrids? Coz I haven't seen a Honda Accord Hybrid commercial either. Or maybe they think that the hybrids will sell themselves. Well I'm not really sure about that. But I think it sure wouldn't hurt to see them on TV every now and then.

UPDATE: I am told that Honda is maxxed out on its Hybrid capacity. Hence it doesn't make sense to spend $$$ advertising it.

1 month

2007-05-05T08:10:00.000-04:00

Its been a full month of owning the new Hybrid. And its been an excellent month. We've done a fair bit of driving on the car ... a grand total of about 1900 kms. We've filled gas twice during the month ... just under 78 litres of fuel in total. The overall fuel economy we've achieved has been around 4.8 litres/100 kms. The oil life is still at 90%.

We haven't had any real problems so far. There was the issue with the wipers which was taken care of quickly by the dealership. Other than that ... the only other concerns I have include a slight creak I hear when the car first drives off and I move the steering for the first time. That and the issue of the car jumping out of AutoStop once in a while. As I come to a stop ... the car goes into Auto Stop (which it does when the foot is on the brake pedal and the speed falls below 10 kms / hr) ... and then just as the car comes to a complete stop ... Auto Stop seems to change its mind and jumps out. The revs move up to around 800 from 0. This sort of tends to happen roughly once a day. I guess I'll have them take a look at both these things soon.

Other than that ... it has been a great experience. Its changed my driving style for sure. I no longer speed or accelerate and brake unnecessarily. Most of the time I go a little bit under the speed limit. I rarely brake abruptly ... preferring to use the regenerative braking as much as I can. It charges the battery and saves the brakes from wear and tear. So why not.

I'm pretty sure I'll be giving it a wash again this weekend. Maybe even vacuum the interior. We've managed to keep the upholstery fairly clean so far but there is no escaping dirt and dust. And I think once a month isn't too much in terms of a good cleaning. So hopefully will also take some pictures ... of the clean car. :)

2nd fuel up

2007-04-30T23:47:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned ... the fuel guage was heading down and the low fuel indicator was imminent. Well on the way back from work ... it lit up. There were still 2 bars on the display and the car had gone 841 kms on the current tank.

Based on some loose intuition ... I knew that gas prices would not be going down. So I drove in to my neighborhood Shell gas station. The price ... $1.068 per litre. A full cent higher than the last time I filled up. Oh well. Can't really do anything. Anyways ... as usual i filled up till the first click. So the car too 38.115 litres. And it gave me 860.6 kms on the tank. Calculated FE = 22.58 kms per litre or 4.428 litres per 100 kms or 53.11 mpg. The cars computer said 4.5 which is pretty close.

Overall FE (as per the car) was 4.9 l / 100 kms. Based on my calculations it is 4.82. Again fairly close.

So I'm glad I'm getting better than my 5.0 estimate. Now on to Tank 3.

Not alone

2007-04-30T23:45:00.000-04:00

The question was finally answered. And I am pleased to report that we are not alone. On the drive in to work this morning ... just as I was turning at an intersection ... I noticed the distinctive "antenna on the hood" of a dark Honda Civic. It was stopped at the intersection going the other way. I couldn't really stop as I was in traffic (and late for work) ... but as i processed that information ... it hit me that I had just sighted a Honda Civic Hybrid. Ever since we started considering this car over a month ago ... I had been on the lookout ... hoping to spot one on the streets. And its taken a really really long time.

Anyways I'm glad that we're not the only ones in town that drive the Civic Hybrid. The one we saw was in Sparkle Grey Pearl. Same as the one we test drove before buying.

So far ... I have noticed a grand total of 4 "visible" signs that distinguish a Honda Civic Hybrid from a regular Honda Civic Sedan (for the 2006+ model years).

Antenna on the roof near the rear windshield [regular civics don't have it]
"Flat" spoiler on the trunk.
Unique alloy wheels.
Hybrid badge on the right side of the trunk.

I'll post pictures of these differences soon. I still need to do a thorough photo session of the car :)

Heading towards fillup 2

2007-04-29T23:02:00.000-04:00

The car is definitely heading towards a second fillup. The fuel guage shows just 3 bars (will probably drop down to 2 any time now). The car has been driven just over 825 kms on the current tank since the last fillup. So now depending on when the low fuel light comes on ... I might be able to hit 900 kms on this tank. Hitting 1000 would be a stretch. Because doing that means going another 175 kms. Which means another 8-9 litres of gas. Based on the previous fillup ... there should be around 8 litres still in the tank when the light goes on. However I don't think I am going to risk driving the car till its empty just to hit 1000 kms on the tank. It sure would be a nice record but not something I need to achieve while risking the new car. So thanks but not thanks.

The only other thing on my mind is gas prices. Last time I filled up ... it was sortof at a peak coz prices went down right after. I filled up at 105.8 (Canadian cents per litre). And the next morning it was 102.5. And then it slid down further to around 100. Lately prices have been on a upwards spike. This morning it was 106.8. I have been hoping the prices dip a bit so I can fuel up but no such luck. And Gasoline futures on NYMEX seem to be heading further up today. So looks like I won't see any fall in prices any time soon. :(

I guess the good thing is that I am driving a Hybrid and using roughly half as much gas so I don't have to fill up as often as I would have to if I were in a non-hybrid car.

3 weeks

2007-04-25T22:41:00.000-04:00

3 weeks. A full 21 days since we first slipped into our new car. Needless to say, its been a pleasant 21 days. The car is currently on the 2nd tank of gas - remember the fillup a few days back?? There are still about 7-8 bars (out of 20) on the Fuel guage. So I'm guessing I have a bit over a quarter tank left.

The total kms on the odometer are 1340. The current tank (measured by Trip meter B) has logged 588 kms. FE for the current tank has been fairly consistent. Over the past few days it had been stuck at 4.6 l / 100 kms. And despite my best attempts, I couldn't get it to move either way. Well to be honest I didn't really try to move it up. Although that wouldn't have been too difficult. Anyways ... my hard work bore fruit today. Just before reaching my workplace, the tripmeter B FE hit 4.5. Woohoo!!!

The lifetime FE has slowly slid down to 5.2 and then to 5.1. As expected. If tank 1 averaged 5.4 and tank 2 is going around 4.6 ... by the time the tank is done ... the overall average should be around 5.0.

On the way back home in the evening ... the 4.5 FE on the current tank was reinforced (it stayed there consistently) and by the time I got home ... the lifetime FE had also dropped down further to 5.0. So yeah it took all of 3 weeks to hit the 5.0 milestone. 20 kms per litre. Now that feels nice for sure. When I was doing the math, I had based all my calculations on a 20 kms / litre FE. And I was a wee bit afraid that I might be a bit over-enthusiastic regarding the estimate. With the overall FE hitting 5.0 this early ... I'm guessing I will average a bit lower than this.

Oh and the Maintenance minder slid down to indicate 90% engine oil life. This happened around 1150 kms so I'm guessing I should look forward to my first oil change around 11000 kms. Definitely not bad considering that other cars expect you to get an oil change every 3000 or 6000 kms. At this rate I should be doing 2 oil changes a year instead of 4. So thats not too shabby at all.

Anyways ... back to the FE ... based on the average FE ... and the fact that gas has been over $1.00 for the last little while ... the hybrid has saved us about $65 in gas already. Driving 1340 in the other car would consume about 130 litres of fuel. The hybrid has used up about 67 litres (based on the 5.0 lifetime FE). That's a saving of about 63 litres of gasoline. And based on gas prices right now that's about $65 in savings. Going at this rate ... it should save us about $1000 over the year. So if anyone out there feels that Hybrids don't really save you money in terms of gas costs ... here's proof.

Hybrid Glossary

2007-04-20T01:09:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the terms used with regards to Hybrid vehicles in general and the Honda Civic Hybrid in particular.

Hybrid - A vehicle powered by both an regular gasoline engine (ICE - Internal Combustion Engine) and an Electric Motor supported by some form of battery pack.

PHEV - Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle. A Hybrid that can be plugged into a regular electric socket that charges its battery pack for mre fuel efficiency.

HCH - Honda Civic Hybrid

FE - Fuel Economy

mpg - miles per gallon (unit of FE used in US)

lphk - litres per 100 kms (unit of FE used in Canada)

iFCD - instantaneous Fuel Consumption Display

FED - Fuel Economy Displayed (on the tripmeters as calculated by the car's computers)

AS - Auto Stop (car's ICE engine shuts off when the car is stopped ex. at a traffic light)

Regen - Regenerative braking where the electric motor uses the car's momentum to generate electricity and charge its battery pack.

Assist - The state where the electric motor assists the gas engine to provide power.

Coasting - Taking the car up to a desired speed and then taking the foot off the accerator and letting momentum carry the car forward. This mode almost shuts down the gas engine thus improving FE

Glide - Coasting with very gentle pressure on the accelerator pedal so that there is no Regen and no Assist. The car doesn't slow as fast as it would during coasting. And ofcourse the gas engine is shut off.

EV Glide - Glide with a little bit more pressure on the accelerator pedal so that the electric engine starts to assist. In this mode the car can maintain its speed and at times even increase it slightly. Again no fuel is being used and the car is being propelled forward usign momentum and power from the battery pack.

Likes and dislikes

2007-04-18T21:22:00.000-04:00

Its been 2 weeks since we picked up our new 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid. This post talks about our first impressions ... the features we love and use most and some that we don't.

Lets start with the Top 5 ...

Color - Everytime I look at it, I silently thank my wife for nudging me towards this color. When I was considering the purchase, I was practically sold on Alabaster Silver Metallic with the Blue interior. And then just a half hour before we actually went and signed the paperwork ... all of us went to a dealership that had both colors on their lot. The Alabaster Silver on a 2006 Civic Hybrid (used) and the Fluorite Silver on a brand new 2007. It was my exercise to convince my wife that the Alabaster was the way to go. So we saw that one first. And then when we saw the Fluorite silver ... I loved the bluish tinge on it especially when viewing it in the sun. And the ivory interior (fancy word for tan??) looked inviting too. Ofcourse one of the concerns was that the lighter interior would get dirty pretty quick. But after going back and forth a bit, we decided to go with the Fluorite. And I am super glad with the choice. Ofcourse this was the one the dealer had in stock too so it worked out well.

Auto Stop - Whenever you come to a Stop (actually with your foot on the brake, if you go under 11 kms / hr), the car automatically shuts of the gas engine. The Auto Stop indicator flashes indicating that the car is still running. And the car is deathly quiet. Unless your radio or fans are running ... you won't hear a thing (from the car that is ... having a noisy kid in the back seat doesn't count). Take your foot off the brake and the engine starts up again (with a gentle nudge indicating that the power source is switching over to the gas engine.

iFCD - The instantaneous Fuel Consumption Display is awesome. Its a whole different feeling ... watching the bars light up (and go off) based on what you do. Step hard on the accellerator and it goes all the way up ... take your foot off and down it goes. Its a great tool ... making you aware of the impact of your actions on fuel usage. Only someone totally stubborn would manage to ignore it. I think they should make this standard on all vehicles (why is this unique to hybrids?) so everyone can enjoy the benefits and fix their driving habits.

FED - The average Fuel Economy Display - This is aligned with the trip meters and while you don't look at it during driving ... it gives good feedback at the end of trips and whenever you are filling up. Average fuel economy helps keep track of how well you did as a whole.

SVC - The car's audio system has a Speed-sensitive Volume Compensator. So the system automatically raises the volume as the car speeds up to compensate for ambient sounds. As you slow down and come to a stop ... the volume goes down. I am not sure if this is a standard feature on most cars and has been for a while. But none of my previous cars had it so I think this is cool.

Other honorable mentions include the sliding armrest, the cup holders, telescoping steering wheel amongst other things.

Now on to 5 things I wish the car had or that I dislike about it ...

In recent years there has been a trend amongst car makers (started by Toyota Echo??) of making the hood slope off so dramatically that the driver cannot see the hood at all. I am not a big fan of this ... as I would like to see the hood so I have an idea of how close I am to the wall or the curb or car in front when parking the car. If the hood must be this way ... it would be nice to have sensors on the bumper that would indicate how much room is available up ahead (and back).

Trip Meter C - No the Honda Civic Hybrid doesn't have it. But it would be nice if it did. I'd like to use Trip meter A for lifetime FE. Trip meter B gets tasked with managing the current tank of gas. And if there was a Trip meter C, it could be used for short trips. Ofcourse Trip meter C would be redundant if the car had a separate lifetime FE display (I don't really need a trip meter coz the odometer already tells me how many lifetime kms I have put on the car). With an independent (of trip meters) lifetime FE display ... I could task Trip meter A with the tank FE responsibility. And then Trip meter B could be available for short trips.

Sun glass holder - Our previous car had a nice (closed) overhead compartment for storing sun glasses. I guess I got used to it. So it would've been nice if the Civic Hybrid also had it.

Drive-off on Electric motor - This I have already mentioned before ... (the Prius has it) ... the car should be able to keep Auto Stop engaged and move ahead (slowly) solely on battery power. Would be very useful in super stop and go traffic. And ofcourse if the car is parked on my driveway and I want to move it into the garage ... no need to burn any gas.

Standard tinted windows - For the money we paid ... it would've been nice to have tinted windows as standard.

As you can see ... none of the issues is a deal-breaker. So needless to say, we're very happy with our car so far.

Solar Hybrid car??

2007-04-17T21:30:00.000-04:00

I was thinking about Solar panels today and I got wondering ... why don't cars come with them? The amount of time my car sits in the sun (about 8 hours every weekday while I am at work) ... it should be able to make some use of the Sun. So if the hood, the roof and the trunk top were all made of solar panels and the energy generated used to charge the Hybrid battery ... that would be cool.

Question is ... why isn't it being done already? (I know there are smarter people than me ;)). I don't really know how much charge would be generated over a 8 hour period on a hot sunny day. But it can't really be that insignificant. After all a lot of satellites have solar arrays as does the Internation Space Station.

So when I drive in to work ... lets say I have used up some of the charge in my hybrid battery. While my car sits all day ... the battery gets recharged to some extent using solar power and then when I am ready to drive back home ... I have some extra charge for free. Can't be such a bad thing. The only reason I can think of for it not being done ... cost - solar panels are expensive and with cars being so vulnerable to crashes ... it would probably be too expensive to maintain them.

Tank 2 begins

2007-04-17T20:52:00.000-04:00

As you've read, I filled up the Civic Hybrid for the first time last night. So of course on my commute in this morning ... first thing I see ... gas prices are down by 3 cents :) This is pretty predictable. Its almost like an unwritten rule. Right after I fill up my gas tank from empty ... the gas prices have to come down. Anyways, I can't really see the future yet so there's no point worrying about this. If I were a psychic however, I would be deeply troubled at my inability to foresee a drop in the gas price.

Before I got moving from the gas station last night, I reset trip meter B, planning to use it for tracking each tank of gas. While driving home from the fillup, at one point I hit a magical 4.1 l/100 kms. This is definitely the lowest I have ever seen it read. Anyways its was a fleeting moment in time and by the time we got home, it was up to around 4.7 l/100 kms. I don't think its that big a deal since the total distance travelled was just about 7 kms.

The first real test for this tank will be today. By the time the day is done I will have put on over 100 kms. I ended my 25 km commute to work this morning with an FE (on the current tank) of 4.8 l / 100 kms. This after a cold start this morning which pushed it above 5.0 early into the drive. I'll probably go over 5 again a few times before the day is done. But my hope is that when I creep into my garage tonight ... it reads something below 5.0.

Odometer display on first fillup

2007-04-16T22:12:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of the odometer display at the first fillup. I am using tripmeter A for lifetime FE. The display says 5.4 litres / 100 kms. My calculations are even better - 5.27 :)

Fuel pump display

2007-04-16T22:09:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of the fuel pump on the first fill up. A grand total of 39.637 litres at $1.058 a litre. Total bill - $41.94.

The first fillup

2007-04-16T21:38:00.000-04:00

So this evening I rolled into my neighborhood Shell gas station. The odometer read 752 kms. The fuel display was down to a single bar. On the forums I had read about some daredevils that managed to drive about 70 miles AFTER the last bar went out. I wasn't going to try that. Definitely not on my first tank. Well actually I would never do it ... too risky. Why risk screwing up a lovely car's engine just trying to run its gas tank dry? After all ... aren't hybrid owners supposed to be less risk-taking? [well maybe the jury's still out on that one]

Anyways ... as I mentioned on my previous post, I was super curious about how much fuel I would be putting in. Based on the car's FE display ... I should have needed about 40 litres to fill up my tank. But with just one bar left on the Fuel display ... I was a bit afraid that the car might ask for more.

I started fueling and looked away from the pump ... waited for the distinctive "click". And when I heard it ... I turned around ... and guess what ... 39.637 litres. The car's computer wasn't wrong after all. :) And like most other hybrid owners, my tank logged a little bit better than what the car said.

So based on the fill up ... I got about 5.27 litres / 100 kms. Not too bad for a first tank. Of course this included a couple of snow and rain days (including today). This also included the first 10 kms that the dealer put on it before delivering the car. I still managed an impressive 18.98 kms / litre. Pretty darn close to my pre-purchase assumption (and expectation) of 20 kms / litre. Hopefully this 2nd tank will improve on that. Add to that the fact that the average temperatures during this tank were between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius. As the weather gets warmer, I should get better numbers.

Anyways ... the only mystery that remains now is the size of the fuel tank. If getting down to 1 bar on the fuel display requires just under 40 litres of fuel ... whatever happens to the rest 10 litres of tank capacity. After all we're talking about 20% of the total fuel capacity here (based on the manual the car should have a 50 litre tank). So we'll see how that turns out.

[Update] So its time for me to wear the "I am stupid" t-shirt. So far I had only read the online version of the owner's manual that I downloaded from somewhere. And thats where I got the fuel tank size of 50 litres (13.2 US gallons). Anyways ... I decided to take the long trek to my garage ... pulled my own manual from the glove compartment and checked ... the fuel tank capacity is 46.6 litres (12.3 US gallons). DUH

Low Fuel indicator ON

2007-04-16T13:40:00.000-04:00

An eventful day so far with respect to the car. First ... I had a noon appointment with the service department at the dealership. Why??

Last thursday I stayed home and my wife took the car (on her own for the first time I think). It was a bit of a weird weather day. Alternating between snow and rain for most of the day - the weatherman (weather-person to be politically correct) calls it "wet snow". Anyways ... around 6:30 PM, I finally hear the garage door operating. She enters the home and I look at her ... hoping for some sound-bites on her "first driving experience in the new car".

"The car has MAJOR PROBLEMS!".

Hmm ... not quite the sound bite I was expecting. My heart-rate spiked up a bit. I feared the worst for a second. And so she started to explain ... and I listened ... for about 2 mins. Then I interrupted and asked "anything else wrong??". She said NO.

Phew ... Bullet dodged.

So what was the "major problem"? The windshield wipers were not working too well. i.e. they were leaving streaks on the windshield that caused a lot of glare and as a result - poor visibility. I hadn't really seen that before because it hadn't rained since we got the car.

So yeah ... wipers not performing optimally was the major problem. Wonder what would've happened if the engine had stalled or the breaks were not working or worse. Anyways ... we dropped by the dealership on friday and explained the problem ... apparently they would have to work on it and so we got an appointment for today (monday) for the noon hour.

So I took it in today. They worked on it while I spent a good 45 mins reading some stupid books and magazines in their "customer lobby". They had a TV there that I set to the business news and then a woman came in and promptly changed the channel to some soap-opera. Anyways ... apparently they needed to replace the wiper blades (not the entire assembly). The service tech said that some chemicals that they applied while preparing the vehicle for delivery may have damaged the blades.

So I got the car back and indeed the blades were fine. No more streaks. So "major problem" solved!!!

On the way back from the dealership, I noticed that the fuel indicator had dropped down to just 2 bars. So far this first (dealer-supplied) tank of gas has given me just over 700 kms. So I was a bit curious as to when the low fuel light would come on. Well my wish was granted about 5 kms away from my workplace. Driving on the highway, I pressed on the accellerator a bit and voila ... the Low Fuel light was on. I checked the odometer ... 717 kms.

So most probably I will be fueling up tonight. That'll give me a true indication of the fuel economy this tank got. The display says I'm getting 5.4 l / 100 kms. That would mean that I have used up about 39 litres of fuel. Which doesn't seem very correct. The manual mentions that when the light comes on there is about 3.5 litres of fuel before all the bars disappear (Empty tank). And even after that there is a small amount of reserve (0.5 litre). So going purely by the indicated FE, the tank size should be about 43 litres. However the manual also says that the fuel tank is about 50 litres. So obviously there is some discrepancy.

Tonight's fuel up will definitely help clear some of this up. If the tank is really 50 litres then I'm only getting about 6.4 l / 100 kms instead of the 5.4 that the display claims. While that in itself isn't too bad, it will be a bit disappointing. Watch for the next post.

Hybrid incentives

2007-04-13T22:43:00.000-04:00

Hybrid vehicles have been on the roads for a few years now. Honda's Insight was a futuristic looking 2-seater hybrid that was first introduced about 8 years ago. (It was discontinued last year.) It was followed by Toyota's Prius that undoubtedly is the king (or is it queen) of hybrids. And then came the Honda Civic Hybrid followed by a bunch of others - Honda, Ford, Lexus etc etc.

Hybrids however have been (and still are) more expensive than other cars and even their regular versions. The "hybrid premium" has been upwards of US $3000. So to encourage people to buy hybrids ... the US government announced tax incentives. And recently the Canadian governments announced their own incentives. So far from what I have read and heard, the US rebates are a sort of not guaranteed. Apparently you apply for them at the time of filing the annual tax return. And its apparently a non-refundable credit. So if you end up not having to pay tax ... you get no credit for the hybrid purchase. A lot of hybrid buyers have been burnt by this part.

Canadian rebates seem to be a bit more straightforward. The Ontario provincial rebate is a refund of the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) paid on the purchase of the hybrid vehicle up to $2000. So if one pays more than $2000 in PST on the vehicle, the refund should be guaranteed. The federal rebate announced recently, is even more straightforward (at least as it appears right now). There are set $ amounts indicated for each "fuel efficient" vehicle purchased. Ex. if you buy a Toyota Prius or a Honda Civic Hybrid, you get a $2000 rebate. The process for the federal rebate isn't confirmed yet but hopefully there should be no changes.

Based on this information it appears that the Canadian rebates are much more honest and guaranteed than the US rebates. I will find out for sure when I apply for and receive my $4000 back :)

Hybrids in Canada

2007-04-11T23:26:00.000-04:00

Ever since we thought of buying a Honda Civic Hybrid, I've sort of been on the lookout for other Civic Hybrids on the road. Unfortunately it hasn't been easy. Priuses are easy to find ... well they look unique. A Honda Civic Hybrid on the other hand blends in too well. It looks exactly like any other Honda Civic except for the Hybrid badge. And Civics are all over the place. So far I haven't seen a single one on the streets. Well maybe i should rephrase, I haven't noticed a single one yet.

Reading online it appears that they sell a lot of Civic Hybrids down in the US. Well definitely a lot compared to here in Canada. 'm sure I'm not the only owner. So hopefully I'll see a few more Civic Hybrids on the street soon. Maybe we can form a club :)

I never thought that I'd be so excited about a car. I never figured myself for a car nut. But apparently I am ... atleast a little bit. Anyways its fun to be excited about something. :)

I'm sure the new car novelty will wear off with time. However hopefully the hybrid novelty won't. In addition to all the feelings that a new car evokes ... its nice to know that I get much better FE than most cars on the road. Especially with gas prices heading over $1.00 in the last few weeks and staying there. So its definitely easy on the pocket.

And there is ofcourse the whole environmentally conscious aspect to it. Less emissions. Less polluting. I also dont have to worry about idling at traffic lights as the car shuts down the gas engine (Auto Stop on Idle). So thats definitely a plus. And its always a topic of conversation amongst friends and acquaintances. Thats fun.

Now I just have to wait to get my rebates from the provincial and federal governments. The provincial government has a process set up and I got the forms printed out today. The federal rebate however will take time. They don't even have a process set up yet. Might have to wait a while for that. Hopefully Mr Steven Harper and Jim Flaherty won't screw me on this. In the US a lot of people complain that they don't get the promised rebates. The process is bit different there as you have to claim your rebate as part of your annual Income Tax filing. Its different here. So hopefully there shouldn't be a problem getting the cash. Coz all my math depends on the rebates.

Meanwhile ... maybe I'll find some other Civic Hybrids driving around.

Hitting the one week mark

2007-04-11T23:06:00.000-04:00

So this evening it's been exactly 7 days since we picked up our new car. Obviously its been a super pleasure to drive. The odometer reads around 460 kms. Overall fuel economy is 5.4 l/100kms (about 18.5 kms per litre). I still haven't reset tripmeter B. Its counting about 180 or 190 kms. Fuel economy on these kms keeps fluctuating between 5.0 and 5.1. Right now it's 5.1.

So far I'm pretty happy with the FE numbers. The vehicle hasn't even broken in yet and I'm getting pretty decent FE already. And on top of that I'm still on my first tank of gas (about 35 - 40 % left). I figure I should get atleast 700 kms on the tank. That's not too bad at all.

Week 2 ... here we come.

I did it!!!

2007-04-09T22:32:00.000-04:00

I was heading to work alone today (in the HCH - Honda Civic Hybrid - ofcourse). So I decided to try something. I reset tripmeter B. So far both trip meters were counting up from zero hour. My lifetime FE (Fuel economy) - all 295 kms of it - had been 5.7 litres / 100 kms. And I was curious to see what kind of FE I'd get on a regular commute.

So with the tripmeter reset ... I was off. I drove as I have been driving since we picked up the Hybrid from the dealer ... i.e. carefully. Anyways ... by the time I got to work ... i was getting 5.3. Not bad and close to what I was getting so far.

But the best was yet to come. On the way back ... about a couple of kms from home ... i hit the magic number ... The FE read 5.0. Yes 5.0 ... 20 kms per litre. Cool. And I hit the mark in less than a week of having the car. It was awesome. And while doing that ... i managed to hit a few more milestones. I managed to figure out how to coast with the gas engine shut off and then engaging the electric motor only and maintaining it for a period of time.

So yeah the drive was awesome. Now the problem is ... how do I improve on that? Well the next challenge would be to get the lifetime FE down to 5.0 which was the basis of all my math.

So far my wife has been laughing at me - the way I have been driving since getting this car. And surprisingly she hasn't driven this car much so far. Well hopefully that'll change soon. And she can also see that trying to improve on the FE is such a fun game. Its addictive.

About the Honda Civic Hybrid

2007-04-09T00:24:00.000-04:00

So what's so special about the Honda Civic Hybrid. Lots. If you look at it ... its a regular Civic Sedan. From far it looks exactly like any other Civic Sedan of the same model year. Get a bit close ... and you can notice an extra badge in the back. A single word - HYBRID. That's the only visual clue that this is not a regular Civic Sedan. Unlike the Prius which looks very very different, Honda has kept the Civic Hybrid identical to the Civic Sedan in terms of looks.

On the inside, a whole different story. The dash first - its split into two. The top strip thats just below the driver's line of sight (hopefully he is watching the road ahead) has the digital speedometer in the center. It has the iFCD and the Fuel guage for company on either side. At the press of a button, the iFCD becomes the engine temperature guage.

The 2nd half of the display is in its regular place (behind the steering wheel). You have the tachometer, all the warning lights and the odometer. The trip meters also give you the fuel economy for the trip. And you also have the outside temperature display. In addition there is the battery information ... the current charge level (indicated by a set of 8 bars) and whether the battery is currently being charged or used to assist the gas engine. So in short a fair bit of information.

The most exciting parts of the display are the trip fuel economy and the live iFCD. The live iFCD has a number of bars that light up or go off based on how much fuel the car is burning at the current time. So if you floor the gas pedal ... it goes all the way up to 12 litres/100 kms (thats the max on the scale). Ease up on the accelerator and it heads down. Driving a Civic Hybrid ... this is the most fun part. Trying to get as few bars light up. I think this should be standard on all vehicles. Why not let the driver know how he/she is doing in terms of fuel economy? Most people will notice that and adjust their driving habits accordingly.

There are the standard power door locks, power windows, heated mirrors (yes thats real helpful on freezing rain days here in Canada), automatic climate control, AM FM stereo and CD player, Aux input jack to play your iPod / MP3 player among other things. The cup holders are no longer right next to the dash. Instead they're next to the driver ... just in front of the armrest and behind the shifter.

The car has air bags all around. The seats are movable in all directions. The steering wheel is telescoping and can be tilted. And there are tons of sensors in the car seats that tell the car whether there are any passengers in the front or if a child is seated in the front seat (if so ... a warning light comes on). And the car has ABS. The car also had a theft deterrent system (i think its pretty standard amongst all new cars). The car also comes with standard 15 inch alloy wheels.

The engine ... there's a 1.3 litre gas engine assisted by an electric motors that is fed by the hybrid battery. This battery sits behind the rear seats and hence we have a smaller trunk. The battery is charged continuously using regenerative braking ... so if you take your foot off the accelerator, the car slows down significantly faster than a similar non-hybrid as part of the energy is used up to charge the battery. Same happens when you press the brakes. When the car needs more power than can be delivered by the smaller gas engine, the electric engine "assists" it. Hence the system is called IMA (Integrated Motor Assist).

And one of the coolest features of the car ... when the car comes to a stop (actually when it goes below 10 kmph with the brakes pressed) the car's gas engine shuts off. The car is kept on using the electric engine and battery only thus entering the "Auto Stop" idle state. So this car effectively never "idles". Zero emissions when the gas engine is off. I guess that explains the AT-PZEV rating (Advanced Technology - Partially Zero Emission Vehicle).

The one thing I do miss (and that the Prius has) is the ability to start moving from a stop using just the electric motor. That would allow the car to creep forward in stop and go traffic purely on the battery. That would also allow someone to move the car say from the garage to their driveway without burning any gas. I mean after all we're just moving the car a few feet.

But despite that, the fuel efficiency of this car cannot be denied. I have only used it a few days so far and put on just over 200 kms and am currently sitting at a fuel economy of about 5.6 litres / 100 kms. Thats almost 18 kms per litre of gas.

So I think that just about covers all the features on this car. If I think of more, I'll come back and update this.

Zero hour

2007-04-08T23:43:00.000-04:00

This is a pic of the dash at the moment I got the keys. It had a grand total of 10.3 kms on the odometer at the time. Unfortunately I forgot to click one with the initial Fuel Economy shown. On well ... you'll just have to take my word for it that it was 11.8 litres/100kms.

The interior

2007-04-08T23:40:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of the interior. This one shows the front seats and the dash. Wonder how long it'll all remain spotless like this. I was really scared to get inside ... afraid I'd mess it all up the very first time I got in.

First glimpse

2007-04-07T21:46:00.000-04:00

Here's the first picture of our new 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid. The color is called Fluorite Silver Metallic.

The math

2007-04-07T01:00:00.000-04:00

So what made me turn my attention away from used cars and go ahead and buy a brand new 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid instead? Well part of the reason was that the math now made some sense. Let me first show you the numbers and then explain what they mean (atleast to me).

Buying a car with ~100,000 kms on it
$10,000 - Purchase cost
+$8,300 - Fuel cost over 5 years
+$5,000 - Maintenance costs
- $3,000 - Residual cost
- $3,750 - Investment return on $15,000 savings over 5 years
+$10,000 - Purchase cost of 2nd car for remaining 5 years
+$8,300 - Fuel cost over 5 years
+$5,000 - Maintenance cost
- $3,000 - Residual cost
- $1250 - Investment return on $5,000 savings over 5 years
-----------------
$35,600 - TOTAL cost over 10 years

Buying a car with ~50,000 kms on it
$15,000 - Purchase cost
+$12,500 - Fuel cost over 7.5 years
+$5,000 - Maintenance costs
- $3,000 - Residual cost
- $3,750 - Investment return on $10,000 savings over 7.5 years
+$7,500 - Purchase cost of 2nd car for remaining 2.5 years
+$4,200 - Fuel cost over 2.5 years
+$2,500 - Maintenance cost
- $3,000 - Residual cost
- $313 - Investment return on $2,500 savings over 2.5 years
-----------------
$36,638 - TOTAL cost over 10 years

Buying a NEW 2007 Honda Civic LX
$24,000 - Purchase cost
+$18,500 - Fuel cost over 10 years
+$5,000 - Maintenance costs
+$1,000 - Higher insurance premiums for new vehicle
- $3,000 - Residual cost
- $1,500 - Investment return on $3,000 savings over 10 years
-----------------
$42,000 - TOTAL cost over 10 years

Buying a NEW 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid
$26,000 - Purchase cost
+$10,000 - Fuel cost over 10 years
+$5,000 - Maintenance costs
+$1,000 - Higher insurance premiums for new vehicle
- $3,000 - Residual cost
-----------------
$39,000 - TOTAL cost over 10 years

My assumptions ...

non-hybrid fuel economy (FE) - 12 kms/l
Civic Hybrid FE - 20 km/l
Maintenance costs for first 5 years of a vehicle's life = $0
Cars to be driven around 20,000 kms per year
Cars to be sold just before they hit 200,000 kms hence looking at 10 yrs cost of ownership
Fuel cost @ $1 per litre
Investment returns at 5% per annum (after taxes) not compounded (to keep things simple)
I used the Honda Civic LX because it was comparable in terms of features with the Civic Hybrid

So in the end ... buying a 5 yr old car with about 100,000 kms on it would obviously be the cheapest option. Going for a newer car with about 50,000 kms would cost about $1000 more than that over 10 years. Buying a 2007 Civic Sedan (non-hybrid) would actually cost $6,400 more over the 10 year period. And finally buying the 2007 Civic Hybrid would cost $3,400 more than the 5-yr old car with 100K kms on it.

So obviously a non-hybrid 2007 Civic Sedan didn't make much sense. And if I'm not buying new ... it only makes sense to go for the cheapest option so the newer car with ~50,000 kms on it was also discarded. So now the competition is between buying the 2007 Hybrid and the 5-yr old car with ~100,000 kms on it. The question is ... what do I get for the extra $3,400 over 10 years?

My answer ...

the pleasure of enjoying a brand new car for the first 5 years
no headache of looking for, evaluating and buying 2 used cars over the next 10 years
and having one less car to sell over the next 10 years
getting the car with the options I want rather than settling for what's available in the used car market
no maintenance headaches for the first 5 years i.e. 5 years of worry free ownership
not having to buy a car that someone else had used/abused for its initial years
the $3,400 difference shrinks with rising fuel prices. Over the past 9 years I have seen fuel prices double. If the same happens over the next decade ... the entire difference will disappear. If prices go up only about 50% over the same period ... the difference will still go down to less than $2000.
last but not least ... I get to help the environment and drive a much more fuel efficient vehicle. Over the years government regulations on emissions will only get tougher so buying a hybrid would definitely be a much better bet than any used vehicle which may have problems hitting those numbers ... thus saving me more money.

So thats how the math made sense to me. Ofcourse a very big factor in these calculations are the $4000 in rebates available to me ($2000 each from the federal and provincial governments). If it wasn't for these rebates ... I am pretty sure I would not be considering the Civic Hybrid. An extra $4000 hit would be very tough to handle.

And did I consider any other hybrid car? Honestly ... no. The nearest competitor is the Toyota Prius and its base price is $32000 and with some options would be $36000 ... a full $10000 over the Civic Hybrid. Even though the Prius looks awesome and is more fuel efficient than the Civic Hybrid ... its just too expensive for me. Interestingly the difference in pricing between the 2 cars is just a couple of thousand dollars in the US. Not sure why Toyota likes to price it so much higher here in Canada. Oh well ... their loss.

I am pretty darn happy with my 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid.

The First 24 hours

2007-04-05T22:59:00.000-04:00

Our Civic Hybrid is now enjoying its second night in our possession. Its parked in the garage right now as it will be every night (hopefully) for a long long time. My first impressions ... its a great car. Maybe my opinion isn't very objective coz this is our first ever "new" car. And you never know ... it might be our last too :)

Anyways I am thoroughly enjoying it. It drives nice and smooth. The "new car" smell isn't over-whelming so that's nice. Driving the car can be a bit distracting though. The digital speedometer definitely tries to grab your attention every time it changes. And then there is the "instantaneous Fuel Consumption Display - iFCD. Its to the left of the speedometer and my eyes keep darting back to it every few seconds. Its like a game ... the aim is to drive in a super optimal way ... keeping as few of the bars lit as possible. And you can't help but get sucked in to it.

Its right there so you can't really ignore it. And if it stays high ... you are bound to try and get it down. And once you are able to do it ... you have to do it again and again ... eventually aiming for a consistent low "score" :) What's the prize?? Fewer trips to the gas station. And bragging rights. So far I have crossed the 200 km mark and my overall fuel economy (FE) is 5.7 l/100 kms. That translates to a bit over 17.5 kms/litre. Already more than 50% better than the economy numbers of our Honda Accord.

The official fuel economy numbers are 4.7 and 4.3 l/100kms for city and highway driving respectively. My aim is to hit 5 l/100kms (20 km/l). If I can manage that ... I'll be happy. Will I hit it ... keep reading ... time will tell.

Sweet ride

2007-04-05T01:37:00.000-04:00

So after a wait of 4 days ... it was finally time to pick up the car. Our brand new 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid. On my way to work this morning I stopped at the bank to pick up the bank draft for the payment. And then a quick 5 minute call to my insurance company and insurance was set up for the car. All that was left now was to go and pick it up.

So after work we all got together and went to the dealership. Spent the first few minutes doing the paperwork. Our salesperson then showed us the keys ... the manuals ... the warranty cards ... and the ownership papers. We also got a tiny bottle of the touch-up paint in case of dings. And then finally it was time to go get the car. We were led down into the garage and took a few minutes checking out the car exterior. Everything of course looked great. After that he spent a few minutes explaining the interior workings. He didn't really know that I had already browsed through the instruction manual (downloaded online) and I didn't really say anything. After that he drove us out and we parked ... took a few pictures and then it was time to drive off.

I spent a few more minutes admiring the spotless car. I took pictures from all angles fully aware that this car will never be "new" again ... ever. The interior was too damn clean and I was almost scared to step inside ... afraid of messing up the mats. And the rainy weather outside didnt help either. I also took pictures of the odometer ... at a grand total of 10.3 kms. The last car we bought had 50437 kms. So it felt a bit strange sitting in this absolutely new car.

Once the photo-session was done, I turned on the car and checked the current fuel economy numbers (a dismal 11.8 l/100kms). Soon I set it to drive and started my first drive in the car. It felt great for sure. A very smooth ride. And it took a while getting used to all the information available to the driver. There's the digital speedometer and the super interesting current fuel economy guage. I almost spent too much time looking at it. Trying my best to get the numbers as low as possible.

And at the end of the day ... I currently have about 97 kms on it and the fuel economy has moved up to 5.9 l/100kms. Not too shabby at all. I've read that the fuel economy isnt the best till after the first 1500 kms of break-in period. I'm looking forward to that. But already these are the best fuel economy numbers I have ever had. So it can only get better.

I look forward to lots of driving on this lovely car. Hopefully it'll be problem free. And every time I look at it, I am glad we picked this color - Fluorite Silver Metallic. Its got a super bluish tinge to it. And the interior is just awesome. I'll post pictures soon.

The car

2007-04-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

So after tilting towards the Alabaster Silver Metallic for a long time - I liked the blue interior - we finally decided to go for the Fluorite Silver Metallic. The interior is still two-tone but way way lighter than the blue one on the other silver. And the Silver on the exterior has a bluish tone to it. Looks great in the sun.

Hopefully we'll manage to keep the interior clean for atleast a day ;)

As mentioned in the previous post, we also added the block heater. So far in all my years of owning a car I have never ever used the block heater. However I read on the Hybrid forums that a block heater is really useful for improving fuel economy. So now I'll actually have to use it :)

Other than that the car seems to come with everything ... remote keyless entry, power windows, power and heated mirrors, aux input to play music from my iPod, telescoping steering and a whole lot of other stuff that I hope to explore as soon as we get the keys.

The negotiations ...

2007-03-31T23:43:00.000-04:00

Before I started my purchase process I managed to read a bunch of articles online about how to go about it. And based on the advice offered ... the first thing I did was to send an email to all local dealerships. I indicated that I was looking for a 2007 Civic Hybrid and I needed a price quote from them. I also mentioned that I was soliciting quotes to figure out where to buy thus hinting that they better give me their best price.

The first email I received was a response from a dealership indicating that they would only sell at MSRP. Bummer. But that disappointment was shortlived. Pretty soon I'd received emails from about 3 dealers each one indicating that I'd get $1000 off MSRP. A few emails back and forth and I wasn't seeing much progress beyond that. The message seemed to be ... "come in and we'll talk about it".

So thats what I decided to do. On a sunny Saturday I started early and visited one dealership. After about 15 mins, I was told that the best they could do was another $50 off. So off I went to the other dealership. Went in and started talking. The guy was friendly and was pretty upfront. He showed me his invoice price ($1575 less than MSRP) and said that he needed to make a $500 profit. So he'd give me $1075 off. A few more minutes and we finally settled on $26550 plus taxes. This price included the car (obviously), freight and PDI, AC tax and the cost for a block heater that I wanted added on. So my net cost would be just over $30000.

And thanks to the $4000 rebates available in Ontario ($2000 from the provincial government and another $2000 from the federal government), it will end up costing me about $26000. Not too surprisingly, all dealers manage to bring up these rebates during negotiations ... as if they're paying for it. Its my money as a tax payer that is being used to pay for these rebates. Anyways ... for sure these rebates have made it a bit more difficult to negotiate with the dealers. They are less willing to give you great deals.

At the end of it all ... I think I could've played hard ball and managed to squeeze out a few more bucks but honestly I was exhausted and just wanted to get this over with. I had spent enough time researching and negotiating. Now I could stop worrying about how to get the best deal ... and instead I could start worrying about coming up with all the $$$ to pay for it. I'll start doing that tomorrow.

A crazy idea

2007-03-30T00:16:00.000-04:00

So we were following used car sales in our area and checking out ones that interested us. And then one fine day in early March, I was checking out the news on CBC's website. And there was a tiny mention of the upcoming federal budget. The government was busy making environment related announcements every other day. And so when I read the article on the upcoming budget I noticed that there were rumors about some sort of incentives for hybrid vehicles.

That kind of got me thinking if it would make sense to even consider a hybrid. Anyways it was really back-burner thinking as I was still concentrating only on used cars. And then of course the budget came and it was announced that there was going to be upto $2000 of rebates available for fuel-efficient vehicles. So I started thinking about it a bit more than before. But the $26000 MSRP still scared me. That was a lot of money and all logical thinking pointed towards used cars. The big D word ... Depreciation. Why throw money away unnecessarily.

Anyways we did decide to go take a test drive. I liked it. But the salesperson seemed intent on not wanting to sell one. He basically spent all his time trying to convince us that the hybrid was not the way to go. We left the dealership laughing. He didn't know that if there was any hope of us buying a new car ... it would be a Hybrid. If we weren't buying a Hybrid ... we weren't buying anything else new.

So the hybrid went back to the back-burner again coz of all the concerns about the battery life and cost and everything else. But it was not totally forgotten. And then suddenly earlier this week we started considering the Civic Hybrid much more seriously. Partly because we hadn't seen anything super attractive in the used car market (at least for the price we were willing to pay). And partly because thanks to the government rebates, the Hybrid appeared to be only marginally more expensive compared to a used car over the long term.

My calculations seemed to indicate that over the long term, the Civic Hybrid would end up costing us just about $1000 more. So we figured why not seriously consider this and enjoy a new car for a change. If we don't buy it when the various levels of government are offering a total of $4000 cash back, then we will never ever get around to buying a new car.

So we are now seriously contemplating the 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid.

The story so far ...

2007-03-30T00:02:00.000-04:00

So we've sort of been in the market for a second car for a little while. Since we have one car right now, there hasn't been a real urgency. Which was kind of nice. The lack of urgency allows us to look around for the right car rather than buy the first one we lay our eyes on. [Been there done that]

Now I've always been a used car person. The first car was a 8 year old Mazda that we kept for a bit over a year. Then we bought a 9 year old Honda which is serving us well to this day (245000 kms and counting). And then there was the 4 year old Nissan. Obviously that one was relatively new compared to the other two. And it had just over 50000 kms on it when we bought it. And we've been pretty happy with the used cars. They're cheaper than buying new and give the same results.

So obviously when we started looking, we were totally focussed on used cars. Somewhere along the line, we changed track and ended up attracted to the 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid. Hence the title ... "Driving in the Hybrid Lane".