The Temple of VTEC - Honda and Acura Enthusiasts Online - Articles - I think awareness will set in a bit later than you'd think...: Page 3

The engine too doesn't feel all that different from other Civic powertrains. Yes, it feels as though its geared a little tall, especially in 5th gear (which could theoretically reach 166 mph if the engine had the power to reach the rev limiter at 6000 rpm), but it moves along at a fair pace. In reality, the torque heavy bottom end makes it feel faster than it is. The 0-60 time of 11.1 seconds (see our test results at the end of the article) places the Hybrid quite far down the automotive performance ladder. Its time is comparable to lower grade minivans, four cylinder compact pickups, Landrovers, Kias and some older family sedans (the 4cyl automatic Camry from a few years back comes to mind). It's a good two seconds back of its sibling the Civic EX Sedan (with 5-spd) as well.

But ultimately that's o.k. for several reasons. Number one, you can still merge onto the freeway at a safe pace. Even a short uphill on-ramp onto a 70-mph interstate posed no problems as long as I shifted at 6000 rpm. Number two, very few people accelerate at anywhere near the capacity of their vehicles in everyday driving. I still found myself having to check up while people dawdled along, taking 15 seconds to reach 40-45 mph. But make no mistake I wasn't carving up traffic like I might in a faster car. Number three, whenever someone blows by in a faster car, you can always be assured that you're probably getting twice the gas mileage that he is � it's a more satisfying feeling than you might expect.

Yes, saving gas can actually be satisfying, even for a confirmed lead foot like myself (just got a speeding ticket last month). The Civic Hybrid urges you to save just a little more gas, to try a little harder to get the instantaneous mileage gauge to read higher, to bring up your trip average another few tenths of a mpg. The gauge package plays a key role in this. It combines a battery charge gauge, along with an "assist/charge" meter that tells you how much power the electric motor is supplying, or how much charge its pouring back into the batteries. Combined with the fuel economy readouts, its quite effective in keeping you interested in saving gas. The only drawback is that there is enough data, changing rapidly enough, that it can be a little distracting. A heads up display might aid both safety and economy. The technique I arrived at after 1000 miles is to accelerate as quickly as possible in 1st and 2nd gears to the speed you want to be at and then shift into 5th gear and cruise. An Insight owner later confirmed this method as pretty much standard practice for owners of that Honda hybrid trendsetter. Acceleration in higher gears is a matter of gentle throttle applications and gradual changes in speed.

Traffic takes on a different look too from behind the wheel of a Civic Hybrid. It didn't bother me anymore if people were going slower than I normally like to drive. Heck, that meant better gas mileage. But what did tick me off were people who liked to "rubber-band" back and forth. Changing speeds is not the way to get good mileage! Why can't they maintain a steady pace? Then there are the corners. In the Hybrid you take them as fast as you can, forcing the tiny Bridgestones to protest. You don't want to bleed off speed in a corner and have to reaccelerate after all. Momentum is your friend and in the Hybrid you take maximum advantage Newton's laws.

And make no mistake, even a wannabe Senna like me can't help but get excellent fuel economy in this car. The Civic Hybrid is rated at 46 city and 51 highway. In our testing, we average just less than 41 mpg over 985 miles. When we removed the last fillup from our calculations (during which we did dyno testing, 0-60 runs and other performance tests returning 31 mpg) the average mileage came up to just under 43 mpg. Not quite up to the rated numbers, but then again, I can't get anywhere close to the rated numbers in my S2000 either. Heck, my CRX, which is 500 lbs lighter and more aerodynamic only averages 28-29 mpg in mixed driving � so please take into account the driver variable. Our best highway mileage was 48 mpg with an average speed of 75 mph, which is not exactly dawdling. It seems quite plausible that a more careful, slightly slower driver would easily hit the rated mileage numbers. One thing to note here is that the trip mileage gauge on the dash is a little optimistic. It usually read 2 mpg optimistic in freeway driving and 5-6 mpg optimistic in city driving.

The hybrid drivetrain does throw a couple of quirks at the driver, which take some getting used to. First, and most bothersome for me, was the idle shutoff feature. Originally implemented on the Insight, the engine is designed to shut off when the vehicle is stopped at a light. You wouldn't think this would save much gas, but I watched my trip mileage drop by a few tenths of a mpg during a long light when I creatively disabled the shutoff. The problem isn't with the concept, but with the execution. Frankly, I couldn't be sure when the shutoff would activate, and even worse, whether or not it would turn the engine back on when I wanted it to! As best as I could determine, the shutoff feature will only be active when the engine is fully warmed, the IMA battery is above a certain minimum charge level and the drain on the engine (lights, A/C, etc.) is not too high. During the week I spent with the car, it only activated twice at night. But occasionally, when I went to accelerate away from a light, the engine would not restart. I never quite figured it out, but apparently you need to disengage and reengage the clutch after you've come to a stop and the idle stop feature has activated (tranny in neutral). Otherwise, the reactivation sequence was not consistent (at least not with any criteria I could identify).

The second unusual driving characteristic of the hybrid system, and one that didn't bother me a bit, was the regenerative braking function. Essentially, if the IMA battery is not fully charged, the control system will seek to recharge it whenever possible. It does this by activating the electric motor as a generator whenever the car is decelerating. Under light deceleration it acts like slightly more noticeable compression braking. When actually braking, the system will go into a more aggressive strategy. After the first time you notice it, it becomes completely transparent, and is actually kind of nice. The only time you'll notice it after that is when it doesn't activate � i.e. when the batteries are fully charged. This is such a rare occurrence that it really doesn't happen except, perhaps, during a long highway trip. You'll have to apply a bit more brake pedal force when the regeneration doesn't kick in, but it really isn't a big deal.