Honda UK has dropped ALL hybrids from its range!

Wait wait wait, back up the truck: are you telling me that the Gen 2 Volt is basically just a standard plug-in parallel hybrid and not a serial anymore?? That was the whole beauty of the idea, that the generator power source was irrelevant... could have been diesel, gasoline, fuel cell, anything... Hrmph.

 

Well, even in Gen 1, at the right RPMs, the engine would be clutched in.

With a diesel, the rev range would be largely the same, so you'd still be able to use it, assuming the torque curve was friendly to it.

With a fuel cell, you'd use a completely different design for the powertrain, and it would look like an EV powertrain, or the traction motor of a Gen 1 Volt.

In any case, the Gen 2 Volt's transmission does have a one-way clutch so both motors can contribute to propelling the vehicle (just like the Prius Prime will), or with a depleted battery, it behaves more like a Prius in concept (although with more complex modes, and therefore more complex power flows). And, the engine lags what happens with the accelerator, to try to make it feel like it's a generator responding to depletion of the battery, more than an integral part of the propulsion system.

 

With the rule changes, it should be easier for most cars to beat the window sticker MPG figures now.

 

Is there really "national pride" ? Maybe I spend my time with people like me, who aren't so fussed about national pride.. At any rate, a lot of people buy manuals here, because well Europe and most of the world have always been concerned with fuel economy. Today ofc, automatics are better for that.

That, and as most people learn in manuals, they think that automatics might be a bit hard to drive. Certainly when I first drove my Prius, I was quite shaky!

 

Similar experience here, as you say most people learn to drive manuals. From my perspective there are several factors, first of all if you learn to drive and pass your test in an auto then your licence only allows you to drive an auto going forward. This means that most people learn to drive a manual so they can drive both.

Auto's in the past have also carried a stigma, down to them being easier to pass your test in as well as the performance being worse. This side has started to change in recent years with the emergence of high performance sports cars and hybrids using autos.

The final thing is the increase in cost, the difference in price for example in a manual to an auto ford mondeo is considerable. A basic mondeo costs £21,445 ($28,208)the cheapest auto version is £27,005 ($35,522) Admittedly the cheapest auto is a higher spec, but even the manual version of the same spec is quite a lot cheaper at £23,495 ($30,905). The price is the biggest negative for UK buyers and means that mainly only people that have to buy autos buy them.

The Prius helps break this pattern of thinking as you can only get it as an auto and that this isn't the main driver for buying one.

 

Agreed, RE: driving both. I've told my sister to learn in an auto though, owing to her dyspraxia, seeing as though well every one will drive autos in the future

I did however live with a Chinese girl, for a short while, and she drove auto because she couldn't learn to drive manual, though also she managed to damage her (brand new) VW Polo by reversing in to the driveway, but luckily for her, only her lights cracked. There was no damage to any thing else. We didn't intentionally park near her after that

I guess it also depends on how you buy cars, what kinda life you've been brought up with etc.. I got a 2011 Skoda Fabia. Cost of £4.7K. That was in 2015, so..four years old. A typical middle class way of buying cars ie: buy cars when they're four years old, and sell at eight years old. I betrayed my Asian "relative poverty" upbringing


Now, I got the(£3K) 2007 Prius. It sure as hell has done like 100K more miles but it is so much better than a hell of a lot of new cars today! Though you are correct, otherwise I guess. I mean it depends on your car buying behaviour. I quite like this new method of mine - buy cars at 10 years old instead and keep for 4 years

My next car will likely be an auto too, only because my next car will be another hybrid. I actually prefer to drive manuals, but hey I quite like the Prius!

 

A lot of people who buy new replace their cars either every 2 to 3 years, either because they've bought them on 2 or 3 year finance deals, also once a car hits 3 years old it has to be tested every year to pass road worthy tests. Both of these mean we have a lot of young cars in the second hand car market hence driving the price down.

What I find interesting is that Canada sold 1.9m cars last year compared to 2.6m in the U.K. which has double the pop, seeing these figures I'd assume that depreciation would be similar. Mind I believe cars are cheaper there as well people keeping new cars for longer, so hence they don't depreciate so quickly.

 

Ahhh I think it's the case in most of the world tbh. It might be a tad different in the commonwealth too. Actually I think it is a similar drop in value, in Pakistan (And therefore I assume, India too)

That would also explain why lots of Americans buy cars brand new, because well your cars hold their value really well. Toyota/Honda hold their value well though

I think there's a reason why the middle classes tend to buy cars that are 4-8 years old!

 

I assume then your cars depreciate like our cars in the UK depreciate? Cars in Europe depreciate very slowly too

Though our fuel is really quite pricey! Though our version of the DMV (DVLA) is far better than what Americans have

 

Fair enough. I figured that as this was the case in the UK and Pakistan, I thought it applied to the commonwealth in general!

 

Nah you're like the good child, that turned a lot more liberal than their parents, but you have some weird kinks. The USA is like the bad child that went astray and now has too much power

Seriously, I see Canada as UK #2, but better.