Jacksonville, FL man claimed '07 HCH didn't live up to EPA estimates

Guy is a clown.
Notice there is no quote about the actual mileage he gets from his conventional Civic? Will he now admit he was wrong trading the HCH for a conventional civic, no bloody way!!
Oh well, he did buy a honda, why oh why would you buy a honda unless Toyota have run out of cars?

 

Geeeez, I have to admire this guy as he literally managed to do what is impossible for many HCH-2 owners to do.

At least he got quite a bit on the re-sale/trade-in value of his hybrid and the good thing about this story is that the poor car finally has a good chance of finally getting a proper home.
For some people, hybrid ownership is hardly an ideal relationship.

Hey patsparks, what's wrong with your mileage?

Cheers;

MSantos

 

I can remember back in the 70's some guy from Florida had a Ford Pinto, which he did something to the carburetor, drove from Florida to NY and 3 reporters got in the car and the driver, and they had some kind of bottle in the front of the car with one gallon of gas and drove in NYC and was averaging 100 mpg, it was on the news back then for 3 days and then never heard about it again, and I have tried searching everywhere on the internet of this story only to come up empty. So this story is very similiar to the story reported back in the 70's and now no one hears about any of this..I am just wondering if anyone else remembers it?

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=101986

 

"They said I would get 49 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway, I actually got 26-mpg in the city and 30-mpg on the highway," says Downs.
Downs complained to Honda of America. He said they told him the vehicle was operating properly and that the problem was his driving habits.
"They said you have to drive 25 miles an hour in the city and 45 miles an hour on the highway, no one drive those speeds," says Downs.
Downs refused to accept the Honda's reasoning. And last month the automaker bought back his 2007 Civic Hybrid at a loss of $3,000. Down now drives a standard 2008 Honda Civic and he's pleased. He says it will be awhile before he buys another hybrid vehicle.
"I get better miles per gallon with my standard Honda than I did with the Hybrid," says Downs.

I only got this far - found these OBVIOUS 3 lies (in bold) .... and quit reading.

... Brad

 

Have fun needling each other, but in the meantime I'm curious how you do with the HCH II in city driving ? Please also mention if any extreme measures like turning off the car are used to gain your results. I'm not anti-Honda by any means, but most of our car miles are (sub)urban.

Also, no luck finding out the engine power drain during 'glide' ?

 

Honda makes excellent cars and treats their customers much better after the sale. Other things being equal, I'd have much preferred to buy from Honda than from Toyota. Unfortunately for Honda, other things were not equal: the Prius is a better car. I do not question the reasoning of people who prefer the HCH. They just have different priorities than I have. The Prius is at present the only car I'd buy from Toyota. If EVs and hybrids did not exist, I'd be in a Civic.

 

If your goal is the best fuel economy, the HCH-II can be ROYAL pain to drive in heavy stop and go for most people. However, the better you understand and adapt to the instrumentation and the gas pedal feel, the better you'll do. In this type of city driving regimen the PRIUS is without a doubt the best car for the average person who "just drives it".

With that said, I don't believe in a "just drive it" approach. To me that approach has mediocrity written all over it which only reinforces a lack of appreciation for the true potential these cars can offer.

On the Civic hybrid II, I will usually get (and show how to get) 55-65 MPG tanks during the summer for city driving. I get 5-10 MPG higher on the Prius with the same level of effort when I drive it. I don't turn off engine or anything of the sort. What I do in one car I basically do to the other. The key is to drive by the instruments which is what the designers intended them for.

On the highway, the HCH-II is at the top of the game especially if the goal is to reach and exceed 70-90 MPG at 60 MPH. No joke.

I actually had a bit of trouble getting these figures out and to get them I had to go out for a drive with the HDS plugged in. Honda does not provide any help in this area at all, believe me, I tried. Anyway, I managed to measure the EV watts needed to prevent a glide from slowing the car down and the micro-assists I measured weighed in at 200Wh-500Wh.

Now, take this with a grain of salt because I did not get these figures in the flatest road possible. Also, consider the parasitic drag induced by the CVT, the spinning crankshaft, tire friction, CoD of 0.27 and other variables that we may be forgetting/ignoring and some vary depending on the vehicle speed (35-50 MPH).

To emphasize, during a glide the gas engine consumes 0 GPH (no fuel used). Glide distances between a Prius and an HCH-II are roughly identical with a possible glide distance edge for the Prius depending on the starting speed.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

The absolute worst I've gotten driving with a cold engine is about 35 MPG, but we average 45-47 without a lot of effort. We keep up with traffic, but glide when possible and when we're not holding up traffic. I used to keep tire pressures at 45 psi, but have gone to 35 psi for a better ride, with no appreciable impact on economy. I don't see any way you could possibly get 30 MPG on the highway, unless you constantly race up to speed, and then slam on the brake, followed by a full-throttle speed-up etc. I have gotten 40 MPG going a steady 80 MPH in west Texas.
I suspect the HCH gets better highway mileage than the Prius, since the Prius has to keep the engine running over 35 MPH to keep from overspinning one of the motors. However, the Prius has an edge in city driving, since it runs the engine less than the HCH does in those conditions.
We could just not tolerate the seats in the Prius, and the HCH handles much better. We hope the new Prius will have better seats, but in any case, we'll wait until about 2012 for a new car. Hope to see an HCH that can do better in city mileage-wise by then. We just like Hondas better--it seems a friendlier cart, and it doesn't have the stupid Toyota nav system!

 

My Prius doesn't have a stupid nav system either.
My worst mileage ever was 38mpg at 80mph with 3 passengers and luggage in a strong cross wind.

 

ya know, the MOST alarming thing about this article is the idiot who decided to waste the paper the story was written on.