2012 Honda Civic Hybrid achieves 68.7mpg in HybridCars testing

Its more likely a "Prius premium". What else costs exactly $24,050? The 2011 Prius III.

 

Smaller engine displacement, electric motor assist assist. No mystery.

 

Actually, a number of things:

- CVT offers superior gearing at higher speeds
- Lower CoD with added aero treatments
- Two spark plugs per cylinder and two mode VTEC.
- Engine is lighter and sports additional friction reduction tech
- As Mendel said, smaller displacement engine
- Electrically powered climate control
- LRR tires
- Lighter alloy wheels

...and so on.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

Review: 2012 Honda Civic EX | The Truth About Cars is pretty critical of the 2012 Civic's interior. I guess VW's and Honda's decisions to cut back on their interiors was bad timing when many others are sprucing theirs up.

 

Thats not so hot.I drove my Prius three 66 miles from 58 miles south of Lexington Ky driving north mostly on highway 75. driving 71 mph for 58 miles then the rest was city roads.I got 74.6.Im sure that trip is pretty much down hill as im sure his trip was. we won again.

 

I give some credence to this review but not all. One drive in a new Civic Si would wake his nice person up. What is he expecting from an EX? There are quite a few layers on the dash and door panels, but the layouts seem quite good.

'Fun to drive' - that's just a marketing term journalists like to throw around. Overrated criteria for grocery getters.

Sure, I'd like to see a bunch more Cruizes around here, but I already know, these Civics will be all over the place. People go for comfort, economy and reliability which I'm sure the Civics will deliver.

 

68mpg you say . . . WOW . . . I beter go get my party hat !!

http://usera.imagecave.com/w4abj/HybridStuff/9-7-9mpg.jpg


Way to go Honda ... and my 7 year old nickel battery standard Prius salutes you too!

 

Yes, http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-sedan/specifications.aspx says no A/C and no C/C. The DX exists to give a low headline price.

The HCH is equipped somewhere between the LX and EX rather than LX. Of course, you still can't fold the rear seat down and it's still a sedan.

As to the question why it's so expensive compared to a regular Civic, part of the reason must be that it's made in Japan while the Civic is made in Ohio. Of course, you could say similar things about the Prius Two in comparison to Corolla pricing.

 

Good job on the MPG's! I hear ya about Honda ... be nice if they cave in and go full power split. Lame to have an IMA that idles away gas in a freakin' parking lot or drive through. The '2 motor plug in' is a cardboard demo platform at this point on honda.com

The way this Coupe drives and is, I could be a Honda lifer, but not if they don't get serious about standing up to Toyota's HSD and all soon.

 

Out of curiosity, what's so compelling about the 2012 HCH? Is there a particular combination, equipment level or set of features/advantages that makes it more compelling than a Gen 3 Prius?

From a quick look, it does seem like one can get a HCH w/nav and/or leather for less than a Gen 3 Prius but if one compared a Prius model II to a base HCH, the HCH doesn't seem like a good idea.

Aside from the equipment level, the HCH still has considerably less power than the Gen 3 Prius, inferior fuel economy, the inferior IMA system and less cargo flexibility.

 

I find it interesting that the discussion on MPG goes into accessories, cargo space, handling, etc. but little to no discussion of safety. When we were shopping for this car, I looked at safety ratings first.

NHTSA stars (new rating criteria):
2011 Prius: 5 overall, 4 front crash, 5 side crash, 4 rollover
2011 HCH: 3 overall, 4 front crash, 2 side crash, 4 rollover

Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive due to driving daily past the spot where my Taurus was totalled by a snoozing driver, or because I have children riding with me, but I found these to be different enough to put the Prius way at the top of the shopping list.

 

Some Honda-ites seem not to like HSD calling Prius a 'gaint golf cart' , etc ... For some reason they just don't like to go EV. Weird.

I'd throw a fit having a so-called hybrid (ahem, IMA) that cannot do EV.

I've posted up on insightcentral.net. I think their mod tried a 3rd gen, pressed the EV button early on and was bent out of shape that it slips out of EV at low speed. I think he's got extra batteries in his Insight that makes it EV better than 3rd gen.

Anyrate, HSD > IMA. Prius > HCH

Some people have good things to say about how the 2nd gen HCH drives. Must be awfully slow.

 

This is a pretty much proof that Lithium will NOT do magic to MPG. NiMH is hard to beat especially the durability for the price.

Hyundai Sonata hybrid with Lithium takes more trunk space than Camry hybrid or Fusion hybrid with NiMH.

 

The 2011 HCH crash test ratings are of no use since the 2012 is a redesign.

FWIW, some HCH fanboys slammed me about why I bought my 2nd gen Prius because apparently, the HCH did better in some crash test (not sure if it was by NHTSA or IIHS) than my 2nd gen Prius. I replied, well, the results for one of the cars (I believe the current HCH of the time) weren't released by the time I got my 06 in January 06 and the HCH was out of the running for a # of reasons anyway.

 

We've got both a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid and a 2010 Prius sitting in the garage right now, and for the last 2 weeks. We're just babysitting the Civic, but have driven it a bit to keep the battery/engine/brakes happy.

Both cars have their strong points. As far as mpg, in my experience the Civic is ahead for highway mpg (if you work at it), and behind in town.

 

Sure it can... and on the highway by almost doubling it. But as Mendel stated, you have to "work at it" a bit.

Why do you think of all the hybrid vehicle's we had at our disposal back in 2008, CleanMPG picked the HCH-II to set the MPG world record across the 48 states? As a recap, it did so with a full complement of drivers on board and their luggage and through November ambient temps.


Lastly, I would take Bradley's brief stint and results with the HCH-III with some cautious reservation.

First, while he mentioned the use of some hypermiling techniques he did not indicate which and what order. In fact, anyone can claim to hypermile but it is hard to judge the results without knowing the underlying methodology and which techniques of the hypermiling toolkit he used.

Second, as with any hybrid vehicle, you need a good amount of time behind the wheel before you can find out what its top FE potential is. He almost made the claim to have found it and I find that a little concerning since it has always taken us many months for the community to find those same sweet spots in just about any hybrid on the market.

We also have to be careful not to take a page from the narrow minded Honda fans and avoid making similar claims about cars we clearly don't fully know. Even though I personally know some of its members, that is primarily why I don't even frequent IC. They sometimes bash the Prius with the same old arguments that just don't help and that is a huge turn off for me.

The Prius has no equal in terms of fuel efficiency in the hands of the average driver, period. But... in the hands of a driver who truly cares about driving regimen, environmental performance and ultimate FE and is willing to drive any hybrid with that goal, then an IMA equipped vehicle (particularly the HCH) has many compelling attributes worth considering. I certainly have and do not regret it for one second.


Cheers;

MSantos

 

I guess the Civic is doing okay for a compact car. Too small for me. In fact, I want to get the Prius v when it comes out, which, btw, nearly matches the Civic in mpg.

I did think the "sedan" distinction is worthless. Somehow that makes up for the fact that this compact barely exceeds the mpg rating of similarly sized non-hybrid models, like the Fiesta, Elantra, and Cruze. I think those come in sedan models. If you want diesel, you could even get a 2012 Passat mid-size and get one mpg less than the Civic.

Honestly, a 44 mpg rating from a compact hybrid is laughable. Yeah, I said it. :fear: