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Civic EX-L vs Prime

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by bowang, Jan 23, 2017.

  1. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The only major issue with the old IMA system was that it abused the NiMH battery, leading early death. The last year of the Civic IMA had switched to Li-ion; there is no NiMH Honda hybrid now.

    Waiting to see how Honda and Li-ion shakes out isn't a bad idea, but I think the reputation hit over the IMA taught Honda a lessen.

    A manual made it possible to 'lug' the battery by discharging it to a low amount, but the CVT models also had problems until Honda changed the software.
     
  2. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    As far as original post, I would not talk someone into Prime from an ICE Civic unless I thought they were interested in Plug_ins and you lose spare tire and cargo space in this case. If California I might see for free HOV argument.
     
  3. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    If your friend is talking about the new Civic PHEV, then economics may solve the problem for you.
    It's going to be more than 30K and it's not going to land in the US until 2018.
    Some of the same forces that are driving up the price of Primes now will probably effect the Civic more deeply because they're rumored to have more EV range, and they'll look like a Civic rather than a Prime.
    Hey.
    It happened to Honda in 2012 too.

    By then, Primes will have more of a track record, and they'll be more widely available.....but for the PHEV Civic we're comparing little more than a napkin drawing against a car that is already on the streets for now.
     
  4. Captmiddy

    Captmiddy Active Member

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    Having owned one and been on a forum with a bunch of other owners, I can say that there was more that was wrong with the old IMA system than that. It was unpredictable in behavior after a couple years, it was also not very efficient in design. While people brag all the time about exceeding the mileage rating on the Prius and other Toyota hybrid vehicles, the Civic was invariably under performing its numbers. We were getting an average of 39 MPG on the Civic which was rated at 45 MPG combined. On the Camry we were averaging 36MPG which was 34MPG combined for almost the exact same driving patterns. And yes I know there are tons of hypermilers that own the Insight who will show off their 100MPG tanks, but that was really letting the car drive you rather than you drive the car. Not to mention, in many cases, dangerous, people turning off the vehicle at highway speeds and tailgating, bad idea.

    There were all sorts of tricks and adjustments you had to do to force the system to do what it should have just done, while you can get pretty good performance from the Toyota system just by driving it.

    The new system in the Accord was one that interested me, but it is poorly available even in compliance states like Massachusetts (which did have the PHEV version available in limited quantity, and I am guessing probably pulled from NY stocks somehow because at least 2 dealers did offer to get me one) But after such a horrible experience with the Civic and the rave reviews of the Toyota system, I decided to jump ship.
     
  5. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The Accord PHEV was available in CA and NY, but Honda was allowing it to be sold out of state.

    Because of your experience and the word of mouth, I expect Honda did a better job with their latest systems. The Accord hybrid was off the market for a year as Honda moved manufacturing around and addressed possible issues.