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Honda Civic Hybrid MPG-Real World Numbers

540 messages,  Last post on Mar 25, 2013 at 6:51 PM

You are in the Honda Civic Hybrid Forum.

What is this discussion about? Honda Civic, Hybrid Cars, Fuel Efficiency (MPG), Sedan

Messages Page 55 of 55

#537 of 540 MPG pre and post update by bryan772

Jul 09, 2012 (8:07 pm)

2009 Civic Hybrid
 
47City/55Hwy before update
Freeway Range ~620 miles
Frequent 200 mile round trip drive resulted in just under 3/4 tank remaining gas
 
45City/33Hwy after update
Freeway Range ~350 miles
Same 200 mile trips result in 1/3 tank remaining
 
After ~50 MPH, RPMs remains high after update. On 75MPH flat freeway car stays at ~2800 - 3500 RPM (used to be 1800 - 2100). Feels as if last transmission gear or overdrive was removed if it was a regular transmission. With such a small tank, cruise distance greatly reduced as well. Honda refuses to help.

#538 of 540 06 HCH by zeorai

Dec 04, 2012 (11:40 am)

This thread hasn't seen much activity, but I'll toss in my 2 cents too. I picked up our 06 HCH in 09 and it was quite good until the software recall. We consistently got 44-46 mpg no matter how we drove the car, quite an amazing feat. We had it for about 2 years prior to the recall. The only complaint would be the LRR tires. Those things are terrible when it's wet, but being in Socal that doesn't get to be much of an issue.
 
When we needed to change tires I opted for the non-LRR tires. Mileage did go down, it went from the previous 44-46 to 40-43 mpg. None of this was based off the computer, but calculations I did while filling up. We had 2 tanks of gas with the new tires before the recall and yes both tanks were 40-43 mpg.
 
Then I was foolish and took the car to a Honda dealership for service and they performed the recall and other stuff I needed to get done. Mileage dropped precipitously to 32 mpg and the noticeable lack of battery started as all the other posters have mentioned. I took the car back and they said everything was fine. I even had the service manager in the car when the car dumped the the battery from nearly full to 0 and start recharging and we had no electric assist. I asked him, "Is this normal? It never did this before." His answer, "Yes it's perfectly normal." He then proceeded to tell me I didn't have the LRR tires, which I know would not cause a 10 mpg drop from the previous two tanks. Ah...there's nothing like being lied to straight to your face.
 
So that's our story. I can tell the IMA battery in our HCH is obviously low and the recall is managing to prevent the battery from an early demise, and keep Honda from paying for a replacement. From everything I've ready I think if your IMA battery is ok, then the recall doesn't upset mileage that much, possibly not at all. But if your IMA battery is marginal, then the recall will have a serious affect. From the volume of posts and stories around the net since the recall it seems that Honda has a significant percentage of IMA batteries meeting an early demise. If they didn't I doubt they would have put resources in to the recall to contain the costs associated with the replacements.
 
It's been a year or so after the recall and now that the tires are more worn down I can sometimes eek out 38 mpg with serious effort. But I usually get 35 mpg and sometimes 32. The program is obviously tailored to LRR tires. It's not bad, but the constant battery reboots make driving the car quite challenging, especially getting on the freeway. The car is almost paid off now and the payment is ridiculously low so it's not really worth trading it in. Although every time the battery reboots I think about it. Which is pretty frequent! Problem is, I don't know what I could get to replace it and keep such a low payment. Although from a driving perspective nearly anything would be better! As a matter of principle we won't be buying any more Honda's. Honda made a calculated risk that this wouldn't lose them too many customers. I hope that calculus is wrong. It'll make them produce better products in the long run. Products that I won't be buying, but hopefully will benefit others. Honda seems to have addressed the issue in the 2012 HCH, but too late for me and for Honda.

#539 of 540 Loved my car . . . Now, not so much by justsaayin

Jan 09, 2013 (9:37 pm)

My Civic hybrid mileage continues to be lower and lower. I bought it new. . . a 2009. The hybrid battery has been replaced 2x by about 55,000 mi. (Scary) I even get poor mileage on the 5 between L.A. and San Fran. Can't blame it on a jack rabbit take-off in that case. I need to keep this car after it's paid off and had liked it enough that I wanted to. . . Just the same, the crummy and crummier gas mileage is a real dud. I am curious as to how off the number "estimated gas mileage" can be in the judge's mind and still be acceptable.

#540 of 540 Mileaga not so great by andy176

Mar 25, 2013 (6:51 pm)

Replying to: justsaayin (Jan 09, 2013 9:37 pm)
Bought a used 2003 HCH last year. The battery had been replaced several years prior. The car gets 34 mpg in town. I wonder if this is a software problem and whether it can be fixed. Probably not. Also, the car rattles a lot, something in the passenger door. Besides the problems, I'm happy with the car. For the price it runs well.

Messages Page 55 of 55

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