# Who owns a hybrid car? (pic)



## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

We have an 05 Civic.... love the car and the gas milage except that it fluxuates so much...... I can get 32-38 mpg around town; get on the highway and it will get up into the high 50s. We looked at the toyotas as well when we decided to buy one and did not like the second generation prius at all. In reality its mileage is only a little better than the civic and not the 60 mpgs that they boast. I know people who have gotten better than that in both models, but driving conditions impact it as badly as it does the civic. I also felt more comfotable with the system that had been around longer than one that has only been on the market for a few years. The prius has very poor visability out the back and they have a backup camera to help with that some. The prius drive system is independant of eachother and its electric motor can run seperate of the gas engine, however the prius eletric motor is 60 hp and will drain the battery down within a few minutes of running by itself......V. the civics 20 hp electric assist. The prius will not operate at all if the hybrid drive battery fails, where the civic still has gas power less the electric assist.


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## Ana Bluebird (Dec 8, 2002)

Thanks for the information. We've been thinking about a Hybrid, but just can't bring ourselves to spend that kind of money.


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

We waited until we were due for a new car and then bought the civic fresh off lease...... the cost was the same as what the same year gas model would have costed us used. Saved us about $10.000 over a new hybrid and it only has 39000 miles.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
We have 2005 Prius that we now have 40K miles on.
Overall, we have been very happy with it, and use it for almost all our driving.

I figure we have saved about $1800 in gasoline costs per year over driving our other car (a Honda Pilot). About the only time we use the Pilot now is right after big snow storms or hauling plywood. To my way of thinking, we have already saved more in gasoline costs than the extra the hybrid features cost us.
No troubles of any kind as yet.

Pictures etc.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Vehicles/ourprius.htm

Gary


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## swampgirl (Aug 29, 2006)

Have a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid. It's a 4-door. I don't have any pics of it. Have over 40,000 miles on it & love the good gas mileage. Have had a problem with the transmission. It's been in the shop twice & although better, still not right. It's an automatic & when going real slow, like b/t 5-10 mph, it jerks & sorta feels like you should push the clutch in--only it's an automatic. The electrical part of the car has been great.


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

That sounds like loose transmission mounts.....Or might just be the way you drive, somehow you manage to ride right between the coast and engine brake.


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

SolarGary said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> I figure we have saved about $1800 in gasoline costs per year over driving our other car (a Honda Pilot).
> ...


That is one way we justified the price.......I figured out what we would save in gas over the next 60.000 miles over the Frontier we traded in..... at 3.00 per gallon it will be over $9000.00 in savings...


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

Our 1992 Honda Civic VX and 2000 Chevy Metro 3cyl both get 35 to 40mpg in town, and 45 to 53 on the highway (EPA mileage estimates was a bit better than that, I think). Too bad the car companies won't market an inexpensive efficient car any more without making it a complex hybrid.


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## Tricky Grama (Oct 7, 2006)

Gary-

Not only am I envying your prius but also the tractor in the background!!

Patty


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Gary
One of my concerns with the prius was the keyless remote system. We make frequent 945 mile trips back to Vermont through out the year and I am curious what would happen on such a trip if the battery in the remote died in the middle of the night on such a trip? Do you carry a spare watch battery with you? If the car is running down the highway and loses signal from the remote, does it shut down or continue running?


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## Kevingr (Mar 10, 2006)

We have an '05 Prius with 50k miles on it. Love it, no problem so far. Year round we're averaging 45mpg for all driving. In the summer we get more mileage and the winter it goes down since we warm the car up on those cold MN winter mornings. The car sits outside all year, we don't have a garage.

Part of our choice in buying the car was that it looks unique, people know what you're driving. I know, sounds vane, but if I was going to spend the extra money on a hybrid I was going to make sure people knew it when I pulled up in their driveway. We looked at other cars like the Volkswagon Jetta diesel, but we felt the Prius, with the hatchback would work best for us.

Sugarbush, there is a key that's tucked away inside the remote keyless entry thingy for just such an occasion. All you need to do is pull out the key, open the door and then slide the remote key into the starter slot. It'll work just fine if the remote key fails to work for waterever reason. I've never had it lose a signal while driving, but if it did for any reason, again, all you'd need to do is slide it into the slot in the dash and it'll work fine, it doesn't need a battery in the remote to start the car.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Tricky Grama said:


> Gary-
> 
> Not only am I envying your prius but also the tractor in the background!!
> 
> Patty


The tractor is the best Ford I've ever owned 
My neighbor and I each own half.

Gary


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

Those late model 3cyl Chevy/Geo Metros (and the other clones like the Firefly and Swift) are the best bang for the fuel efficiency buck right now - and probably the simplest car built since the VW Bug.



WisJim said:


> Our 1992 Honda Civic VX and 2000 Chevy Metro 3cyl both get 35 to 40mpg in town, and 45 to 53 on the highway (EPA mileage estimates was a bit better than that, I think). Too bad the car companies won't market an inexpensive efficient car any more without making it a complex hybrid.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

sugarbush said:


> Gary
> One of my concerns with the prius was the keyless remote system. We make frequent 945 mile trips back to Vermont through out the year and I am curious what would happen on such a trip if the battery in the remote died in the middle of the night on such a trip? Do you carry a spare watch battery with you? If the car is running down the highway and loses signal from the remote, does it shut down or continue running?



Hi,
As Kevin says, you get the regular key built into the remote.

The keyless thing does have some "interesting" features:

- The remote only has to be around to start the car. If it is then removed from the area, the car keeps running, but won't restart. This can be bad if you drop off the person with the remote and continue on -- you end up across town with no way to start the car -- not that this would ever happen to me 

- We lost one of the remotes. This is a financially painful experience. They have to replace all the remotes you have with new ones. 

- Another related feature is that you can leave a pet in the car with the car "running" -- it will run the AC on the battery (its electric). When the battery gets low, the computer starts up the IC engine and recharges it, then shuts the IC engine down. This is related to the keyless in that you have to use the manual key to lock and unlock. I should say we have only done this once and only for a short time and with windows open -- its a nice feature, but I would not trust it for extended periods.


All in all, the keyless feature does kind of grow on you.

Not all the Prius models have the keyless thing. I would not have paid extra for it, but the only Prius we could get had it.

Gary


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

SolarGary said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> Not all the Prius models have the keyless thing. I would not have paid extra for it, but the only Prius we could get had it.
> ...


When we looked the dealer had three on the lot and all of them where keyless...so I figured that was standard.


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## YounGrey (Jun 7, 2007)

Sweet Ride Man! Thanks for sharing the pics and your story. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20438234/site/newsweek/

Here's one I read the other day about Honda...


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## kabri (May 14, 2002)

I've got an '03 Prius with 95,000 miles on it. No problems except had the windshield replaced and working on the 2nd set of tires. Runs perfectly! I replaced a Tahoe with this car, I've not calculated how much $ in gas I've saved over that SUV, but I know it's a lot, plus that piece of junk was breaking down and costing a lot in repairs. I drive about 60 miles a day to work. The only complaint I could possibly have is the factory stereo system sucks in my Prius, but I was too cheap to install something better. Here it after a nasty ice storm in 2004









Oh yeah, I consistantly get 50-52 MPG in summer, and 48-50 in winter.


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

To answer the question about savings in gas..... I had a Nissan frontier with 120,000 miles on it that we traded in on the civic......the civic had almost 40,000.....in the 80,000 miles that we will drive this car to catch up with the frontier we will save $11,000 if gas stays at 3.00 per gallon.


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## Durandal (Aug 19, 2007)

I am curious what the reasoning was for getting the hybrids over, say a TDI, that gets better MPG, in the same price range, is more efficient and less polluting, and and can run on off road diesel (for you tractor owners) in an emergency.

Not a flame or anything...just very curious as to the why of things.


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## kabri (May 14, 2002)

It's my understanding that hybrids such as the Prius are the 2nd cleanest emissions, 1st being an all electric or maybe also a natural gas powered car. That was part of the reason. The other is that I wanted to support the technology with my wallet. I don't think that the hybrids are the ultimate, just the best choice for the amount of driving I do and the least polluting choice I could make. Hybrids are exempt from the state regulated emissions tests here in WA because they are so clean.


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Durandal said:


> I am curious what the reasoning was for getting the hybrids over, say a TDI, that gets better MPG, in the same price range, is more efficient and less polluting, and and can run on off road diesel (for you tractor owners) in an emergency.
> 
> Not a flame or anything...just very curious as to the why of things.


Have you ever tried to find a newer TDI? I looked at VW for about a month.....could not get one that was anywhere near new and to order one from the dealer would have cost me three times what I paid for a two year old Civic. The only other option is benz and there your talking 6 or 7 times more. The diesel is also not low emissions and the new ones cannot be run on high sulfur fuel at all or vegi oil for that matter.....both screws up the injectors and voids the warranty.


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## Kevingr (Mar 10, 2006)

Durandal said:


> I am curious what the reasoning was for getting the hybrids over, say a TDI, that gets better MPG, in the same price range, is more efficient and less polluting, and and can run on off road diesel (for you tractor owners) in an emergency.
> 
> Not a flame or anything...just very curious as to the why of things.



We looked at the TDI. My wife hit all the garage sales in the area every Thursday and we decided that the Prius, with the large hatchback and fold down seats had more interior room. Personally I wanted the diesel because I didn't want the complexity of the Hybrid, but since when does my opionion matter when we buy a car. :shrug:


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