Hello!
I'm a bran-new member here, please let me introduce myself.

My name is Steve, Im with my wife & 3 small kids. I live in Hoschton, Georgia which is a rural city about 50 Miles North East of Atlanta.
I've always been a Dodge guy, and my decision to purchase a new Civic Hybrid back in January of 2004 was a break in a long family tradition. It replaced a 10 year old Dodge Spirit, and our other vehicle is a 2002 Grand Caravan. I repair DSL fast internet circuts for the phone company, and my round-trip daily commute is 94 miles.
In early 2003 I went to a nearby Honda dealer and looked at a new '03 Civic Hybrid but the salesman really didn't seem all that interested so we left with a somewhat lousy experience. I decided to wait for a year to see if the car developed any problem trends, so I also had me some time to research other vehicles as well.

Over the year I was torn between a Dodge Neon or the Civic Hybrid. Neon is alot cheaper but the HCH is really very nice, and can get great gas mileage. I decided to "Just go for it" with the new '04 HCH. The salesman at the time was very nice, but had a limited knowledge of the hybrid. I paid just under $19,000 for the car plus the ext. warranty for about $1,000.
The ext. warranty brings it up to 7yr/70K drivetrain and 10yr/150K hybrid battery. Dealer also tossed in free oil changes & tires for life.

Please let me say that this is by far, the most amazing car I've ever owned, if not for gas mileage alone:
My old Dodge Spirit got around 17MPG, and over the last 13 months and 32,000 miles I've averaged 58MPG. Fifty Eight!
If I were to calculate gas at $1.80 / Gallon I've saved about $5,000 over the 'ol Dodge just last year.

But that's not all.
You see, I was also a speed demon. I work odd hours: 5:00PM to 1:00AM in the City of Atlanta, 45 miles from home so most speed traps were usually on the other side of the road to work. I used to carry the usual detector but also a CB radio for reports from the big trucks. I used to drive in a way that was a big liability to my family and dangerous to all drivers around me.
You know, 80-95MPH in the left lane, swerving, riding bumpers and cheating in the HOV lanes if neccessary. I always tamed it down with my family along but if by myself, you might want to get out of the way.
I tried to drive more sensibly a few times but always quit for such a boring, long ride. I just couldn't take cruise control locked +5 over the limit. It made me stir crazy.

My Civic Hybrid has done what no other car could ever have, and that is to radically change my driving habit.

My first couple of tanks burned at about 45MPG, but I wanted to see "Just what she'll do" so I learned how to drive for efficiency from the Insight hypermilers who are getting +100MPG from their machines. After my 1st 60MPG tank I was forever hooked.
I'm not saying driving slowly...Most of the time simply driving slowly isn't the best choice for MPG. I drive about the speed limits and not usually even noticed by other drivers. Each of my daily drives is a new exiting challenge, to see just how high I can get it and sometimes try out a new technique or route. It's a game I play. There are so many countless variables in a trip to learn and compensate for.

My wife has little interest in driving for efficiency and she still gets 45-50MPG which is still great.
Greenhybrid has a hybrid database with over 3 million hybrid miles logged. The HCH section has 66 cars and over a year's time they all average out to about 46MPG.

We love our Civic hybrid so much that we want to get rid of our Grand Caravan gas pig (17MPG) in 3 years, when the loan isn't upside-down anymore. We might even get another HCH, they're redesigned for 2006.

Gee, sorry for the really long introduction! Take care....

Steve & Family

"May the wind always be on your back and your direction clear"
2004 Honda Civic Hybrid CVT
Best tank is over 60MPG.
Best 46mile commute 69.8MPG on 01-27-05

 

welcome to the forum, hope u like it here.

 

if youre getting rid of the van, you probably want a little bigger car than another civic. so i ought to point out that honda has introduced the new Accord hybrid you may want to check those out.

 

You almost had me hooked on milage there. Congrats on the car and do get rid of the caravan. As a dodge owner you should already be aware of their transmission problems that were never fixed and the milage really is as crappy as the ride.

 

Thank you all for the welcome.
About the van- We still owe about $20k, and today it's worth about $17 so we'll hold on to it for a couple more years.
If nobody wants to buy it I'd love to excavate my yard and bury it for a bomb shelter.
We've saved so much in fuel in the Civic so we've decided to abandon large vehicles completely and either get another Civic or something along that line. On the rare occasion we could always rent a larger vehicle when needed.

 

You know I think Ive heard that they are whipping out an odessy hybrid. Anyway, good news for you is that honda will last 3 times longer that the dodge will ever dream of. I talked to my dealer the other day and he said the average civic dies around 270,000 miles!

 

Welcome to the light. Glad to hear you pulled yourself away from domestics.