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Are Hybrid Vehicles fun to drive?



  • gagricegagrice San DiegoPosts: 29,176
    Honda's Hybrid and Fuel-Cell Bikes

    Starting with small scooters, Honda is working on ultra-clean, super-efficient two-wheelers, using fuel-cell, electrc and hybrid engine technologies. They are all prototypes at this stage, but we expect to see some of these technologies in showrooms&in at least some parts of the world&#151;within a few years.

    Honda World News

  • "The driving habit in my 94 Dodge Spirit was costing too much, I was getting about 15-16MPG"




    WOW. That really is bad. I owned a Dodge Shadow which I think is essentially the same car, and I averaged 30 mpg at 70mph.


  • mistermemisterme Posts: 407
    It had the 4 cyl, not sure of the displacement but alot of the time it was floored.
  • Wow. Sounds like it was only firing 3 cylinders, because a 4 cylinder car should go ~110 when floored. That happened to a friend with a saturn... only firing 3 cylinders and wouldn't go faster than 80.


  • mistermemisterme Posts: 407
    I posted:

    "alot of the time it was floored"


    "all of the time it was floored"

    Mine would also exceed 100 if held down.


    But if you floor it and catch up to the next car, slam on the brakes & ride the bumper for a mile, floor it again to pass...over & over...
  • robertsmxrobertsmx Posts: 5,525
    Not necessarily. There are plenty of things to consider when you talk about top speed. Insight has a three banger engine, and C&D took it to 107 mph in third gear.
  • markdelmarkdel Posts: 56
    I drives me nuts every time I see a post about how someone is getting better milage by coasting down hill in neutral, by "just using the amount of gas to idle the engine."
    The HCH has an engine mode when decelerating or coasting down hill IN GEAR, where the cyclinders are disabled and receive NO GAS AT ALL.
    Wake up and go do some research... :mad: :sick:
  • mistermemisterme Posts: 407
    Actually I believe your comment belongs in another thread, but I'll elaborate.

    I'm not sure of the MT but my 04 HCH CVT works like this:
    If you want to coast while in gear:

    You can let completely off the gas and the regen kicks in and slows you down, so you are not freely coasting at all.
    You can stop the regen by adding some to the gas pedal but you are still slowing because of the drive line-internal engine friction.
    You can add more gas to overcome the friction to freely roll but now you're far from idling.

    Look at the FCD results trying both ways and see neutral coasting having better results, especially over distances of 1/4mile or longer.

    If you are speaking of switching to N in a CVT for a 200 foot stop, then no it wouldn't make any sense.
  • tomslycktomslyck Posts: 70
    On the weekends, when my wife let's me drive "my" HH, I enjoy seeing how far I can get on the battery alone. As long as there's no one behind me, I can go for blocks and blocks without the ICE kicking in. Most of the streets in my neighborhood are 25 mph anyway, so it's not too different to cruise along at 20 or so.

    And then there's a satisfaction when I'm sitting at the longer traffic signals when I realize that I'm not using any gas or polluting.

    But I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually.
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