Project "Save the Flea!" Winter beater: 2007 Civic 1.8L, 5-speed

[mechman600]

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can do with this car. Subscribed!

[MetroMPG]

Doh! I'm not very Swift.

So, I realized I should have been searching for Suzuki Swifts all along, instead of mainly looking for Fireflies/Metros.

They were much more common, and 1.3L, 5-speeds are relatively easy to find (especially around Montreal -- these cars were pretty popular in Quebec). Exact same car as the 3-cyl aside from the engine, so mods-swapping will work.

I saw a 2001 Swift advertised last week with ~60k kms (~36k mi.) on it! Drat. OK, next year...

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Civic cursory speed vs. MPG testing...

I took the car out for a spin this weekend. Observations...

1) Oh man, it's going to spoil me. Makes the Flea feel *very* rudimentary by comparison. Hedonic adaptation alert!

2) I did a quick set of bi-directional speed vs. MPG runs, and if these numbers can be believed (the Scangauge is uncalibrated), this car is going to do quite nicely:

UPDATE: gauge now calibrated; numbers below have been adjusted to reflect this.

km/h ... mph ... avg mpg (US) ... L/100 km

70 ..... 44 .... 54.5 .... 4.3
80 ..... 50 .... 51.1 .... 4.6
90 ..... 56 .... 46.2 .... 5.1
100 .... 62 .... 43.3 .... 5.4

Wow? Wow. Hope those numbers are close to reality. Anecdotally, another '07 5-spd Civic owner has told me they don't appear to be too "out there".

I'm not going to graph that until I have some calibration though. It seems too good to be true for a car with a 34 mpg EPA highway rating.

3) This thing coasts! I can really feel the weight in the car vs. the Flea. It's shocking. About 850 lbs more than a Metro -- like carrying another half Metro in the trunk.

Once I aired up the tires, that is. They were hilariously all over the map, from 15 psi to 30.

[dirtydave]

You gonna put a boat tail on this one?

[PaleMelanesian]

Wow. My Fit is 50@50 and you're up there at 55.9. Nice.

[sarguy01]

Nice find. Did you say it needed new tires? It might roll even better after you get those.

I noticed the same thing when I went from my Metro sedan to the Civic. The Metro didn't coast very well but my Civic seems to go and go.

I think you are also noticing that the Civic is much nicer inside. While most (outside of this forum...) would argue a Civic isn't a luxury car, it does feel luxurious after driving a Metro. I am not trying to insult the Metro, either!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by dirtydave

You gonna put a boat tail on this one?

No plans to -- no trailer hitch for easy attachment points. Also, I'm only planning to keep the car for one winter, so won't be investing a huge amount of time in mods.

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Wow. My Fit is 50@50 and you're up there at 55.9. Nice.

Yes, nice... IF those numbers are close to being accurate. Time will tell (and I'll post an update of course).

Originally Posted by sarguy01

Nice find. Did you say it needed new tires? It might roll even better after you get those.

Yup, that's possible. Though my goal is keeping costs down for re-sale (probably used tires), instead of finding the best LRR.

Unfortunately, I just missed out on a great two birds/one stone situation: someone local was selling a set of Civic hybrid rims with original LRR tires for $250! I would have snapped those right up (they sold).

I noticed the same thing when I went from my Metro sedan to the Civic. The Metro didn't coast very well but my Civic seems to go and go.

I think you are also noticing that the Civic is much nicer inside. While most (outside of this forum...) would argue a Civic isn't a luxury car, it does feel luxurious after driving a Metro. I am not trying to insult the Metro, either!

It definitely makes the Firefly feel like the very basic, lightweight machine it is.

On the other hand, I also just discovered one of the Civic's rear power windows doesn't work... and that's a problem I will never, ever have with the Flea!

[War_Wagon]

Dang I totally missed this thread due to technical difficulties in the last few weeks. That's a good price for a car like that, on this side of the country anyway. My buddy ships Hondas from Quebec and Ontario to here because y'all get a lot more of them there so the prices are lower. I guess I'll just go scrap that 1.0L/5 speed Metro, it will never get the road trip across Canada it always wanted. *Single tear down cheek*. ha ha

[MetroMPG]

I will also shed a tear for that old Metro. Sad to know that rust-free shell is going to be recycled into a small portion of an Escalade or something more profitable!

I'm seeing Civic prices all over the map! A local dealer has a 2-door version, same year, with half the miles on it for more than TWICE the price.

Speed vs. RPM: rev it & weep!



This car is not very good in sub/urban driving ... if you have to hit the brakes unexpectedly, it takes a lot of effort to fight the average back into respectable territory.

I struggled to get ~38 mpg US on a short, cold start round trip of a couple of km on the weekend with two unexpected stops from cruising speed.

[MetroMPG]

I took the Civic around the city route I've been using for eco-driving coaching today. No super-aggressive techniques used, but EOC wherever practical, and a couple of pulses where there was a chance for long coasts ahead and nobody close behind.

51 mpg (US) = 4.6 L/100 km. (That's on an uncalibrated SG.) UPDATE: now calibrated, it's 10% off, so ~45 mpg (US).

As it turns out, I've had two 1.8L manual shift Civics on this route before. The last time I went out with Phil in his '07 Civic 5MT on the same route, we saw a best score of 40 mpg US (no engine-off coasting).

And in an '09 Civic: 39 mpg US. So EOC in my '07 is good for roughly a 25% bump on this route.

Still can't touch the Firefly/Metro though: I took it out for comparison right afterward and saw 74 mpg.

[MetroMPG]

Oh, and one thing I noticed that I really like about this car is how smoothly the engine restarts with the clutch. Butter!

All that mass behind it means you hardly feel a thing. Plus the 4-cyl fires much smoother than the triple in the Firefly.