After much deliberation about what to replace my Escort with, and consideration of several similar cars with similarly mediocre FE, I decided it was time to step it up a notch. So I bought this:
It's a 2003 Civic hybrid. 5 speed manual, 68,000 miles and change. Just got it on the road this week. It's hard to tell how good it is doing on FE. The onboard trip computer seems to be pretty optimistic. It shows 41 mpg so far, while my uncalibrated SGII shows 33, all city driving. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get the SGII dialed in before they start feeding us winter blend and I'll have to recalibrate again.
There's a lot to learn when it comes to driving a hybrid with a manual transmission. I would have to say that a CVT auto is probably the best tranny for a hybrid, but I was really stuck on having a stick. I'm working on finding the best way to use regen. What seems to work well is to decelerate in higher gears, rather than downshifting for engine braking, and regen starts as soon as the accelerator is lifted, then comes on strong when the brake pedal is applied. You can feel a sudden lurch forward as regen stops when the RPMs get too low. I'm also trying to figure out what the best way to accelerate is in this car. I'm not sure if it's better to use high throttle angles and short shift or let it wind out a little more and try to use less assist. The shift light on the dash seems to ask for pretty low RPMs, and the super tall gearing makes that pretty easy. On the other hand, this would not be a good car to teach someone to drive a manual with, you have to slip the clutch quite a bit to get moving.
I've got a highway trip coming up next weekend so I'll be able to get an idea of what this thing can really do pretty soon. If anyone has any tips for how to get the most out of this car I'm all ears.