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On not towing in 5th gear, the car can't maintain speed in 5th with the camper in tow. It keeps slowing down and down until the engine speed falls below 1,000 and then begins to lug and continue to slow. This car is really geared for economy with no load in 5th gear and even at 60 MPH I'm only turning 2,000 RPMs...which is just barely enough to maintain speed with no load. Practically any weight or aerodynamic load at all makes that untenable especially as the engine begins losing power at lower revs.
Will the IMAC&C allow you to charge at a standstill? If I'm halfway up a mountain pass towing my camper, can i pull over and click it into full regen while I sit and perhaps rev the engine just a little?
It just hit me that part of driving economically is also being able to get the power when you need it, otherwise you will have to get a bigger vehicle to do the job and defeat the whole purpose. This makes me wonder if there would be some way to switch the Civic into a sport mode on the engine to give more power for those times that you really do need it (climbing a mountain with a camper in tow or pulling your sailboat up the ramp) while preserving it's legendary fuel economy for the other 99% of the time?
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