[sheepdog 44]

As long as i can get the car to pass inspection it would be great. My battery is original and over 14 years old. The CVT has done a remarkable of keeping it functional over these years without issue. But as more years pass i know it will fail completely, and my long term goal for this car is to keep it running as a gas only car.

For those interested, my experience with driving my CVT with the IMA physically removed: The idle is a little rough, you don't really notice until its gone that the IMA does smooth it out. The idle is perfectly fine and normal to what a 3 cylinder car does though. The car is lighter but since it accelerates slower it "feels" as those it's heavier. It starts up and runs on the 12 volt, and auto stop is permanently disabled. It charges the battery perfectly fine, when you go above 3K something rpm the Brake lights go on but go back off once you lower it. The CVT does a fantastic job of keeping it under 3K rpm anyways. What you really notice is that the power band is fine except when you start from a stop. The IMA helps a tremendous amount from a standstill (0-15mph), without it the car stays in a lower gear and you really miss the IMA.

The overall experience is good and highway performance is unchanged and possibly better. IT does much better up extended mountain climbs on the freeway. Vtech will kick in, where as with the IMA the battery would discharge halfway up and force regen up the other half making the car feel like a pig.

At this point i wasn't trying to hard to get good mpg. With IMA i averaged 65-66mpg, without IMA i averaged 62-63mpg. I attribute it to idling at red lights and having to put in more throttle from a standstill. Overall the car performs exceptionally well without the IMA, much better than a Geo Metro i would think. Just like driving a normal gas car.