[elhigh]

I have an '03 HCH1 and can say that even with my younger son driving, not trying to hypermile at all, it delivers mid-40s with the air on, on a daily commute, with the IMA light on. It doesn't accelerate like he would like, but it gets down the road and delivers pretty good fuel economy numbers. Get the manual and drive it forever; mine is past 200,000 miles and climbing.

I've tried to school him in the ways of hypermiling, but it just isn't sticking. He pretty much cooked the IMA battery trying to keep the revs low until I told him that even the LDA engine in the HCH is nearly as rev-happy as any other Honda engine. Hold the gears longer and let the engine wind out. It'll be fine. Too late for our battery however, I think it may be beyond saving now.

But even with the IMA not really helping, he's getting around 43-45mpg on his daily commute. You could do a lot, lot worse. And on long trips the car will break into the mid-50s, no problem.