[Fabio]

Jamesqf, thank you for the insight.

I did not realize he was referring to MIMA; this indeed is not a surefire answer to our question concerning the benefits of the IMA. However it still says something about hybrids in general.

Anyways, it really is shocking that the hybrid components are that light; my first task with this car is removing the battery back, so I'll definitely be putting you to the test with the next two or three days. That having been said I believe you, you know what you're talking about--I'm just surprised.

And you could be right about the relative difficulty of beating the car's original mileage. Maybe I'll have to look into diesel fuel and radical eco mods rather than a 'simple' civic vx engine approach. But having put +25k miles on a POS Geo Metro XFi in the last year alone, and found 60 mpg easy to obtain on a regular basis without hypermilling, I remain cocky.