2003 Honda Civic Hybrid
 

We just bought a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission for my wife. The car has 94,000 miles on it, and is replacing a 2001 Civic LX with 240,000 miles.

It has been fun for me to learn about how the hybrid system works and try to drive as efficiently as I can. It's interesting because the car is so similar to our old Civic, but so different mechanically (and significantly slower).

Old car (silver) and new car (white)
https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5691/2...37d594a8_b.jpg

Immediately after buying the car my wife drove it 3 hours to beach in the dark. She said the headlights were horrible (I must have put upgraded bulbs in the old Civic at some point). Since we are planning on having the car for at least a few years, and I've always wanted to do a projector retrofit, I jumped on the internet and bought a Morimoto mini H1 HID retrofit kit, some new housings, and LED bulbs for the front parking lights.

I'm hoping that 40W less draw (maybe a little more counting the LED parking lights) on the battery when the lights are on will help eek out a little bit more gas mileage. I'd like to replace most or all of the other bulbs with LEDs too sometime soon.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5791/3...bbdb1544_b.jpg

https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8655/3...a9c246ab_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5775/3...517a6739_b.jpg

So far I've been really impressed by the light output.

Congrats on the new wheels. They're a lot of fun to play with IMO. I recently put my Insight on the road and I'm loving it so far.

I think about trading my Miata for an Insight all the time. Seems like all the cars I want to own only have 2 seats...

I have an HCH1 as well, it's been delivering considerably above the EPA combined rating for me.

I think those people who brought lawsuits for it not meeting the expectations weren't trying at all.

With you 100%.

EDIT: Subscribed, let me know if you want help building a simple grid charger. I'm working on figuring out how spoof the PWM signal.

How does the steering feel on your HCH1?

I have the 04 MT, and the PS rack is just awful (some nasty stiction in neutral makes it hard to keep going down the center of the lane)

It's stiff in mine. It might feel exactly the same in yours, but I wouldn't call it awful, maybe a bit fatiguing to drive for great distances. It seems that as speed increases, the steering becomes stiffer and has more resistance to when power engages.

This is something that I definitely want to do more research on. I may reach out to you at some point.

I actually really like the feel of the PS rack. It seems to track straight with no issues, but the assist doesn't feel overpowered like our 2001 Civic does.

Disclaimer: I depowered my Miata steering rack, so my frame of reference is different than most. Once the car is moving more than a few MPH I don't want much assistance anyway.