Honda CR-Z hybrid *production* version

[cfg83]

busypaws -

Originally Posted by busypaws

Thanks AJI. I'm thinking 5-7 years down the road when I could pick up a 4 year old used one and get to modding. (It's never to early to start planning you next project car)

Ha ha, you read my mind. A lot of people on this forum will never buy a new car, which is fine because keeping a thrifty used car alive is recycling. There's nothing wrong with waiting it out in your 40 MPG compact car and then jumping into a used CR-Z down the line. Think of all the ecomod-planning you could be doing along the way!!!!!!!

CarloSW2

[cfg83]

Cd -

Nailed it :



I found the picture here :

Honda CR-Z Photo Gallery - Official Honda Web Site

CarloSW2

[RobertSmalls]

Nice technique, cfg. I've been turning up the brightness on my monitor to check out concept cars, and "stealth grille blocks" are a rising trend. That, and wide chrome bars across the grille that keep air out of the engine bay.

[gone-ot]

...Honda is "designing" for the GODZILLA-market again, and not for the USA-market.

[AJI]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...Honda is "designing" for the GODZILLA-market again, and not for the USA-market.

I'd be tempted to agree with this point. The CR-Z definitely seems to make more sense outside of America, yet ironically America is probably the biggest potential market. I can see it selling like hot cakes in Japan where even the Insight is doing fairly well, and it'll probably do okay in Europe too as we Europeans like our small hatchbacks - provided they don't set the price ridiculously high.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...Honda is "designing" for the GODZILLA-market again, and not for the USA-market.

I have to disagree. That horrible grille, for instance, is an obvious development of the "make it look like a giant penis" styling of certain US pickups & SUVs.

[AJI]

I wouldn't say that - after all, that grille has been doing the rounds on the CR-Z concept for years now, and did the rounds on the S2000 before that.

The massive grille trend is one of those unfortunate 21st-Century styling fashions and I'd personally lay the blame at Audi as they started it with an A6 or something a good number of years back now - but that aside, I think the CR-Z's styling is quite successful.

[gone-ot]

...from a strictly "design" viewpoint, I liked Raymond Loewy's grille on the the original Studebacker AVANTI...opening under the bumper, smooth surface above the bumper!

[wdb]

I got curious about EPA MPG vs. Ecomodder MPG and went searching in "the garage".

Only found one of the new Insights that was recording MPGs, it's getting 48 vs. the EPA's 41 (combined), or 17% better. The Prius crowd is averaging 14.8% better than EPA. I think it would be fair to say that Ecomodders will average 15% better than EPA estimates in hybrid vehicles.

[AJI]

Originally Posted by wdb

I got curious about EPA MPG vs. Ecomodder MPG and went searching in "the garage".

Only found one of the new Insights that was recording MPGs, it's getting 48 vs. the EPA's 41 (combined), or 17% better. The Prius crowd is averaging 14.8% better than EPA. I think it would be fair to say that Ecomodders will average 15% better than EPA estimates in hybrid vehicles.

Thanks for looking into that, I'd forgotten to do so myself. I did however look at what people in Civic Hybrids had got which is also relevant, and there's an average improvement of 23.1% over EPA for those cars. I think it's probably fairly safe to assume that the CR-Z's figures are underestimated, especially if they have been recorded in the Normal driving mode rather than Eco.