honda civic hybrid used,, good choice?

[moonmonkey]

im over 198k miles on my toyota echo, starting to have a few problems. so im looking for a replacement car. im looking at honda civic hybrids as an option,
it has a 1.3 gas engine and should be capable of over 45mpg (my minimum) . im wondering if its possible to write/change the engine /electric controls. some of the ricer racing guys write programs to make their cars faster, so im wondering if i could find a way/person who can change the paramiters of the battery-engine combo,to include adding another nickle-metal or even upgrade to lithium ions anybody know anything or have any recommendations i drive 600 miles a week and am looking to go up in mpg,from my current 45-48. my budget is around $7500 so used is the way i will go. thanks.

[brucepick]

A couple ideas.

You can google "civic hybrid battery" and "Civic hybrid add battery" and see what comes up. I found quite a few pages on problems with the battery but that might just be a small percentage of "squeaky wheel" owners; I don't know.

Also see the em garage page here: EcoModder Fleet list - EcoModder.com. Use the search tool there to find the Civic Hybrids and see how people have done with them. You can click the cars' links to find out if they've been modded, etc. Click the car's mpg to see their gas logs.

[Arragonis]

I would avoid the Hybrid Civic with it's "issues" with the battery and go for a Gen 2 Prius perhaps - or fix the Echo. Mrs A has a 2011 Prius and it is "good", I have driven the Gen 2 also and it is similar but not quite as good.

As for getting someone to program it you are into a lot of setup / testing and then repeat a lot before you get something that works.

[Peter7307]

One of my nieces has a Civic Hybrid and uses it virtually every day.

The car is now five years old and has been trouble free in all aspects.

Peter.