Parents just bought 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid... against my advice. Hmm.

[NachtRitter]

Compared to driving a "normal" car (might be dating myself, but by that I mean a car that mainly has analog gauges), driving a Prius certainly is more like driving in a video game than driving IRL. It takes some getting used to.

Would be interesting to see if you can bend the new Civic to your will!

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Many non-hybrid cars have a fully digital spaceship-like panel too.

[MetroMPG]

The video game hybrid analogy is perfect - I thought the same thing the first time I drove one. It's not only the screens/feedback, but the fact that you're often "playing" to invoke the various hybrid modes at different times in city driving..

One other criticism about the Civic: the regenerative brakes are especially grabby. Makes it difficult to drive smoothly when trying to progress from "very light" braking to "light" braking -- often skips right through to "medium" braking.

[Cobb]

The Prius has an eCVT or digital vs the analog one of Honda with the start up clutch with the rubber band feeling.

I use to FAS the insight with cvt, but what little mpg I gained I lost in a recharge cycle later down the road as it expects the minor charging from coasting while driving to keep the ima battery within spec.

Do you know if this car has been updated? The programming update for the gen 2 insight allows the car to coast further and the regen is less with no feet on the petals so to speak. Previously you dropped speed fast and had to ride the throttle to make it coast more. Its not impossible, but doable.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

vskid: the belt & pulley CVT in this Civic isn't as smooth as the Toyota gearset CVTs I've driven. Starting from a stop there's sometimes a very slight "tugging/releasing" feel to the power delivery as the start clutch engages or the initial ratio starts to change.

But my biggest complaint so far is the frustrating lack of a true "neutral, engine-off glide" when releasing the throttle at speed.

I'll still have fun figuring it out though.

[MetroMPG]

It has had the IMA update.

I had a kill switch in my gen 1 Insight (manual) and it worked wonderfully. The issue with this Civic seems to be that if you FAS (forced auto stop for those not up on the short form) with the key, the engine immediately restarts when you move the ignition back to 'on' (not 'start').

[SoobieOut]

I have been happy with my 2006 HCH II. No issues and get 45 to 50 MPG US with every tank.

Had it for 4 years now. I agree with the comments, the brakes are touchy and the CVT can jerk a bit at from a stand still.
Only time I notice lack of power is when its hot out and the AC is dragging down the engine. But the AC is very cold

I would recommend one, even for a parent.

[Cobb]

The AC also drags down the gen2. Ive had it on the past few days with all the rain we had earlier and it was riding the 2700 rpms point for vtec activation point. I normally accelerate briskly at 2500 rpms right before it kicks in yo.

When I FAS the gen 2 I would reach my target rpm, key off, shift to neutral, turn key back on and just steer and brake as needed til I approached my pulse rpm. I would twist the key, shift back to drive and carry on to my glide speed point.

The gen 2 also has an "ev" mode that is activated with very light throttle once warmmed up. I use to abuse the hell out of it when I had my phev kit and get triple digit fuel economy. Even then pushing 5000 watts it was limited to a steady 3 miles before you need to let it catch up and go back to gas. The better way to use it was with a modified pulse n glide technique where you used the ev mode to extend your coasting til you hit your pulse rpm.

[serialk11r]

@MetroMPG I've driven a Prius (II) before and a Nissan Sentra CVT, but not a hybrid Civic/Insight before. Aside from the horrendous looks (this matters to me), the throttle delay on that car is a bit more than your average car, which I thought was really annoying, the traction control cut power way too aggressively over a pothole, and the stupid "crawl" function all pissed me off. To be fair the "crawl" is present on a lot of DCTs and electric vehicles all which have no reason to have it, but my god is it a stupid feature. The Sentra pulls off the CVT pretty well, it has a button to cancel overdrive if you want the revs to stay a higher for response, and the transmission finds the optimal RPM without hesitation.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

The video game hybrid analogy is perfect - I thought the same thing the first time I drove one. It's not only the screens/feedback, but the fact that you're often "playing" to invoke the various hybrid modes at different times in city driving..

Makes sense. Anyway, if the Prius had a real transmission (eventually an AMT or a manual) allowing it to remain drivable (at least until the closest technical assistance location) even if the battery had a failure I could eventually be more favorable to it than to the Civic. I actually don't hate the Prius for its design, it looks kinda boring but not so ugly at all.

[Cobb]

I thought the prius had a limp mode?