Hybrid car *update*

[underpants]

At my wife's behest I filled up the tank on the hybrid. 8.888 gallons (10.6 g tank) about $27. I have put $40 into it this year before this fill up .

Initial reading said 418 miles in the current tank ... Second analysis (after running a few errands) says 470 miles off 10.6 gallons.

:-$)

2010 Honda Insight - bought 12/26/13

[annabanana]

1. Got me a C-Max after Sandy drowned all our autos.

I gassed up today. Hope to avoid the trip again 'til Spring.

[Mister Ed]

7. Very pleased with our Ford C-Max after first three months.

Our C-Max Energi represented a little bit of a gamble, in my mind. This is a pretty new design, and it depends on a very complex electrical system. I was worried that such a complex electrical system could prove somewhat buggy.

It appears I needn't have worried. The car has performed flawlessly through the coldest, nastiest winter we've seen here in Minnesota for the past twenty years. Based on my experience so far, I would unreservedly recommend a C-Max to anyone.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. My son has one of those, I have the prius 2010.

The mileage of both cars is excellent, the prius is usually +4 or so, but it was also more expensive.

What I find funny is the endless efforts by people I know to tell me what a bad deal hybrids are. From "no power" (- false both the insight and the prius have decent power and handling when you need it), to "oh the mpg isnt all that good", for which they will site various alleged facts, such as that the instrumentation is wrong (it isn't, I check it at the pump) or that under various driving conditions the efficiency is no better than non-hybrids (I start out agreeing, yeah on the highway my mpg is only around 45, and then they shut up.) I just smile every time I end up putting another 9 gallons into the tank.

[underpants]

10. I haven't heard any "Yeah, but..."'s

Absolutely love this car.

[notadmblnd]

3. Question, no one seems to ask:

How much has your electricity bill increased?

[DebJ]

4. We have a Camry hybrid...we don't plug it in! n/t

[Mister Ed]

5. Buck a day

It costs approximately a buck to charge our Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid. Mrs. Ed can then drive about 20 miles on that charge. On many days, she's able to drive around town all day, doing her shopping and errands, without turning on the car's gasoline engine at all.

At the national average rate of about 12 cents per killowatt hour, driving a car on electricity costs about one-third as much money as driving a typical gas-engine car.

[longship]

6. Yup! Those the cheapest miles you drive. By far! nt

[Ms. Toad]

9. Zero.

Insights aren't plug-in cars.

[Ms. Toad]

8. Piss poor, for an Insight.

They destroyed it when they redesigned it.

I have a 2003 - until the last year I was getting 55-60 MPG. It has now dropped to the high 40s, so it is time to take it in and find out what is wrong with it.

[underpants]

11. On days when I don't have to run the climate control

not many since I have owned it but I do cut if off from time to time.... I have registered 55-58 mpg on drives to work (in the city).

[Ms. Toad]

12. I'm talking about for the entire tank - not single trips.

Until this past year, I regularly filled my tank at around 550 miles (and I almost always use climate control - although I use it on the econ setting so it shuts down when the engine shuts down). Here's the first 49 tanks I put on it (it had around 34,000 miles on it when I bought it): http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/garage.php?do=showmembervehicles&manufacturer=Honda&modelName=Insight (Same user name as here) - you can also see some people did much better than I did - the median is ~65 mpg.

The redesign made it more like the Prius, which gets only moderately more mpg than non-hybrids. The original Insight was designed to get peak miles on the open highway (somewhat less in the city) because of its light weight and aerodynamic design. Oh highway driving, there were at least a few trips I got close to 70 mpg (but I only track tank mpg, so the only time I would know that was when I filled up just before I hit the road for work - a 27 mile trip mostly on the highway). Part of the drop in my mpg recently is because I switched jobs and it is all city driving to work - and part because it is winter. But I don't think that can account for all of the difference, though so - as I said - time to take it in to see what is ailing it.

In case you can't tell, I'm mad at Honda for redesigning away from the only car which significantly beat non-hybrids (at least before the electronic cars came along).