Bought some rice yesterday...

pacodiablo · January 30, 2004

My dad was bent on getting a hybrid so he got a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid yesterday. It is a Honda, but the people at the Toyota dealers were assholes and the Prius costs too much and looks kind of funny. It actually isn't too bad of a car. The fit and finish is amazing. It is far better than the fit and finish of the Contour. Every part is of very high quality. The downside is that it has half the power of the Contour and as a result is considerably slower. In a race the Contour would kill the little Honda. Unfourtunately the Contour has to go though. Before its wreck it was a wonderful problem free car, but since the day it got hit everything has gone downhill. It rattles all the time, it has had light problems in the rear and two weeks ago the suspension began to make a very noticeable thud. We checked it out and there is a protective shield thing missing, but we don't know if that is somehow causing the noise. Insurance will be buying the car from us since they should have totalled it. It was a good car, but that wreck really caused that car problems. I have not driven the hybrid yet, but my dad said it is noticeably slower than the Contour. Chances are it is slower than the Ranger too. The hybrid is very clean and cheap to own though. It just can't be driven up a mountain or anything.

Come May there will also be a used Jeep Cherokee in the driveway. We need something that can carry stuff and 4WD would be very nice to have. I think my parents really started missing the one we had back in the '80s, so we have pretty much decided on a Cherokee. I know some people, like Wingnut , would find the SFA to be too harsh, but we had a Cherokee for close to 10 years and the SFA worked well for us and took our old Jeep down some rough trails. Manual t-case w/ 4 low + 4.0 I6 + SFA & SRA = killer 4x4. My mom will be the primary driver, but I will probably drive it a fair amount too. The Ranger will become my vehicle once we get the Jeep.

Oh and my dad had surgery today, so the hybrid will sit for like a week in the garage without being used because he can't drive. I know that will be the hardest part of recovering for him...having his brand new toy in the garage with 7 miles on the odometer and he can't drive it.

Wingnut · January 30, 2004

Hope your dad gets well soon.

I don't care about the SFA, I'm just concerned about the yuppie/hippie remarks you are going to be using around the house....And how bad he's going to beat you for it.

Civic hybrid + SUV = Hippie/Yuppie

I think you have surpassed my yuppiness Paco.

I guess I'll start calling you "Hip-uppy.".......Well...."Hi-cuppy" sounds better, that works.

Congrats on the new car in the family by the way.

k1500chevy97 · January 30, 2004

SFA and manual 4x4 = not yuppie

Congrats on the suv paco . and that car well

pacodiablo · January 30, 2004

The Civic is a hippie car, no denying that, but it is NOT a yuppie car. Yuppies are wasteful and they don't give a d**n about the enviornment. Yuppies also need room for at least 8 kids, even if they only have 3. My dad will not beat me for joking about his car, he does it too.

Remember, these people have purchased base model Rangers before as well as base model Jeeps (the first Jeep we had didn't even have a radio from the factory) and nearly bought a base model Ramcharger (it cost more than they wanted to spend). I would not call them yuppies. Hippies, maybe, yuppies, no.

Oh, and we USE our Jeeps and trucks. The paint on our old Cherokee was pretty f**ked up within two weeks of owning it.

Import Hater · January 31, 2004

As someone who's seen what quite a few Honda parts cost...I've been afraid of the hybrids strictly because of the cost of the main battery. I'm not sure what it runs on the Civic, but on the Insight it's about $3k. I hope it battery lasts longer than the typical 3-5 year life of a conventional car battery.

Rob

pacodiablo · February 1, 2004

The Civic battery is roughly $1500 I believe and should last much longer than the average car battery. It is about 2.5 x 4.5 feet in size and is made of nickel-metal hydride. As I said, you can't run this car up a steep mountain or anything because it could drain the battery and/or overheat the battery. The battery is relatively fail safe though and there is always the gas engine there to take over should the battery drain completely. It is a complicated car, but it is also an efficient one and hopefully a reliable one.

SnakeEyeSS · February 1, 2004

I'm not trying to be a pain, but you said it's cheap to own.

I guess you missed the letter in motor trend a few months back that pointed out it will be around 7 years before the Hybrid is actually saving you money over a regular Civic, because of the price difference. Of course if you plan on having this forever and it hold up, you'll be doing pretty good.

Who knows, this might be some sort of collector car someday, in an Amphbicar sort of way.

Hope your dad gets better.

if you want to fix the environment, buy a nice car and don't have kids.

(ya know Overpopulation is the world's #1 prolem right now, blah ,blah blah.......yada, yada. .......why aren't we drilling in ANWAR yet? )

off-topic:

A radio station as doing one of those Support a kid in another country deals, and it reminded me of something a teacher pointed out:

"Don't say I'm promoting the starvation of little african kids, but think about it: the more you help starving people survive, they will just produce more starving kids, mking everything worse, because the same its amount of food going around. Example: The world isn't producing any more total food volume than it did in 1975, but it has 2 billion more people now."

pacodiablo · February 1, 2004

I'm not trying to be a pain, but you said it's cheap to own.
I guess you missed the letter in motor trend a few months back that pointed out it will be around 7 years before the Hybrid is actually saving you money over a regular Civic, because of the price difference. Of course if you plan on having this forever and it hold up, you'll be doing pretty good.

Unless it gets in a severe wreck like the Contour did, my parents will likely own it for a good 10 - 15 years.

Import Hater · February 3, 2004

I'm not trying to be a pain, but you said it's cheap to own.
I guess you missed the letter in motor trend a few months back that pointed out it will be around 7 years before the Hybrid is actually saving you money over a regular Civic, because of the price difference. Of course if you plan on having this forever and it hold up, you'll be doing pretty good.

Kinda like opting for the Duramax over a gas motor in one of our trucks.

Rob