Driving Notes on a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid
Driving Notes on a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid
When purchasing my hybrid I had a bunch of questions regarding how certain things worked and I couldn't find the answers anywhere. They're all inconsequential things, but still I feel I should share.
Audio System
- PCMCIA Slot - By far, this is the most curious part of the car for me. The only other car, that I know of, that comes with a PCMCIA slot is the 2007 Mercedes S-Class. In general, it's and oddity because it technically might mean limitless storage capacity and exposes the fact that there's a computer in my dashboard.
- How much can it hold? - I bought a card adapter from macally and a 4gb SD card from Patriot Memory and have had no problems. Am I stoked? Undeniably.
- How good is the interface? - It's no iPod, but you can browse by the folders on your card, the artist or the album. Steering wheel button let you change the track and volume, while there's a button on the console to let you change folder/album/artist (this buttons changes its function based on which browsing mode is set). You can also search by typing in a name. The order in which things play is the order in which you wrote things to the card. There's quite a bit more to the interface but it's all touchscreen driven menus. Finally there are voice commands to operate the audio system, but I have yet to play with those.
- Auxiliary Input - Want to use something else? Go for it. The aux jack is located towards the bottom of the center console, right next to the 12V jack.
Navigation System
- Voice Activation - In a city as well-planned as Phoenix, directions are trivial. However, finding something you want is never quite so trivial. My favorite use case so far has been: saying aloud, "Find nearest ATM", being given a choice of banks to choose from and discovering that a well-suited ATM is only two blocks ahead.
- Phone Numbers - Yep. All listings have the associated phone numbers recorded.
- Updates - A new database is released once a year on DVD. You just pop it in and it's all set to go. I believe the cost of this update is on the order of $100, but I don't know for sure.
- Coverage - The whole US is covered on a single DVD.
Gas Milage
- I've learned to "glide" and so I'm starting to get the EPA-rated 50mpg out of my tank on my 20+ mile commute with the A/C running. I'm also keeping track of my mileage here, just for kicks. I imagine it will improve slightly, but that has yet to be seen.
- Speed vs. Mileage - Miles per gallon is at odds with miles per hour, but what exactly happens when they go to war? On a thousand-mile drive, I drove almost like a normal car, I was just a bit slow on the acceleration. I drove 85+ miles per hour, most of the timed and ended up getting 40 miles per gallon. I'm ok with that.
Drivability
- Handling - I like it. It's not German, but it's pretty precise and tight; I feel like I have plenty of control.
- Road Noise - Decently quiet. For a car that feels as light as it does, and probably hasn't spent much time on sound dampening, you wouldn't be able to tell.
- Wind Noise - This is a little higher than I was used to, but nothing to worry about.
- Acceleration - I've been trying to get maximum gas mileage so I have yet to test this.
- Cruise Control - I love cruise control; I use it anytime I can. Being used to the glory that is Mercedes's cruise control lever and having suffered through a variety of interfaces in other cars, I was afraid. My trepidation was needless as the Civic's mechanism is as simple as can be. There's a on/off switch that I leave in the on position, and I can just tap a steering wheel mounted switch to set the speed. It was a close one, but the Civic passed, again :-)
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