TIP: ensure you check with your state motor authority if you need to put a special sticker on your numberplate showing it is a hybrid (like LPG cars need to as emergency rescue staff need to know what precautions to take when attending accidents).

Background: We bought it second hand at the car auctions in Melbourne for under $20K with 67,000kms on it. We had to pay for the roadworthy, rego and a new windscreen due to stone chips and a crack. We then got custom sheep skin covers fitted in the front and custom velour covers for the back that all look/work great for place in Preston for under $400. We got aerodynamic roof racks and luggage carrier that allow us to still go camping despite losing our stationwagon.

Tyres:
Okay, here is the good oil (saved!) thanks for Bridgestone’s website which said:

Contrary to popular belief, tyre pressure is not determined by the type of tyre or its size but upon your vehicle’s load and driving application i.e. speed

Take the “cold” reading and check them against the recommended tyre pressures from your placard.

Heavy loads or towing puts an extra strain on your tyres. So if your vehicle is fully loaded with passengers and luggage, the general rule is to add 28kpa (4PSI or 4lbs).

At high speed, (defined as driving at 120km/h for over one hour), your tyres will wear out twice as fast as when you drive at 70-80 km/h. If your tyres are under-inflated by twenty per cent tyre life can be reduced by thirty per cent.
The rule here is to add 28Kpa (4PSI) from your Minimum Compliance Plate Pressure. Don’t inflate your tyres above 40 psi or 280 kPa. When the tyres get hot from driving, the pressure will increase even more.

Believe it or not, checking your tyre pressure can have a big impact on our environment. An under-inflated tyre creates more rolling resistance and therefore more fuel consumption. By keeping your tyres inflated to their proper levels, you can help maximise your car’s fuel economy and minimise its impact on our environment.

After 46,000 miles my mileage for mostly city driving is 47.9 mpg.

I love my Civic. Everything works just fine for me wiith no failings of any kind. Our second car is a diesel 2005 Mercedes that gets a consistent 32.5 mpg in city driving.

I wish Honda would have fouight this case against them. They would have prevailed.

I am simply appalled that any thinking person could be suppportive of lawyers and rationionlize their evil work aginst corporations with class action lawsuits. Theirs is a greed driven profession of taking from others.

Honda’s loss will increase their costs of doing business which will impact prices to future purchasers of their cars.

Lawyers winning cases against small airplane manufacturers a few decades back virtually wiped out this market. Most accidents occurred because of pilot error. Most of the current costs of a small airplane is insurance related.

My hat is off to Honda and I have become a loyal owner.

I’ve consistently bettered 40 mpg (2.5 gals per 100 miles). Best was 56 mpg. Normally around 50 mpg in summer driving 55 mph, low 40′s driving 70 mph.

Had a Cavalier Z24 that did 30 mpg (3.3 gals per 100 miles). Cobalt didn’t do any better, so I got the Civic Hybrid instead. Chevy Cruze and Volt will be interesting, along with next gen Civic. Like the look of the Camaro, but 29 mpg? At 30,000 plus miles per year….

I don’t understand why when you have a lack of government protection for the people, you would want to strip the use of the legal system away the 3million seems unfair but actually acts as a balance to poor regulations/business interests and money does talk if it hurts businesses in their pockets. This is not a popular position but it is true and people often take a moral position to this but rationally there is a need for these type of lawyers and the cases they take on.

It’s funny…back when I bought my first two new vehicles in the 90′s (before the updated EPA testing methodology), I typically exceeded EPA mileage estimates by 5-10%. On my ’96 manual transmission Saturn SL1, I routinely exceeded 40 mpg even though the highway rating was “only” 36 mpg (Saturn…what did you do to your vehicles?!). Same thing for my wife’s ’93 Saturn SL. I always considered EPA estimates to be biased low and never understood the uproar from the masses.

And I’m happy to report that exceeding EPA gas mileage estimates has been relatively easy in our 2010 Prius. Driver behavior is just so absolutely critical.

Everyone loses in a system such as this, including our sense of justice and fairness.