Any Hawaii owners here?

Sorry to hear your experience is not so good.

Many of us can easily attain and surpass EPA, and I am sure many folks will respond to your thread (probably not from Hawaii) with lots of good tips.

First things first:
-How are your tires doing pressure wise? If you are doing less than 38 psi on all four, then you are hurting your mileage potential.
-Do you drive by the instruments? As in watching the iFDC, keeping your RPMS low and maximizing glides? If you are not, then your are likely hurting your mileage potential.
-Do you operate the air conditioning wisely? As in, operating in Auto and always starting with the highest temp first and then adjusting it down as the blower fan slows down?
-What are your driving distances? If you are doing trips under 10 miles then the car has no chance to warm up and that will explain the lower mileage too.
-What are your speeds? Anything above 55-60MPH is going to dramatically hurt the mileage for any car (HCH-II included)
- Heavy Stop and Go traffic is bad. Unless you have a good set of techniques under your belt your FE will most certainly suffer.

An engine on a HCH can take up to 12,000 miles to break in. Some folks claim a lower figure but most will always report the break-in after the first oil change which for some can happen at 10-12K.

Please remember that manufacturers do not come up with the mileage figures, the EPA does. So with that in mind, it should help to know what the EPA's testing routine was for them to have achieved those figures with the HCH-II. Most people do not drive under the conditions that EPA test are carried under, so naturally their mileage will be worse.

Also, I don't mean to sound insulting... but unless we have expertly driven an economy hybrid before, then we do not know how to drive one yet. Sorry. We all go through the process, some more dramatically than others. In other words, it is not just the car's engine that breaks in, the driver must break-in as well. Staying at the speed limit, coasting often, avoiding jack-rabbit starts & stops are good beginning on our quest to meeting the EPA mileage and much beyond.

I would kindly suggest you read through Tarabell's excellent article, and I promise you'll quickly realize that your car has a great deal of fuel economy potential for the taking.

Cheers;

MSantos

Sorry. I wish I had something nicer to say that would make it better.

But, there are ways to mitigate your situation. For instance, you could get a block heater (yes, it sounds stupid)... but with the block heater will enable you to remove the warm-up constraint out of the equation. All you need is a warm-up session before you take off on cooler mornings and that is it.

-At its worst, the HCH still consumes measurably less fuel than a regular Civic at its best, under the same conditions.

-The emissions from a regular civic (despite being one of the cleaner cars on the road) are much dirtier than that of your hybrid.

Even the Toyota Prius which is the best car for stop-and-go traffic, suffers from short distances until it warms up (the Civic Hybrid is best as a highway car). That is life for ANY car. You hybrid Civic is just better than any other under those operating conditions. Just don't expect to meet the EPA ratings for any car you own (hybrid or not).

Cheers;

MSantos