2003 Honda Civic Hybrid Reviews
2003 Honda Civic Hybrid
Pressed for time? The Civic Hybrid is no different, and that’s an amazing statement considering its powertrain is essentially a big battery pack mated to a teeny four-cylinder engine. The Civic Hybrid does it for an admittedly money-losing $20,000. Hybrid basics
In turning the ordinary Civic into a hybrid — a car that uses a small gas engine to power batteries, which in turn help out the gas engine when it needs more power, resulting usually in better fuel economy — Honda needed only to rethink the hybrid battery/engine pack from the Insight.
The gasoline engine is a powerhouse of low-friction, high-efficiency technology. The 85-hp 1.3-liter four-cylinder sports “i-DSI” — what Honda terms as “intelligent” dual and sequential ignition lean-burn technology. With VTEC variable valve timing, low-friction pistons, thin-sleeve cylinder walls, and a plastic intake manifold, the Hybrid’s gas engine is light and clean, if not “cut” and “ripped.”
Purpose-built hybrid vehicles first went on sale in the United States in 1999, with the Honda Insight leading the post-electric vehicle charge. The perennial best-selling compact car, the Honda Civic became the first mass-production vehicle to offer a hybrid system as a powertrain choice, joining a model line that already boasted ultra-low-emissions and fuel-efficient engines. Wearing an exterior nearly identical to the more familiar Civic LX and EX sedans, the Hybrid is the technology of the future cloaked in anonymity.
For that amount, we received a well-equipped Honda Civic that boasted front-seat side airbags, anti-lock brakes, automatic climate-control, a unique electronic instrument panel, and four-speaker AM/FM/CD stereo. Although priced $2500 more than a comparable gas-engine EX sedan with side airbags, the bite on the Civic Hybrid is soothed somewhat due to the car's eligibility for a $2000 federal tax credit.
The car's unique feature content drew praise, having borrowed trim and content upgrades from other Civic models.
With the Civic Hybrid, Honda finally has a real competitor to the market leading Toyota Prius hybrid. The "Civic Hybrid" can.
The Civic Hybrid is, for all intents and purposes, a Civic, which is one of the best selling cars in the country. The "Civic hybrid" has a cars.com target price of $20,300, or almost $3,000 more than the regular version. The Civic hybrid drives very much like a normal, old Civic, except there's a display on the dashboard that shows when the electric motor is being used to boost the engine power, and when the battery is being recharged by the engine or by regenerative braking.
Perceptive drivers will notice that the Civic often shuts itself off when stopped at a traffic light. If you're driving an economy car like the Civic, you shouldn't expect to have lots of power on demand at every speed in every gear at every instant. And, that's the case with the Civic Hybrid. While we couldn't compare the hybrid and non-hybrid Civic back to back, our impression was that there was a bit less power in the hybrid, especially in high demand situations, like hills on a highway.
With the exception of the dashboard, the interior in the Honda Civic Hybrid is identical to the regular Civic, which is perfectly adequate
The Civic Hybrid dashboard display is quite different from the regular Civic, with its indicators for the integrated motor assists or "IMA," as Honda calls it.
As with the Civic, Honda has adorned the Civic Hybrid with nooks and crannies and storage compartments galore.
Honda practically invented good ergonomics. Otherwise, the Civic Hybrid looks very much like a conventional Civic -- which is to say, not bad, for an inexpensive, economy car.
We don't know anything about servicing the hybrid aspects of this car. On the upside, Honda is offering an 8 year or 80,000 mile warranty on the batteries in the hybrid.
This car may bring a whole lot of people over to hybrids. Why? You can have your practical, reliable Honda Civic, and your 50MPG, and your Sierra Club dates, and not pay any penalty as a driver.
