I test drove the Accord Hybrid today. Thought some of you might be interested.

With gas going up as quickly as it is, I decided to give it a go.

It's not an Acura, but it's the closest thing to it, that gets mileage too.

Car has 255HP. It does 37mpg on the highway.

Driving experience was like most Accords. OK, not great. The steering was the only real negative to me. No real feedback.

Cool things to look for...

Can't hear ignition....extremely quiet. You feel the car turn over, but that is it.

Auto-shut down at Red Light, stop signs, etc. Very cool too. As soon as you remove your foot from the brake, it's immediately ready to go. NO DELAY!!!

At cruising speeds, there's a meter showing that three cylinder's have shut down as well. Very sweet car!

Negatives to me...

Looks...Not a TL, not a G period.
Steering...my 94' Accord had better feedback
Nothing sport about it
Price - $30,000+, and they are sticking to the price.

 

Nice review...Hmm, so, is it safe to say that this car is...well boring? Rate it on a 1-10 "fun" scale...

 

They can only get better.

 

No thanks. I don't think I ever want a hybrid car. It would drive me crazy not to hear the motor and try to guess if it's running or not. All that gizmo computer stuff has to be a crazy nightmare in maintenance down the road.

I also don't think they are worth the extra money. You save money in gas but you are paying a huge premium for the technology. For most people, by the time you sell the car you still have not saved enough money in gas to recover the extra upfront cost. I might see it paying off if you do some serious miles and gas stays as high as it is. However, it would still take many years to save thousands of dollars in gas.

 

Another thing bad about the Honda hybrids is the AC is NOT electric. My friend has an Civic Hybrid and through the city he says its hell in traffic since the AC relies on the engine running. Well when the engine turns off, there goes the AC. That alone would kill a car for me. Now another hybrid which fixed that is the Prius which runs on a fully electric AC so AC doesn't kill your fuel economy at all, which is kinda cool.

 

benefits of a hybrid is they they are allowing those on HOV alone

 

ahhh, have you been to the pump lately?

 

Run the numbers and you really don't save that much. You pay a premium for the technology and to what save $1000 a year? In the scheme of things thats not that much. So a prime example here is the Lexus 400h. It gets maybe 2-3 extra mpg I believe, but you pay an additional 5-10k or so in cost. How does saving 4k over 4 yrs justify paying the additional cost? Now if you feel better about yourself going for a hybrid then maybe it is worth the extra fees. The Toyota Prius which is the most advanced and efficient hybrid, with decent options is 26k. So then lets say you buy an equivalent G35 at 33.5k. So the difference is 7.5k. Now you factor in gas costs so 4 years * 2k for the G, and 4 * 1k for the hybrid. So 30k in year 4 for the hybrid, 41.5k for the G. The extra amount you paid from the very beginning is still 4k more than it was before. Is 4k worth losing performance and what could be the "luxury" of other cars? The SUV's get a few extra mpg for thousands more. I've worked on hybrid research and I think hybrid is not the way to go, we need to develop fuel cell or full electric vehicles and get off foreign oil and become domestic, keep our costs down and then you can drive for years on a single fill up right? :-P

 

If the hybrid sold for the same price as a regular Accord, then I think it'd definitely be worth to get for the gas savings. But, for the kind of premiums these hybrids sell for, I'd have to agree with erikill. How many years-worth of gas can you buy to equal the thousands of dollars you pay extra for the hybrid technology? In the long run, you may not be saving much $$$. I believe in saving fuel as well as that's a limited resource, but....those hybrids just aren't appealing yet. Build me a hybrid G35 and I'd probably get one

 

For you, I will do some numbers assuming gas will stay at $3 a gallon forever. If you drive 15,000 miles a year in a economical 4 cyclinder, 30mpg is about right. That works out to 500 gallons. If you drive the same car that is a hybrid and get 40mpg, you burn only 375 gallons. Saving 125 gallons, which would cost $375 at $3 a gallon, sounds great. However, if that hybrid car costs $5k more than the standard economical car, it would take you more than 13 years to recover the cost. Even if there is an unlikely 20mpg difference between a regular economical 4 cycl. and a hybrid, it would still take you 5 years to start saving money. That is not including any extra maintenance costs with the extra computers and extra drivetrain parts.

 

Just an arbitrary example of some savings. Not saying these would be what you get with an Accord vs Hybrid Accord. Just a starting point for discussion.

If average annual miles driven is 15,000

At 20mpg = 750 gallons
At 30mpg = 500 gallons

250 gallons/year difference

At $2.50/gal = $625 savings per year
At $3.50/gal = $875 savings per year
At $5.00/gal = $1250 savings per year

Different premiums for the different hybrids out there so break even will vary. I imagine as more cars go hybrid the premium to purchase them will come down a bit. I'd love better gas mileage than the G gives me (or the 300zx TT). But the added weight, complexity, and possible performance loss (handling) might not be the trade off worth it to me at this time. I wonder what these hybrids will cost to repair/replace when the hybrid components go bad?

 

I'll say one thing. There's nothing impressive about the Accord's hybrid technology from the standpoint of fuel savings. EPA (equals pitiful accuracy) hwy for the Accord hybrid is 37, the standard V-6 29, and the standard I-4 34. I'm sorry but is Honda smoking crack? Who's going to pay a $5K premium for a hybrid that saves 6-8 mpg? Even if I concede their wildly optimistic EPA ratings, with an annual savings of about $430 in a 50/50 mix of highway and city mileage (15k/year, $2.50/gallon) it will take 11.6 years to recoup the difference. And that's before figuring that they'll deal on the V-6 (but not on the hybrid) and the hybrid will cost a lot more to maintain. (New batteries? $2,500.)

 

Yup batt technology isn't there either, and if you've ever seen batts blow up on a hybrid..well you'd think twice about it. It's not a pretty sight and can nuke your whole car / truck / whatever. The best way to save fuel is for people to stop driving stupid and causing traffic, don't block intersections, don't run red lights, etc and wow suddenly a 30min commute over 5 miles is now 10 mins max because of flowing traffic. (Don't get me started on the DOT here in GA either..)

 

Many have pointed out the utter ludicrousness of the Lexus 400h which essentially saves no gas over the gasoline version but costs a lot more. But, someone I know regularly gets over 50 mpg in his Prius and got a $2000 tax deduction which was worth about 500-700 dollars for him. Compared to a Civic or something like that, which is what the comparison would be, you would save maybe 500 dollars a year in gas and the two are not priced that different. So it's not a big difference in cost and it is worth it to some people that the emissions are so low. The biggest problem to me is that the smaller the car, the more dangerous it is to be in it, all other things being equal.

 

Good review DT. This is an important topic, and quite possibly the immediate future if manufacturers can develop the battery technology. The Accord Hybrid is a great idea, but anybody can match that gas mileage with the 4 cylinder Accord, plus save themselves about $6-10K on the sticker depending on options. Or even more if they just a Civic, right?

I had a Prius over the weekend, and the thing definitely served up 45mpg in mixed city, rush hour stop n go, and highway mileage. Boring as dirt to drive, and is almost dangerously slow off the line, but fine for cruising, commuting or errands. The question is, is it worth the 5-10K premium over a similarly equipped Corolla that gets well over 30mpg in mixed driving?

In 2 or 3 years, I'll definitely consider a hybrid Altima, Camry, or whatever else is out there ... especially since gas may not be getting cheaper anytime soon (see the book: Twilight in the Desert) I for one, was excited about the thought of a full sized Honda with V6 power, near luxury, and a 35+mpg when it first came out ... until I saw the sticker. Ouch!