Are hybrid cars all they are cracked up to be?
By Cars & Motorcycles on Jul 08, 2008 with Comments 3
none of your busssiness asked: OK so apparently the Honda civic gets like 40/45 mpg, but do hybrid cars like the Honda civic have a bad track record on maintenance costs or something? or is it really that wonderful?
Filed Under: Hybrid Cars
About the Author:
the civic is a good car, keep it
they tend to have less mechanical issues to about 150-180k as they have fewer moving parts. after that the entire bank of batteries has to be replaced generally.
they tend to be less fun to drive.
they tend to perform terribly in extreme cold b/c of battery inefficiency
they tend to not do well on long uphill grades (like living in the rockies wehre you may go up hill for 30 miles at a time) as the battery wears out then you only have a 50 hp motor to draw you up hill (motor trend story)
they tend to cost enough more than the regular variant of the same car that you will never get back the difference in your savings, you’ll ahve a more dangerious car in an accident, and you’ll get less joy from driving as they don’t handle as well as the basic version.
They do have issues. If your not just using it for commute back and fourth to work in the city then they start slacking. They dont really have to power to go into the mountains or long distance traveling with higher altitude. And to work on them, because they are new, is very expensive right now and when there battery goes out at about 4-5 years, its about 3k-5k replacement and it is a toxic lead acid battery that must be disposed of in landfill. People like to say oh its great and its wonderful, just because they dont like normal engines and think no one needs them. The fact is gasoline engines are very efficient and are still needed for places of the US. Because of how large the country is and the fact that we drive a lot more then the rest of the World, such as Asia and Europe. Generally they dont drive more then a hour or so a week because they live so close to there work and there country is so small they dont have to drive far to visit family and generally dont take long vacations. The hybrid is over rated and has many problems and the fact is, its just not right for everyone. And they shouldnt judge people because you dont drive one.