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2012 Honda Civic Hybrid

2011-09-08
when 40mpg is something you get with a standard gas engine the Civic Hybrid has to do a bit better is 44 enough let's drive the 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid and check the tech the new Civic Hybrid is revised right along the lines of all the new 2012's spot it quickly by blue chrome accents on the outside a couple new screen modes inside but mostly by its bigger engine yet higher mpg now inside the Civic there are barely any cues that tell you this is a hybrid versus the gas engine car which we just looked at a few days ago you've got this econ button over here in this car of course it changes a very different powertrain it makes the hybrid powertrain extremely stingy as opposed to making modest changes in the gas engine car right there dead center is your ima logo this is Honda's integrated Motor Assist that's their technology that competes with Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive up here on the eye mid that's a five inch LCD that is new on the 2012 Civic there you find some more cues that your in a hybrid aside from the usual fuel economy and distance to empty you've also got a green gauge here and one that shows power flow on the vehicle stuff you wouldn't have in a gas engine car there's your battery level also and I think unique to the hybrid if I'm not mistaken is the ability to set a wallpaper for that eye mid display I didn't see that in the gas engine car kind of a weird differentiator if that's the case and what really makes sense in this car because it's a hybrid are those two segmented bars alongside the digital speedo those are the ones that coach you from blue to turquoise to green how efficiently you're driving handi on the gas engine car really makes sense on this one we know this head unit all too well it's an optional navigation head unit if you get that trim level it's an OK nav interface it's not my favorite the whole thing that was kind of busy and dated but make sure you check out our 2012 standard Civic video for a full detailed look at this new cabin one choice transmission on this guy as with most hybrids its a CVT a continuously variable transmission doesn't have gears that's just one belt pulley system it varies all the time to keep this guy on the sweet spot let's go see what's plugging into it quite a few changes here under the hood on this new 2012 Civic Hybrid they bumped up the gas engine from 1.3 liters to 1.5 still has the electric motor attached to it of course the totals on this are a hundred and ten horsepower all in and 127 foot-pounds of torque perfectly good numbers you're going to get to 60 in 10.1 seconds again not the point on this car the MPG is so here's where they are 44 city 44 highway guess what 44 average and that's up a few MPG from the outgoing model Honda's I am a hybrid system hard couples the electric motor to the gas engine so they always turn together but the electric motor can power the car alone a small amount of the time it's something you'll barely detect and like many of the newer hybrids the Civic turns driving into some little video game where you earn leaves as you drive Greenlee and they in turn add up to some vehicle lifetime score but I don't think you can win anything I recall the previous Civic Hybrid Dean kind of a coffee grinder of a thing just kind of crude around the edges this car does not suffer from that it's got electric power steering which is really nice and linear did a very good job on that and everybody who drives this car comments on the ride quality it's got a smooth both in terms of this how its sprung as well in terms of this how it motivates itself there's no lumpy engagement anymore than you normally get with a hybrid which kicks an electric motor in and out from time to time let's check the start/stop technology that can be bulky in cars like this I'm coming to a stop sign now let's see how it goes off and more importantly how seamlessly it comes back on there's my stop it goes right away yeah really quick that's one of the better restarts in the start-stop world right now the power comes on nicely they've dialed in the torque for everyday driving so that it's there when you need it and handling in a car like this is as you might imagine it's fine it's you know it's good transportation quality handling really it's the ride quality I think people are going to respond to in this vehicle and the overall smoothness of how the power comes on and of course the mpg I get the feeling there's a little bit less mechanical noise intrusion as well I don't hear things worrying as much as I do in some lower-cost hybrids where you hear things that sound like an elevator mechanism going up and down when you come to lower speeds I'm not picking that up here it's a better sound insulation than some aren't a 2012 Civic Hybrid this all-new model is going to run you 24 eight base now a couple of big options in one small one on top of that the nav package adds $1500 that's navigation live traffic via fm not XM radio but it does add XM radio in that package and voice command for the nav and also you go leather for 1,200 bucks the only ala carte Tech is XM Radio by itself for about 350
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