Update on my "new" car

In case anyone is interested.  You're not?  Oh well, just be polite like your momma taught you.

I've had my "new" car now for a little over one month now.  Overall, I'm thrilled with my choice, and would make it again if I were faced with it today.  The things I don't love about the car are things that it can't control (space and lack of AWD), and I'm the one who made the decision to give up the enormous space of my 2002 Subaru Outback when it proved time and time again that it was unreliable.

I've done a lot of extra driving this month for events, and combined with gas prices (west coast gas prices spiked $.35 over night two weeks ago because of lack of refineries that were operable), I've saved over half of what I would be spending with my Outback.  The original advertised MPG for the 07 Civic Hybrid was 49-51.  After a class action lawsuit (which was thrown out about two weeks ago), Honda downgraded the MPG to about 45-47 mpg.   One thing I've noticed is that the calculated MPG that my car shows on my dash is always MUCH lower than what I actually get. When I fill up, I divide total miles driven that week (I clear my trip meter after each fill up) by the total gallons pumped.  When I manually calculate it, I always get at least 2 more MPG than my dash gauge says.

I fill up my car every Sunday regardless of how full the tank is (it was always almost empty in out Outback), and have had the following MPG:
The car has proven comfortable on drives longer than 45 minutes (haven't gone further yet), and I love the radio controls on the steering wheel.  It's survived two big convertible car seats in the back, plus two tall (6 ft and 5 ft 11) adults in the front.  Its met the Costco challenge (toilet paper and other items), though at times I feel like I'm playing a mix of Tetris and Jenga trying to get everything in there.  Nothing can beat the space of my old station wagon.

Had I kept my Outback, I would have had to put an estimated $1,600 in to it by now, and would have spent countless hours at my mechanic trying to figure out the various check engine lights that kept coming on.  Note to self: I need to send my mechanic a card to let them know I purchased the Honda.  I'm sure by now they think I'm dead since they haven't seem me in about five weeks.

The Honda also is lacking AWD which was amazing on my Outback.  Subarus can eat snow and ice for dinner.  We live on a steep hill, and even though it only gets snowy about 5 days a year, we do have ice many mornings during the winter.  I'm saving a little bit of money each pay check now to be able to buy studded snow tires come winter.

Someone on my original car post commented about a class action lawsuit surrounding the MPG and lack of power after an upgrade to the computers that was done after purchase.  I guess the complaint was the car didn't have a lot of power after the upgrade.  My in-laws live at the top of a VERY steep and windy hill, and we live in an area that is almost all hills.  My Civic has performed beautifully and been able to go up a hill at my desired speed from a dead stop.  I'm pleased with the performance and power.

One thing that I'm not thrilled with, is that my front passenger window (I have power windows) just started not rolling up all the way.  It will be fixed by the dealer for no cost to me this week, and the car does have 65k miles on it, so things like that happen.

Overall, I'm happy with my choice, and the money that I'm saving.