I was perusing Digg a couple of days ago when I ran across an article about a woman suing Honda in small claims court in California. She was disappointed with her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid’s gas mileage. She was getting 20 mpg less than predicted. There were some comments on the article, saying various things about gas mileage and Honda.
I have a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid which has gotten just about the gas mileage predicted for it. I posted a comment saying so:
“I have a 2007 model year Civic Hybrid, and have been very happy with the gas mileage. I drive 3 or 4 highway trips each year of 1,000 miles or more and my average on those trips is 50mpg. Factor in the local driving, and I hover, for the year, between 42 and 43 mpg. I do not speed out on the open road, and generally no not have a lead foot. If I didn’t let my hot rod spouse drive my car, I’d probably be between 44 and 45 annually! If Honda reads this comment, they are welcome to my testimony.”
Someone styling himself as “Jeremy” thought to make a comment on my comment:
“Honda also supports slave labor and human misery. So go fuck yourself you are not intelligent or leading the species with your caring fabled existence. More people died collecting the lithium to power that piece of shit than died on sept 11. You would know this if you were educated. Also, to recharge a battery in a hybrid, is done by running off of coal fired power plants. So not only are you hybrid buyers less efficient overall, you’re also still ignorant. Great job now go suck more dick at the office you felch.”
I did not reply in kind, I’m happy to report. A different commenter addressed the actual factual issues raised by “Jeremy,” pointing out that the car in question doesn’t use lithium batteries and isn’t a plug-in hybrid, so it gets no electrical charge from power plants.
The internet, ya gotta love it. Does anyone know what a “felch” is?
Oh, for those interested, I made a calculation that, based upon EPA gas mileage predictions for the vehicles, I spent about $2500 less for gas operating my car since I bought it than I would have spent had I bought the non-hybrid Civic Hybrid. I have more than made up for the premium paid for acquiring the hybrid, and that gap will increase as I drive my car more. For those interested (your atavistic stick-shift lovers, naming no names here), the EPA predicted considerably lower gas mileage for the stick-shift Honda Civic than for the automatic, non-hybrid Civic.
Large Sleeping Animals 