New 2008 Civic MPG
filed in 2000 Honda Civic SI
Question: We are considering buying a 2008 civic. Could you please tell me the gas mileage you get for city driving? My wife drives mostly around town and is hoping for about 30 mpg. The sticker EPA Estimate reads 25, so I will probably get something else if that is all it gets. I was told the EPA estimates have changed and it will probably get better than that, but guess who told me that…yeah …the salesman:-)
We are looking at the LX model with a 4 cylinder 1.8 engine.
Thanks for any knowledge.
Low tire pressure isn’t really driving style.
However, where one drives in the city makes a big difference, too. I suspect that cars get better mileage around downtown Allentown PA than downtown New York. And of course, Jack Rabbit starts do make a big difference.
You might consider the Honda Civic Hybrid. It is only about $1300 more than the Honda Civic Si and gets 40 mph city and 45 mph highway.
The smart fortwo gets 33 in city. Of course many or most of the hybrids get 40 mpg in the city. As you probably already know, their mileage is better in city than on the highway.
On a personal note, my 1975 Honda Civic, bough new during the last gas crunch, got 30 mpg no matter where I drove it. Went looking for a Toyota Prius last weekend and the dealer didn’t even have a demo to test drive. It’s good to see that people are getting serious about saving gas.
And unless you live in a old European town or village where parking space is at a premium or the roads date back to the 1500s when they were horse tracks and have never been expanded, the smart fortwo makes little sense.
Which means it makes little sense here in the US.
$15,500 for a smart fortwo equipped similarly to a base Prius, which is $21,500. The smart gets 33mpg in city, the Prius gets 45mpg in city.
It’s not a great feature comparison; for example, there’s no auto trans available in the smart. That’s a negative. And more importantly, the Prius can carry 4-5 people while getting that same 45mpg.
And you can use the Prius for road trips. The smart? On a highway trip? Yeah, right.
At $4/gallon for gas, the 33mpg smart costs 12.12 cents/mile in gas. The 45mpg Prius fuel cost is 8.9 cents. Call it a 3 cent difference. At $5/gallon for gas, it goes to a 4 cent difference. And so on.
So: the Prius has a lower fuel cost per mile, carries more people, has an automatic trans (that’s really very simple and sweet and MUCH more reliable than a traditional hydraulic auto trans), and can go on the highway for long trips.
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