Are You Excited On Upcoming Hybrid Cars? Civic Vs. Prius

[niky]

Depends naman. The US gets some good cars, and they're relatively cheaper there than elsewhere.

For sport compacts, the US got the Honda Civic Si (not quite like the Type R, but there are tons of aftermarket power adders), the Mazda MP3 and MSP (Lynx RS and RS Turbo) as well as the MP5 (Lynx 2.0 wagon!!!), the classic Sentra SE-R (Integra GSR competitor, despite having less power), the new Sentra SE-R (175 hp, lots of torque, only in the US), the Dodge SRT4 (arguably the fastest accelerating factory FF ever), the Cobalt SS (US Only), the Altima SE-R (US Only, almost as fast as the SRT4) as well as the usual suspects, the Eclipse, Evo, WRX, Silvia (albeit with a poor engine), Miata, Mazdaspeed (turbo) Miata, all generations of MR2, etc...

For muscle, they get the Dodge Magnum (US Only), Corvette, Viper, 300C, etc...

For luxury, they get BMW (except the M3 CSl, which sold very poorly anyway), Audi, Mercedes, Maserati, etc...

What they don't get is Alfa Romeo (which we don't get either... beautiful cars, but only recently has their build quality become acceptable), a couple of small production European sports cars like TVRs and Marcoses (which we don't get)... but they still get the Noble, the Saleen, the Ultima... Caterhams... Ferraris, Porsches...

Oh, and they didn't get the old Skyline and VR4 Galants... but almost nobody got those except Japan and the UK and Australia (through the gray market).

There are a whole bunch of cars I wish we could get that are only available in the US.

[ale828]

Well yes it depends. If your a muscle car lover then the US is a hot bed and the best in the world, but other cars sold in the US have better counterparts in other parts of the world plus here in the phil you can always import any car you want as long as you have the money. You can't say that in the US, their emissions requirment are so strict.

[niky]

And pay 100 pesos per liter of gas (in Europe...)? No thanks! :lol:

[ale828]

I mean the choices in the US car market are not as good as compared to those in Europe and Japan. And that includes the second hand car market. The choices for car nuts in places like Japan and Europe are almost endless. with cars from manufacturers plus those modified by tuner being offered is inumerable. But the US market is vastly improving as compared to a decade ago. Cars like the US only subaru sti with a 2.5liter turbo engine plus The US has the most number of Hybrid cars for sale which include cars like the Escape Hybrid and Lexus RX hybrid. The US has the largest hybrid market around.

[eljo3025]

Guys!!! Would you buy the hybrid versions of the vehicles in the poll???

[stormrider]

Hybrid? No thanks.

But I've got my eye on a 3-liter Accord.

[rebel]

Paano pag rainy season dito sa pinas?

Bahaaaaaaa patay pag naipit ka sa NO MOVING traffic along edsa near crame (or timog yata) sa ilalim ng fly over tapos lakas ulan for 1hr. yun tubig doon bilis tumaas. tapos naka HYBRID ka

[ale828]

Ask the honda sales agent. Hehe. pero i think you follow the same principles when you drive a lowered car in floods.

[theveed]

Accord boto ko hehe, dont really care much for consumption since I dont drive that often... But if factor, baka Civic hybrid o Prius... Pang matanda lagi trip ko eh :P

[al_motor]

ang mahal naman. hehehe.

dadating yan kahit power windows wala. sasamantalahin nila tayo.

[bajumbo]

Hey guys I heard over the news... lalabas na raw ung Prius at Civic Hybrid d2 soonest.... GMA already test drove it a few days ago... Its a promising 30% savings in gas consumption... wheeeeee... Catch? I heard there's a catch.... The cost of one unit is P1.5M.... Magkano nga ba ung High end na Civic 2k6? at ano nga pala ung consumption? aabot ba sa P1.5M in 3 years ung total --Car + gas consumption?

[seonadancing]

Considering that you're paying 5,000 in gas a month, x12 mo so 60,000 a year, then x3 years pa edi 180,000 lang. Lugi ka pa din kasi the high end civic would cost around 1M siguro.

[kimpOy]

13km per liter lang daw yung hybrid?

tapos additional 500K?

pass na lang ako...

[mazdamazda]

get a Picanto / Getz instead... they can do about 15-18km/L

[Camgen6]

Excited about Hybrid cars? Heck no! They are very expensive.

[niky]

Am I prophetic, or what? I knew they'd be expensive... even with the tax break the hybrid is likely to get... not to mention the hidden subsidy given by the manufacturer.

That's the problem... now that it's been proven that Hybrids don't actually save anything economically, people are saying "I want to make a statement about the world I want to see." or "I'm still saving the country money by using less gas."...errh... the point?

If you want a greener world, don't support more expensive cars, support smaller ones with smaller engines.

If you still want speed with fuel efficiency, go get a Getz. At least the price premium for turbodiesel power over the regular Getz is "only" about 70k pesos instead of 500k pesos.

Or better yet, get a a Honda City or Jazz, or a Getz/Picanto 1.1...

Heck, if you really want to save the country money on petroleum imports, walk, bike or commute.

Oops... wait, people won't see you being "green"... they'll just think you're too cheap to buy a car.

That's what hybrids are all about... being both rich and green....

[Alpha_One]

If I may paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson, after a Top Gear segment of him reviewing the Toyota Prius:

"Top Gear Top Tip: If you want a car that doesn't club baby seals to death, get a diesel [VW] Lupo."

[Blackraven]

Hybrids are only at their infacy stage and we are seeing right now is not even close to gain mass popularity and there still needs to be a higher amount of R&D that has to go for the continued development of these vehicles. Not to mentioned the extra premium still kinda outweighs any tax perks/discounts/rebates.

The FD3 which is known as the new-gen Civic Hybrid is a good start though. Aside from deactivating the engine during any stop, it now takes advantage of deceleration and engine braking. All supplied by the LDA-MF5 powerplant which is a 1.3 i-DSi engine + a Hybrid IMA system.

Unfortunately though, the CVT auto that is used in the FD3 DOES NOT come with a manual mode . This is disappointing considering that Fit/Jazz 1.3L-1.5L has manual mode in its 7-speed CVT automatic. And with that, it means that the FD3 has certain points that are lacking. Shikes.

So I think that Honda would have to create something new when they bring out their Fit/Jazz Hybrid and make sure that it doesn't cost waaay too far than the regular counterparts.

However, if you ask me though, low-sulfur diesel is what the game is about. Even better, diesel fuels such as the likes ultra-low sulfur diesel and Biodiesel are even more fuel economical.

This is why it is important that Japan passes its Biodiesel legislation bill that is due for 2007. As a result, they will produce ALL-NEW diesel engines which will be used for the Japan market which can run on low-sulfur and/or Biodiesel fuel.

The Japan Biodiesel Bill of 2007 is THE KEY for more diesel variants from the Japanese carmakers.

[dieselNUBI]

ayos to! japan will be concentrating on diesel na. soon we'll see corolla running on diesel w/ turbo! ayos! parts? dami dyan!

[niky]

Just better diesels. The civic and focus both have excellent turbodiesel versions in Europe. I've still got my fingers crossed that the Focus diesel will come here. ?What the Fit Hybrid needs is a supercapacitor or battery that costs less and takes up less space. The IMA matched to a CVT is a much better regenerative braking device than in most hybrids, and might be used in future normal cars.