Honda announces 49mpg 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, if I really need to goose it on a merge or something, I shut down the A/C in the Civic before I do, no joke. I almost got killed once with A/C & Eco mode on merging across a busy highway to a quick left-hand exit, because it was so incredibly sluggish 😳 So I don't use Eco mode ever, for starters, and if it's really fast, packed traffic on a merge, I just turn off the A/C for a minute. It's usually only really bad if it's a hot day, and the merge is an uphill ramp, and traffic is moving at like 70+ and is tightly packed (in other words, every day of summer in Connecticut lol).

The rest of the time it's pretty much fine, but I kind of would have liked to have taken an Si out to see how much better the engine in that was. My Kia Soul was around 170 HP and it was always plenty for merging and darting around traffic as needed with no little gimmicky tricks to make it work in certain situations. On the flip side, I've been driving our Civic for the last couple of weeks while my wife has been out of town and I've been average 36 mixed city/highway with the A/C nearly full blast and a bit of a lead foot, so the extra savings at the pump makes the minor annoyances it worth it!

I never heard of a modern car that did not shut the a/c compressor off when you floor the gas. On cars that are a bit older, you needed to press the pedal far enough to trip the WOT switch. On modern computer controlled cars it's usually enough to just boot the throttle pretty good. Even my Jeep with the Hemi turns off the A/C compressor when I get on it.

 

[JimKiler]

My lexus rx450h gets 32-33 @ 55mpg and its one heavy big ass car with a v6 @ 4500lbs or more

Hybrids are great but I been reading on lithium mining and how bad it is.. i guess we're trading 1 bad thing for another.. only time will tell

That is true for everything. Southern MN just defeated a wind farm proposal to save the birds.

 

[gorb]

Yeah, if I really need to goose it on a merge or something, I shut down the A/C in the Civic before I do, no joke. I almost got killed once with A/C & Eco mode on merging across a busy highway to a quick left-hand exit, because it was so incredibly sluggish 😳 So I don't use Eco mode ever, for starters, and if it's really fast, packed traffic on a merge, I just turn off the A/C for a minute. It's usually only really bad if it's a hot day, and the merge is an uphill ramp, and traffic is moving at like 70+ and is tightly packed (in other words, every day of summer in Connecticut lol).

The rest of the time it's pretty much fine, but I kind of would have liked to have taken an Si out to see how much better the engine in that was. My Kia Soul was around 170 HP and it was always plenty for merging and darting around traffic as needed with no little gimmicky tricks to make it work in certain situations. On the flip side, I've been driving our Civic for the last couple of weeks while my wife has been out of town and I've been average 36 mixed city/highway with the A/C nearly full blast and a bit of a lead foot, so the extra savings at the pump makes the minor annoyances it worth it!

Yeah, I wish the Civic had the Accord engine 😀 I didn't try an Si because I don't know how to drive a stick 🙁

I also shut my A/C off when I need to do a harder than normal merge lol. I'm not getting anywhere the mpg you're getting, though...according to the car, my average mpg has been 28.6. I'd love to get the 36 mpg you've been getting.

 

[Kaido]

Exactly this. "Only $7,000 more..." wth?? That buys me ~10 years of gas at my current consumption and gas prices. Even if gas prices spiked and my consumption went up, at least 5 years... I don't even keep a car that long anymore!

Sorry, speaking relative to the plug-in price, which is $39k MSRP. Base ICE Accord is just a hair under $22k, so +$7k gets you the Hybrid, but + $17k gets you a plug-in Hybrid (an extra $10k on top of the regular hybrid model to make it plug-in). The best part is, the plugin only gets you 13 miles of electric range for that additional $17,000 😀

http://automobiles.honda.com/accord-plug-in/faqs.aspx

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, but when most people finance, that extra cost is spread out and the hybrid gives immediate relief at the pump. For people who live check to check or close to that, they'll have more money in their pocket every month by not getting as much gas and likely more savings than the extra cost of the finance payment since terms can go for 72 months. Trust me, a lot of people think this way.

Had to look that up, apparently 76% of Americans are now living paycheck-to-paycheck:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/index.html

🙁

 

[Kaido]

I'm not even talking about the premium of the hybrid over the non-hybrid. I'm talking the premium of the accord over the camry hybrid. In which you are paying $100-$150 a month or more for the Honda to save maybe $60 a month in gas.

Still doesn't add up.

That's some pretty strong math, and Toyota is known for quality cars, so...yeah. What the heck, that's expensive 😀

 

[Kaido]

I never heard of a modern car that did not shut the a/c compressor off when you floor the gas. On cars that are a bit older, you needed to press the pedal far enough to trip the WOT switch. On modern computer controlled cars it's usually enough to just boot the throttle pretty good. Even my Jeep with the Hemi turns off the A/C compressor when I get on it.

I can only tell you my experience with my own car. Maybe mine's a fluke, but I'm guessing not. Like I said, it's not terrible unless it's a hot day, the merge is short & on a hill, traffic is going fast, etc. Most times it's enough to merge, although I would have liked it to have been faster. With Eco mode & A/C on, hope you say your prayers before you merge haha. The rest of the time, it's fine & not really an issue. But my car is a 268HP turbo straight six (old Volvo S80 - my wife drives the Civic), so the difference in performance is enormously visible when swapping cars.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, I wish the Civic had the Accord engine 😀 I didn't try an Si because I don't know how to drive a stick 🙁

I also shut my A/C off when I need to do a harder than normal merge lol. I'm not getting anywhere the mpg you're getting, though...according to the car, my average mpg has been 28.6. I'd love to get the 36 mpg you've been getting.

Yeah it was one of two reasons we got it - first was that the Accord felt a bit too cramped for me (and yet the redesigned 2013 Civic didn't? I dunno, but I was sold at first sit), second was crazy MPG without a battery or plugin system. The highest we've hit to date is 42 MPG (entirely straight-line highway), and that's without using the Eco button because we never remember to turn it on. Local highway is usually 40, and mixed driving on my current work route is 36.

I didn't get these numbers for the first few months, so I don't know if there was a break-in period or if it was just because I had the heater on all the time in the winter. Although we have the A/C on all the time in the summer and it does a lot better MPG-wise, which to me seems very strange since I would have thought the A/C system would be more of a mileage hit than the heater system, but whatever. Also, the rear defroster is 100%, completely useless. I keep a squeegee in the car to clear it off in the mornings.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, I wish the Civic had the Accord engine 😀 I didn't try an Si because I don't know how to drive a stick 🙁

Also, my buddy with the Fit EV was telling me that the peppy engine was originally destined for the larger/heavier Accord, but they went with the Fit Electric instead of the Accord Electric, so it's crazy-fun to drive. Pretty cool they didn't downsize the motor!

 

[LTC8K6]

I can only tell you my experience with my own car. Maybe mine's a fluke, but I'm guessing not. Like I said, it's not terrible unless it's a hot day, the merge is short & on a hill, traffic is going fast, etc. Most times it's enough to merge, although I would have liked it to have been faster. With Eco mode & A/C on, hope you say your prayers before you merge haha. The rest of the time, it's fine & not really an issue. But my car is a 268HP turbo straight six (old Volvo S80 - my wife drives the Civic), so the difference in performance is enormously visible when swapping cars.

Perhaps Honda does not program their ECUs to shut off the compressor when heavy acceleration is called for?

It's hard to believe though, since it helps acceleration and fuel economy.

 

[gorb]

Yeah it was one of two reasons we got it - first was that the Accord felt a bit too cramped for me (and yet the redesigned 2013 Civic didn't? I dunno, but I was sold at first sit), second was crazy MPG without a battery or plugin system. The highest we've hit to date is 42 MPG (entirely straight-line highway), and that's without using the Eco button because we never remember to turn it on. Local highway is usually 40, and mixed driving on my current work route is 36.

I didn't get these numbers for the first few months, so I don't know if there was a break-in period or if it was just because I had the heater on all the time in the winter. Although we have the A/C on all the time in the summer and it does a lot better MPG-wise, which to me seems very strange since I would have thought the A/C system would be more of a mileage hit than the heater system, but whatever. Also, the rear defroster is 100%, completely useless. I keep a squeegee in the car to clear it off in the mornings.

I've had the car since mid January and most of the 12,500 miles I've driven so far are highway. Lots of construction and traffic though so there have been many times where I'm in stop and go stuff. I do live in TX so my A/C is always on as well, but I don't keep it on full blast except when I first get in the car. I was expecting better mileage but it's still better than my old car (2006 sonata GL, 4cyl) where I was averaging 20~21 mpg. I do have a heavy foot though.

Perhaps Honda does not program their ECUs to shut off the compressor when heavy acceleration is called for?

It's hard to believe though, since it helps acceleration and fuel economy.

I'm pretty sure it does, but I think it takes a second or two to actually happen. I'm just used to turning it off when I know I really need to gun it.

 

[Kaido]

I've had the car since mid January and most of the 12,500 miles I've driven so far are highway. Lots of construction and traffic though so there have been many times where I'm in stop and go stuff. I do live in TX so my A/C is always on as well, but I don't keep it on full blast except when I first get in the car. I was expecting better mileage but it's still better than my old car (2006 sonata GL, 4cyl) where I was averaging 20~21 mpg. I do have a heavy foot though.

Is yours a 2012 or a 2013 model? There was a redesign in 2012, and another redesign in 2013.

I usually keep the A/C at either 75% or 100% (humidity has been at 99% lately, yuck). Mixed city/highway driving for me, lowest I've gotten lately is 35 flat, but I usually average 36, about 40 miles a day.

 

[gorb]

Is yours a 2012 or a 2013 model? There was a redesign in 2012, and another redesign in 2013.

I usually keep the A/C at either 75% or 100% (humidity has been at 99% lately, yuck). Mixed city/highway driving for me, lowest I've gotten lately is 35 flat, but I usually average 36, about 40 miles a day.

I have a 2013 EX. My work commute is only 8~9 miles each way, and it's mostly highway. I do take back roads often because the highway gets so backed up. I usually have the a/c set to 75 or 76 and just one or two clicks on the fan speed. The automatic climate control usually keeps it blowing way too cold for my tastes. In recent times I've been making a lot of 70-150 mile (mostly highway) round trips a couple times a week, which is why I've already got over 12,000 miles on the car. I used to average around 9,000 miles annually.

I do a lot of driving on the most congested road in TX (I-35W between 287N & I-30). There are times when a 14 mile detour using I-820W/820S gets me to I-20 faster than if I stay on I-35W. I haven't calculated mileage on individual trips, but I have been watching the car computer steadily reduce the average mpg. When I first got the car, I was getting around 32mpg. Now it reads 28.6.

 

[Kaido]

I have a 2013 EX. My work commute is only 8~9 miles each way, and it's mostly highway. I do take back roads often because the highway gets so backed up. I usually have the a/c set to 75 or 76 and just one or two clicks on the fan speed. The automatic climate control usually keeps it blowing way too cold for my tastes. In recent times I've been making a lot of 70-150 mile (mostly highway) round trips a couple times a week, which is why I've already got over 12,000 miles on the car. I used to average around 9,000 miles annually.

I do a lot of driving on the most congested road in TX (I-35W between 287N & I-30). There are times when a 14 mile detour using I-820W/820S gets me to I-20 faster than if I stay on I-35W. I haven't calculated mileage on individual trips, but I have been watching the car computer steadily reduce the average mpg. When I first got the car, I was getting around 32mpg. Now it reads 28.6.

Hmm, do you get any better on the longer 70-150 mile trips, like if you reset your odometer to calculate the MPG? That's pretty low!

 

[gorb]

I am going on one of those trips today, so I'll reset the odometer and see what I get.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Pretty good. Hybrid is a winning technology and there are less hybrid haters every year 🙂

I've never been a hybrid hater but if you asked me a few years ago what my next car would be I'd have laughed in your face if you said it would be a hybrid. 😀

 

[gorb]

Hmm, do you get any better on the longer 70-150 mile trips, like if you reset your odometer to calculate the MPG? That's pretty low!

I forgot to reset it before I left, but I did remember before I went back home. After the 29.7 mile trip back, it read 35.1 mpg. Not bad. I guess all my shorter trips/bad traffic trips really eat into the mileage.

 

[nerp]

Does seem low. I average 28 with a 300 hp V6 with mostly in-town driving. When I hit the highway, I average 34, 31 if I'm driving like a maniac.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Is it slow still?

 

[gorb]

Does seem low. I average 28 with a 300 hp V6 with mostly in-town driving. When I hit the highway, I average 34, 31 if I'm driving like a maniac.

Damn. I dunno then. Maybe my car's mpg calculator is broken? I haven't done the actual math myself. Or maybe I'm just asking my car for every last one of those 140 hp 😀

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Is it slow still?

Accords are pretty fast for their class. 😉

 

[Kaido]

2014 Honda Accord Hybrid: First Drive Report:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1087554_2014-honda-accord-hybrid-first-drive-report

2014 Honda Accord Hybrid Has No Transmission: How It Works

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ccord-hybrid-has-no-transmission-how-it-works

I think it's just awesome that you can get a "real" car that achieves 50 MPG. I also think it's neat that it doesn't require anything special to achieve that economy - just drive it! No plugging in, no special fuel, just acts like a regular car. I'm curious to see the driving performance, however - it has a 141 HP engine; my wife's '13 Civic has a 140 HP engine and it could really use about 20 horsies more, so I don't think the heavier Accord will be a screamer...

 

[PricklyPete]

I really like what they did with their hybrid system. This is the first hybrid system I am interested in. Don't need a car right now, but if I need a commuter at some point, this or a later iteration would be very high on my list.

 

[LTC8K6]

2014 Honda Accord Hybrid: First Drive Report:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1087554_2014-honda-accord-hybrid-first-drive-report

2014 Honda Accord Hybrid Has No Transmission: How It Works

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ccord-hybrid-has-no-transmission-how-it-works

I think it's just awesome that you can get a "real" car that achieves 50 MPG. I also think it's neat that it doesn't require anything special to achieve that economy - just drive it! No plugging in, no special fuel, just acts like a regular car. I'm curious to see the driving performance, however - it has a 141 HP engine; my wife's '13 Civic has a 140 HP engine and it could really use about 20 horsies more, so I don't think the heavier Accord will be a screamer...

It also has a 166hp electric motor...

The 166-hp AC drive motor revs to 12,584 rpm. Full torque, an energetic 226 pound-feet, is available from zero to 4000 rpm, providing the Accord with light feet in traffic.

http://www.caranddriver.com/feature...shrewdly-designed-new-hybrid-system-tech-dept

I don't expect it to be much slower than the plug in version with the CVT. That was doing mid 7's to 60.

 

[tortillasoup]

This car kinda makes me sad not because it was done poorly but because it feels like Honda pulled out all of the stops to make a decent hybrid vehicle. The car gets 47mpg avg yet it feels like Honda did everything they could to improve the fuel economy of this car, making me realize that the future of fuel economy improvements seems limited. I mean the only things I can think of that's left that hasn't come to market yet are HCCI, Laser Ignition (laser spark plugs), and Free valve (Solenoid Actuated valves). Otherwise I can't think of any other things besides maybe weight reduction via exotic materials and go with a smaller displacement engine to improve fuel economy.