Results tagged “Honda” from Green Mesh

I received an HCH Class Action Settlement for my 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid (True vs. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. ) last night.

Fortunately for Honda, the settlement includes rebates for new vehicles. I get $100 cash back and a video to train me how to best use my gas and brake pedal.

The lawsuit revolves around EPA mileage estimates for Honda's hybrids and the lower than expected mileage figures some people got from their Honda hybrids.

I suggest Honda use a disclaimer sticker.

Failure to use common sense may result in lower than expected mileage figures.

Smashing the gas pedal (combining the use of electric and electric motors without the use of cylinder deactivation) and smashing the brake (not using regenerative braking) will result in lower than expected economy.

Accessories, like air-conditioning, use energy. When you shut them off you use less energy.

Very cold days and very warm days take more energy to keep you comfortable and move your vehicle.

Some days I can get over 50 mpg and some days it may be as low as 40 mpg.

All vehicle manufactures use EPA standards for fuel economy. It is the competitive benchmark for selling a car in the United States. It makes no more sense for Honda to post figures lower than the EPA testing procedure than it would be for Toyota.

Honda can keep my $100 and put it towards research and development. I am happy that there was a car on the market in 2005 (or 1999 with the Insight) with the potential of 50 mpg.

Perhaps it would be more beneficial to force the mindless, lawsuit money train toward adopting a universal standard that more accurately reflects the cost of driving. This would actually help all consumers.

It will be interesting to watch what happens when vehicles with an even greater variability of mileage like the Chevy Volt (230 mpg) or a totally electric car like the Nissan LEAF come on the scene with the same aging EPA standard.

Jim Buvalic is a hybrid transmission systems engineer at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., who worked on the development of the Fusion Hybrid. He gives a Q&A about what where they gained efficiency designing the Ford Fusion Hybrid. auto.theglobeandmail.com

Buvalic says that it's a "total systems approach" but that regenerative braking gives the total boost in fuel economy.

Regenerative braking is also the single most driver controllable element of driving a hybrid.

Long slow stops.

The longer your brake pads last, the more you have mastered this skill. I have 80,000 miles on the original brakes of a 2005 Civic Hybrid. I predict that I may squeeze another 8,000 miles out of the original front brake pads.

As alternative engine technology matures, manufacturers jockey for position and price.

Honda decides to cancel diesels for their larger platforms and evolve their gasoline hybrid offers into the larger cars. The price of the new low cost Honda Insight will not chase Toyota lowering the price of a Prius. automobilemag.com Consumers win with two low cost hybrid offerings.

Volkswagen has revealed its new Golf GTD, a sporty diesel version of the Golf. autoweek.com I recall a friend stuffing a diesel into a sporty 80's vintage VW GTI and thinking that I wanted one. Unlike the 80's a modern diesel has gobs of low end power, runs clean and would be alot of fun. Consider the premium cost of diesel fuel over gasoline before determining the dollars saved.

Chrysler LLC on Monday named U.S. based A123 Systems as the supplier of batteries for its first electric vehicles slated for debut in showrooms 2010. reuters Chrysler's plan like General Motor's Volt Electric car will use an efficient fossil fueled motor to charge batteries that will run an electric motor(s).

The electricTransit Connect (commercial truck) will be Ford's first full-electric vehicle and will be followed in 2011 by a 5-passenger car that will travel up to 120 miles per charge, according to Ford. Further details on that vehicle are unknown, but Ford is has been testing a fleet of Focus compact sedans that use an electric powertrain built by Magna International of Canada. foxnews

Honda Motor Co will begin selling the Insight, the first of its next generation low-cost hybrid cars, in Japan in February, followed by launches in Europe and the United States in March and April.

The model on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week has listed mileage of 40 miles per gallon in city driving and 43 mpg on the highway.

But Yasunari Seki, the Insight's chief engineer, said it has proven potential of as much as 72 mpg, or about 30 km/litre, aided by an "eco-lamp" color meter that goes from shades of blue to green to prompt fuel-efficient driving.

"We had a contest for journalists test-driving it on a course last month and the winner got 72 mpg," Seki told Reuters ahead of the auto show, which opened to the press on Sunday. reuters

The car will arrive here this Spring.

General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner's salary and other compensation rose 64 percent in 2007 to about $15.7 million. reuters.com

GM reported a record $39 billion net loss in 2007. reuters.com

Wagoner will be receiving a $4.6M retirement package, courtesy of a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan that has been set up for him. This plan comes from funding that is separate from GM's vastly underfunded pension plan, and is said to be payable even if GM files for bankruptcy autoblog.com

Toyota's CEO Hiroshi Okuda made $903K in 2006. Toyota's top 37 executives earned a combined $21.6 million in salary and bonuses.

At Honda, the top 21 earned $11.1 million, combined, in salary and bonuses, SEC filings show. abc.com

GM is seeking taxpayer loans or else threatens the economy with bankruptcy while holding it's massive network of dealers, suppliers and millions of employees that run everything hostage while Toyota and Honda CEO's have been methodically taking over a free market with competitive products at a fraction of GM's CEO management cost.

It's a showdown between a lame-duck US Congress, President Bush and the incoming Obama administration.

Can you kill the cancer without killing the patient and will a few who hold the cards continue to kill the inspiration to succeed with their greed.

My neighbor dog Juno has a passion for rides. Any open car door is fair game. Frightened of the scooter at first, he is now ready for a ride.

Chuck parked his full-sized Chevy truck (11 mpg) over the Summer and has commuted to work with a 100+ mpg Honda Elite 80 Scooter.

For most of the past month, Chuck has been using old lawn mower/boat gas to power the Honda. The gas went unused this summer when I started mowing three lawns on my block with an electric lawn mower.

Wired reports that Honda will unveil a new dedicated hybrid today that hits the 60 mpg mark and sell for $19,000.

While hybrids have tended to go upscale in price and equipment or relegated to high end SUV's, this market niche has more of a global vision aimed at neutralizing a price difference between a hybrid and traditional gas powered car.

Look for the car to go on sale next Spring.

I tend to over think purchases. After looking at everything everywhere, we decided to purchase this new 2007 Honda Elite 80. The Elite, assembled in Mexico out of Japanese parts is about to disappear as Honda will replace it with an Indian made scooter with more storage and probably a slightly larger engine.

The Elite is a lone scooter survivor of the 1980's Scooter market and has been marketed here since.

It's somewhat 1980's-ish looking and definatley doesn't scream steal me. It has a long track record of durability, a dedicated parts network and even in a doomsday scenario there will be parts on EBay for the next 30 years because they have has such a long production run.

I had the honors of taking it home. The 80cc engine goes up and down Mount Zion hill at 35-40 mph and the scooter can hit 50mph on the flats. It as a variable speed transmission and an automatically engaging clutch. It engine breaks down long hills.

Not something you would want to take on Interstate 83 or the the Rt 30 bypass, but very serviceable for most any other road. It will out accelerate most cars and is rated at 115 miles per gallon. The one gallon fuel tank had 88 miles and 1/4 left on the gauge, so i don't doubt it will hit the mark.

We figured out that to run the truck to work five days a week costs about $56, while the scooter costs under $4. The crankcase holds about 2 cups of oil.

Also see:
67 mpg motorcycle grocery getter camper (greenmesh 05/2008)

So Chuck checked out a local East York used car dealer turned scooter franchise and presented me with some figures. The Chinese made Roketa scooters sure have a low price point.

Scooters haven't been a big sale item in the U.S until the recent gas crisis. I remember my father buying an Austrian made Puch moped in the 1970's during that gas price escalation. Today, the Motorcycle Industry Council estimates that 50% of the world's scooters originate in China. In many parts of the world, a scooter is the dominate mode of transportation. Honda actually sells more motorcycles than it does cars.

New scooters can be purchased in four ways:

---Mainline dealerships that carry familiar nameplates.
---Independent motorcycle repair shops that carry a line of scooters.
---Business entrepreneurs (often car dealerships) that offer a line of (most likely Chinese made) scooters.
---Internet purchase with drop shipment (usually Chinese made)

My neighbor Chuck drives a Chevy Pickup with a 6 liter engine that gets 11 mpg. Last week he saw my light on around midnight and came banging on my door. It seems that the money he had budgeted for gasoline has gone beyond that budget eating into food, vacations and everything else. He got the truck to pull a camper and uses it to commute to work.

"This guy at work bought a motorcycle and I was thinking, why spend $9000 to get 35mpg when I can spend $1500 on a scooter that gets over 100 mpg."

This is coming from a man who loves big Detroit iron and has a truck named Big Red. Ford was right when they said there is a structural difference occurring in the market. Yes. Basically, people can't afford to eat or go anywhere so they are rethinking life.

I have owned three motorcycles and have shopped for them endlessly even when I wasn't in the market. There are so many varieties of motorcycles and it can be confusing, but the scooter market in the Spring of 2008 is a strange combination of backyard entrepreneurship and an evolving supply and demand issue.

A wide assortment awaits the buyer from major makes in motorcycle dealerships to Chinese-built platforms that come with many different names and seem to have a lot of the same parts.

Follow along on the scooter adventure and see what we bought.