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I tried to choose a Civic Hybrid—But Honda didn’t choose me
4/14/05

I’m a lucky guy.  My wife just got a promotion at work that included a free parking spot.  With our two boys (3 years and 6 months) at two different pre-schools, she thought it best that we finally go to a 2-car family and share the child-transit load.  Being that I do work for the “clean vehicles program of the Union of Concerned Scientists” – I felt that a hybrid would help me put my money where my mouth is. 

My progressive, but practical wife needed a bit of convincing.  She was leaning with the fuel economy given Arlington, VA gas prices were already zipping past $2.00/gallon, but when I happened to mention that Virginia was actively running the Hybrid HOV rule (meaning registered hybrids get to use HOV lanes and roads even with only one occupant), the gasp of exhilaration let me know there was no way we WEREN’T getting a hybrid now (note to all those out there wanting to increase hybrid sales—I know the jury is still out on using HOV lanes this way, but there is a reason why Northern Virginia is #2 to California in hybrid car sales)

So I went to work looking at Hybrid models.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the hybridcenter.org to help guide me ;-), but What I did manage to find out surprised me.  Yes, the Toyota Prius got better gas mileage, but the Civic Hybrid rated mostly 5 stars in crash tests, while the Prius got mostly 4 stars.  That still makes the Prius a very safe car, but when you have little ones, you look for every edge there.  On smog emissions, the Prius got an excellent “8” rating from the EPA, but one version of the Civic got a “9.”  What confused me was that there was another version of the Civic that got a “2.”

Well, unlike most of the world, I happen to work next door to a vehicle engineer, our own research director David Friedman. So I asked him about this, thinking that what I found had to be a mistake.  But indeed it was not.  “Just because a car is more fuel efficient, that does not guarantee it is cleaner when it comes to smog,” he cautioned me.  “Hybrids are unique because automakers can offer products that have both very low smog-forming emissions and high fuel economy in one package, but automakers have to make that choice…  The Bin 9 Civic Hybrid [the one that got the “2” EPA rating] is still a good car, but it is definitely lacking on smog emissions,” he said. 

Still, I saw a version of the Honda Civic hybrid that was actually a bit safer, and a bit cleaner than the Prius, and with the Prius’ reputation for a 6 month wait (my wife is a wonderful woman, but patient she is not), I felt it was time to go shopping and find me a “Cleaner Civic Hybrid.”

So I emailed around greater Washington, DC area, asking around about Civic Hybrids.  Just about every dealer had at least one in stock, but when I asked for the one that rated a “Tier 2, Bin 2” federal emissions standard (that’s the “9” EPA score), there wasn’t one in sight.  I actually went into one dealer who said she might have one in stock.  When I arrived, she said they didn’t, but she would check with their service folks to see if one of the “Bin 9s” could be retrofit with the cleaner technology, but to no avail.  Problem was that the difference between the cleaner and dirtier Civic Hybrid lay in the fact that the Bin 9 version uses lean-burn engine technology that gets naturally better gas mileage, but sacrifices in emissions.

Also note that it took a while to actually convince some dealers that the version they had in stock was the Bin 9.  So if you’re looking around yourself, be very aware of what you are being sold, even in California.  As a tip, the Bin 9 version of the ’05 Civic Hybrid has a “Underhood Label ID” of 5HNXV01.33A6, while the Bin 2’s label is 5HNXV01.3YCV.  In California emissions terms, the cleaner Civic rates a SULEV II while the other rates a ULEV.

Disappointed but undaunted, I decided to try dealers up in New Jersey, thinking that because they had adopted the stricter California emissions standards, perhaps the cleaner version of the Civic would be available there.  The dealer said that he actually talked to Honda, who told him that they were not making the “California-emissions” version of the Civic Hybrid available outside of California. 

I really think this was a huge mistake by Honda, trying to save a few bucks on the manufacture of the Civic Hybrid available outside California, when they could have made and marketed every single Civic Hybrid around the country as a “safer, cleaner” choice to the Prius.  Indeed, given that many folks looking for hybrids are interested in it from both a safety, and especially an environmental perspective, they really missed an opportunity to carve themselves a great, competitive niche in this market. Hopefully they’ll learn from this lesson for their ‘06 models.

So, Honda blew the sale with me, and, next time, fellow HybridBloggers, I will tell you how I got a new Prius only 3 weeks, not 6 months, after purchase…

Posted by: ScottN 4/14/05

Original post and comments can be found on Hybridblog.org.