Honda CR-Z

[directhex]

The looks are okay for me, but for my driving style hybrids are useless. However I think they have great potential for city driving and short-trip drivers.

I still want to know wtf they've done with the gearbox which has resulted in a manual hybrid. I'd reserve judgement on driving style until that's made clearer, since there's no way to treat a manual the same way as a Prius or Civic Hybrid, in terms of driving style.

[Disturbedguy]

I think it looks pretty good and wouldnt have a problem even if it is Hybrid, group 16 though


Oh the important thing is, can Dave reverse in it without hitting a wall?

[Dareos]

saw one on the road the other day, dont link it at all, old citroen styling, and that was horrible too.

i like honda a lot, just not this (front looks ok...)

[kalniel]

I still want to know wtf they've done with the gearbox which has resulted in a manual hybrid. I'd reserve judgement on driving style until that's made clearer, since there's no way to treat a manual the same way as a Prius or Civic Hybrid, in terms of driving style.

The electric motor just adds to power from the engine I think, so a full manual works fine.

[directhex]

The electric motor just adds to power from the engine I think, so a full manual works fine.

Mmm, so not far off how the usual hybrids behave when you floor it - but a rather different beast when cruising at speed or creeping slowly.

I'm totally unconvinced here :/

[kalniel]

Mmm, so not far off how the usual hybrids behave when you floor it - but a rather different beast when cruising at speed or creeping slowly.

I'm totally unconvinced here :/

Yeah it can't run off the electric motor on its own, it's just a boost to power with stop start and regenerative braking. I think that's a good thing to be honest - saves weight compared to a fully electrically powered option.

[Barakka]

I just generally have a problem with hybrids fullstop. As said before, they dont offer you any better MPG than a good diesel so whats the point in them?

Is it not that a hybrid can get the stupidly high mpg when town driving at average 10-30 mph - whereas the diesels get their high mpg when motorway cruising ?

I had a 57 reg Accord 2.2 diesel for a few weeks last year and put it on the motorway at 70-85 cruising speed and it got 70mpg, but for my 5 mile each way commute on back roads it averaged 25-30 mpg.

My understanding was the hybrids were the other way round? 60 mpg when tootling around town at low speeds but a bit rubbish on the motorway (for mpg).

[directhex]

Yeah it can't run off the electric motor on its own, it's just a boost to power with stop start and regenerative braking. I think that's a good thing to be honest - saves weight compared to a fully electrically powered option.

What's the power of the electric motor? Again, I'm concerned that they used the Insight as a base, given how utterly crummy that car is. The electric motor in a Prius is about 4x more powerful than the one in the Insight, so they had damn well better have souped it up for the CR-Z. Otherwise it's useless, and all you've got is a small-engine petrol car, with a hundred kilos of battery in the boot.

Is it not that a hybrid can get the stupidly high mpg when town driving at average 10-30 mph - whereas the diesels get their high mpg when motorway cruising ?

I had a 57 reg Accord 2.2 diesel for a few weeks last year and put it on the motorway at 70-85 cruising speed and it got 70mpg, but for my 5 mile each way commute on back roads it averaged 25-30 mpg.

My understanding was the hybrids were the other way round? 60 mpg when tootling around town at low speeds but a bit rubbish on the motorway (for mpg).

Give or take. Without the electric assist, you've got a large-ish car with a 1.5l petrol engine in it.

[directhex]

A bit more out of Wikipedia.

The electric is the same poopy one as the Insight, at a whopping 14 horsepower - compared to, say, the 80hp electric on a 2009 Prius. Petrol engine's got a bit more oomph than the Prius or Insight (which are both 98hp), clocking in at 111hp. And VTEC, of course.

Weight is... well, it's only 40kg lighter than the Insight, and 170 lighter than the Prius.

End result? Well, thanks to the same barely-functional electric motor as the Insight, and the boot filled with batteries, 0-60 is a massive 9.7 seconds. Which is great compared to the Insight's lethargic 12.1, but barely better than the 10.1 in a Prius. Which is a 5-door family-sized car with a significantly more useful hybrid component. Then again, it's 3 grand cheaper than a Prius, so maybe that'll swing people.

And the insurance group is silly.

tl;dr: fail. Pointless as a hybrid, crummy as a hot hatch