Today’s brand-new Honda Civic is an amazing car to buy if you are looking for a non-hybrid, well-made, high-MPG automobile.
All my friends who have one love theirs, my brother drives one, and I once owned a 1994 Honda Civic that lasted 8 years and 150,000 miles before it started having a single problem. (Now that I think about it, I never should have sold it!) I was thinking about it the other day when car shopping and remembering how well it did on gas – that car got well over 30 MPG on the highway, which is more than most cars get today…and it was 16 years ago! However, that doesn’t mean it’s even better today. With the fuel efficiency standard stuck at 27.5 MPG from 1985 until 2012 (now that the Obama Administration has made some changes), the Honda Civic of 2010 actually gets less miles per gallon than one built in 1987!
1987 Honda Civic
The 1987 Honda Civic HF got an estimated 57 MPG (51 under today’s guidelines) – more than even the best hybrid averages today. A friend of mine had one and it was a great car. So why can’t we accomplish these same numbers today? Americans want bigger cars, and manufacturers have struggled to find a comfortable balance between what “we” want to drive and amazing fuel efficiency. When the smallest car that most people are willing to drive is a 4 door Civic or Prius with all of today’s necessary safety features, and no mandates to increase efficiency, it’s no wonder that gas mileage has suffered. From power everything to 12 airbags to enough trunk to haul around 10 bags of Cheetos from Costco, Americans want bigger cars…and they are paying at the pump for the priviledge.
The 1987 Civic was quick, stylish, and made a great commuter car – which is what most people use their cars for anyway. How often do you travel with more passengers than just yourself? A small, two-seater car like this would be great today, with gas prices approaching $4.00 per gallon in places like California. Granted, back in 1987 not everyone and their grandmother drove a hulking SUV to the grocery store, but still…we could do with smaller cars that get better mileage, even without having the advantage of hybrid technology. That is until they can get the plug-in, solar-powered hybrid cars available at affordable prices that have been the dream of environmentalists everywhere.
2010 Honda Civic
The 2010 base Honda Civic gets an estimated 25MPG city/36MPG highway – a far cry from the base Civic of 23 years ago. Granted, the cars are safer (they have to be, with all the traffic and trucks on the road), have more bells and whistles, and can carry more people – but the gas mileage has basically been cut in half to get it to that point. I am sure today’s Honda Civics are incredibly well-made and will last forever, but with gas mileage averaging about 30 MPG, it’s not much better than my AWD Subaru Forester, which is a shame. If you are going to buy a small, economical car you should be getting amazing gas mileage, but compared to the Hondas of the past, you are no longer getting it. And to buy the hybrid version will cost you an extra $8500 or so…which is a huge jump in price for someone looking for an economical car.
So sure, our cars are safer, heavier, bigger, they have power windows/doors/brakes/steering/trunks, and they are probably better made and might last a little longer. But with all those improvements, our efficiency has been cut in half. And with today’s oil & gas prices, that is a big drop to deal with! Imagine if your car was getting double it’s current mileage and you didn’t have to own a hybrid to get it to that level…that would be both a big savings for your wallet and a big cut in our oil consumption.
It is time for both us the consumers and the manufacturers to start deciding on what is really important in today’s automobiles and start implementing just those features, while continuing to work on hybrid/solar/battery technology. There has to be a way to be able to own and use the features of an automobile that we truly need (cause let’s be honest – people will not give them up until the last drop of oil is gone) while working on new technology to get us to the next level.
We know we can get double the mileage we are getting currently; it is just going to take some determination and possibly some sacrifice to get us back to those levels.
David Quilty is publisher of The Good Human, a site that encourages people to be better humans through working to clean up the environment, being active in political issues and being more aware of one’s life and surroundings..
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While I respect what you’re doing, here, I think you could have made a much more fair comparison.
Yes, the MPGs were better on the HF.
Yes, the new Civics are heavier and have more room.
No, these two cars are not comparable.
The Honda Civic HF was actually a CR-X, which is a two-seater. If you want to compare that to a modern Honda, may I suggest the previous generation Honda Insight. It’s a hybrid. The only gas-powered 2-seater that Honda makes these days is the S2000, and that isn’t a fair comparison at all (25 MPG).
A more fair comparison for the current Civic coupe would be the old Civic coupe. The 1987 (your year of choice) with the best gas mileage is here:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/3033.shtml
39 highway MPG is maybe less impactful than the 54 MPG car you found, but it’s still a very respectable number.
Since you speak of personal experience, I’ll share mine.
I used to have a 1988 Honda Civic DX hatchback. I got really good gas mileage with it (mid 30s). My current car is a 2009 Honda Fit sport. If I drive responsibly, I can get as much as 38 MPG out of it. It is certainly heavier than my old Civic, but that weight gets me insanely good crash test ratings.
I miss the old cars. They were terrific. But I wouldn’t feel safe putting my child in an 88 Civic on today’s roads. I’m fatigued by the hybrid and alternative fuel wars. So I follow your argument, and I support it wholeheartedly. I just think this particular example is a little misleading.
However, you cannot compare a hybrid to a regular engine car. Since Honda doesn’t make a high mileage “regular” engine car anymore (the Fit does well, but not that well for most people), we had to look at the best they did back then and the best they do now. And sadly, they did better 20 years ago than they do in 2010 for people who want affordable, good MPG cars without having to buy a hybrid.
Honda is actually recreating a two seat car, the CR-Z. It’s a small ‘sporty’ hybrid which is a 2+2 seater. Which means 2 seater and the ability to squeeze people in the back seat. 1.5 liter engine that gives the combined power with the electric drive which is equal to 1.8 liter.
Also honda is currently testing a fuel cell system which basically is a fuel cell car that will come with a personal hyrollisizer so you can use your own solar array to make hydrogen to fuel your own vehicle. This technology is really the way to move forward with but, distributed infrastructure has yet to happen and I’m sure many big industry interests will be avidly against it.
And these are some great examples from honda but other companies are working on similiar alternative energy cars as well. Nissan is due to release the Leaf soon, the first big production all electric car in quite a while.
I took my 5 year old son to the Orange County Auto Show last year and he was playing with the Honda interactive touch screen exhibit when he tapped 1984 and a screen popped up saying Honda produces first car with EPA fuel economy rating over 50 mpg. Over 25 years ago, I know it wasn’t a priority anymore shortly after as gas prices fell, but it still amazes me with the exceeding giant leaps in technology, we couldn’t achieve better fuel economy, safety and reasonable size in concert with one another.