Safest Hybrid?

kamesq

New member
My lease on my 2003 Honda Accord is up in a few months and I'll be looking for a new lease. I LOVE my Accord, but want to see what else is out there that's comparable in size and safety. Right now, my 3yo is FF in a Marathon in the center rear. With the additional side curtain airbags we have in the Accord, I feel he is as safe as I can make him right now. For environmental and gas cost reasons, I'd love to go with a hybrid if I could find one with a good safety rating and similar features. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thank you - I don't write here often, but I love checking in for all the good information!
 
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joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
My lease on my 2003 Honda Accord is up in a few months and I'll be looking for a new lease. I LOVE my Accord, but want to see what else is out there that's comparable in size and safety. Right now, my 3yo is FF in a Marathon in the center rear. With the additional side curtain airbags we have in the Accord, I feel he is as safe as I can make him right now. For environmental and gas cost reasons, I'd love to go with a hybrid if I could find one with a good safety rating and similar features. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thank you - I don't write here often, but I love checking in for all the good information!

Accord Hybrid? :)

www.informedforlife.org (or .com? I can't remember) is a great place to start with safety ratings (not sure about hybrid gas mileage, where you'd really find that, but my old Prius got 39mpg instead of 51, and my Ford Escape gets about 27 instead of the advertised 36, so I'm not *that* impressed....)

:)
 

Victorious4

Senior Community Member
Julie, my Escape finally started getting ~36 MPG just before they broke it :eek: :mad: I miss it :( Better mileage in NYC than up here in the hills + I just pretty much pissed every other driver off by going excruciatinly slow after stopping :p
 

kamesq

New member
LOL - I can't find anyone who wants to lease me an Accord Hybrid yet, can you believe it? Sales, yes. Leases, no.
Thanks for that link - I'll check it out!
 

LuvBug

New member
lol! yeah I was thinking accord hybrid too.
If you cant find anyone that will lease the accord hybrid, the camry is now available in hybrid as well as the malibu(ETA well I guess the malibu didnt take off? It was due last year and my dealership said they were getting some... dunno what happened).
 
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southpawboston

New member
there's also the prius, which is slightly smaller than the accord, but gets much better gas mileage. safety ratings are excellent as well.

my own problem with the accord hybrid is that it's not engineered so much to be a fuel economy champion (isn't that the *political* purpose of a hybrid?), but rather a "flagship" version of the accord with the most horsepower, with decent, but not awesome, fuel efficiency. the camry takes a similar approach. the prius and civic take the other approach and sacrifice power for ultimate economy. frankly, to get 30-37 mpg out of a hybrid is not impressive, considering that there are gas-only cars that do better (albeit with much less power). if i were to buy a hybrid for the environmental/political aspect of things, then buying the accord, camry, or any of the hybrid SUVs would be kind defeating the purpose, since you will be supporting the oil industry every bit as much as if you bought an economical small gas-only car. if you really wanted to be "Green" then i would go for the most economical hybrids (civic + prius) but you would have to sacrifice space and power.

oh, and there are many gas-only cars that churn out so little emissions that they are ranked in the same category as hybrids (cars with PZEV emissions ratings).

sorry... rant over.
 

Jeanum

Admin - CPS Technician Emeritus
Staff member
The Accord Hybrid is more of an enthusiast's model with a bigger engine and higher HP, while the Camry is a 4 cylinder engine combined with the the hyrbid motors and more geared toward fuel efficiency. The regular Accord and Camry models did very well safety-wise according to Informed for Life's ratings. The hybrid versions have worse safety scores than the conventional Accord and Camry models at Informed for Life when I looked them up, and I'm puzzled as to why. :confused: ETA: Oh, I see why. The IIHS hasn't crash tested the hybrid versions of the Camry or Accord, so Informed for Life doesn't have actual IIHS test results plugged into the spreadsheet for them, while the conventional models were crash tested by the IIHS.

GM is waiting until the redesigned '08 Malibu comes out later this year to offer a hybrid version. A Saturn Aura hybrid is supposed to be out this spring. The '08 Malibu will be very similar to the Aura, built at the same plant and sharing the same platform.

DH and I are on the fence about whether to seek out a hybrid Malibu or Aura. He fits in the Aura with headroom to spare but the IIHS hasn't crash tested it yet for side impacts. The NHSTA scores for the Aura were 5 stars, but the IIHS testing is more rigorous for side impacts and I would rather wait to see IIHS test results. DH is too long torsoed to fit in the Prius, Camry and Accord models - his head is jammed up against the ceiling, lol. Since seeing GM's Chevy Volt electric concept car at the Detroit Auto Show, DH keeps saying he would love one of those in a few years if GM produces them, but I keep telling him he might not even fit in one and we should replace his car sooner rather than later.
 

tl01

New member
Hybrids are really no better for the environment and by some they are considered worse. The huge battery packs that need to be replaced at the 8 year mark or so are horrible for the environment. The boost in gas mileage is really of no benefit. I actually read and article recently that said that the today's cars are so much more environmentally friendly in terms of emissions that in a city such as LA where there is much pollution, the air coming out of the car is cleaner than the air going in. I think it would be better to look for an Ultra Low Emmissions or Practically Zero Emissions Vehicle rather than a hybrid. Here's a list of Green cars for 2007.... there are many that are not hyrbids.
http://www.greenercars.com/byclass3.html#LRG
 
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TheRealMacGyver

New member
(not sure about hybrid gas mileage, where you'd really find that, but my old Prius got 39mpg instead of 51, and my Ford Escape gets about 27 instead of the advertised 36, so I'm not *that* impressed....)

I have a 2006 Prius, which my wife drives 85 miles per day to work(and back). She averages 46-47 MPG with A/C on and 48-49 MPG with A/C off. She is driving mostly expressway doing about 72 MPH. Hybrids are opposite regular gas engines in that they get better city mileage than highway. The advertised mileage for my Prius is 51 MPG Highway/60 MPG City. I don't think anyone actually gets these numbers on any car, but I think we are getting pretty close. This is my first hybrid and my main reason for buying it was because of increasing gas prices. If gas should climb up again, the savings in fuel will make up for the payment (compared to old car). There are some non-hybrids that are getting close to hybrid mileage though, so I would consider them. My personal choice would be Toyota first, then Honda, then equal consideration for Nissan and Mazda. I would like to say that buying American is better, but quite frankly, I have been unhappy evertime I try another American car. I'm at the point where I am finished messing with American, because I have been burned way too many times. Anyhow, sorry to ramble, but some of your decision depends on how much driving you plan to do, and so on. If you love your Honda, I would start with them. I've owned 3 Hondas (2 civics and 1 Accord) and never had any problems. You can price compare at www.kbb.com and I think they may even have crash data as well as advertised mileage. Good luck. By the way, I think I'd rather go car shopping than car seat shopping.:eek:
 

tl01

New member
There are new gas mileage estimates that are being published now that give a more realistic estimate of the gas mileage one can get from hybrids. It was determined that the tests were unrealistic and so the tests have been redesigned. They found that hybrids are not providing as great a boost in gas mileage as orginally estimated. I'll try to find the new results and post later.
 
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LuvBug

New member
I just want something that gets better gas milage than my current car and has low-e. It will be difficult to find a vehicle that fits all my standards considering I was getting 32/40(every now and then 34/41) in my corolla lol! I was thinking hybrid is the only way to go unless I want a smaller car, which I dont!
 

southpawboston

New member
Hybrids are really no better for the environment and by some they are considered worse. The huge battery packs that need to be replaced at the 8 year mark or so are horrible for the environment. The boost in gas mileage is really of no benefit. I actually read and article recently that said that the today's cars are so much more environmentally friendly in terms of emissions that in a city such as LA where there is much pollution, the air coming out of the car is cleaner than the air going out. I think it would be better to look for an Ultra Low Emmissions or Practically Zero Emissions Vehicle rather than a hybrid. Here's a list of Green cars for 2007.... there are many that are not hyrbids.
http://www.greenercars.com/byclass3.html#LRG

this is all true... plus there was an environmental impact just in the manufacturing of those battery packs, in addition to their future disposal, as you mention.

oh, btw-- your link is just to the "large" car section of greencars. some people may not realize there are links to other categories of cars.

basically the categories for emissions are as follows:

LEV = low emissions vehicle
ULEV = ultra low emissions vehicle
SULEV = super utlra low emissions vehicle
PZEV = "partial credit" zero-emissions vehicle

all new cars sold in the US must be LEV or better.

most smaller, compact cars are at least ULEV and some are SULEV or PZEV

all hybrids are PZEV

SULEV and PZEV are THE SAME THING except that PZEV also includes a federally mandated 15 year / 150,000 miles warrany on all emissions components on PZEV cars. in low emissions states (CA, NY, MA, VT, ME, RI), car manufacturers have to sell a certain percentage of cars that are PZEV, but you can usually buy PZEV cars in other states as well.

trucks are still largely exempt from these ratings, but within a couple of years all new trucks will also have to be LEV or better.

all hybrids are PZEV. many non-hybrids (including my car ;) ) are also PZEV. btw, my car has plenty of "zing" (160hp) yet gets 32mpg and is PZEV, so you can have your environmental cake and eat it too :) without necessarily having a hybrid.
 

kamesq

New member
Thanks for all your help! I'm test-driving a Prius this weekend, and will tryout my son's Britax Marathon in the back seat! I'm partial to Honda, Nissan & Toyota myself, but I've been hearing really good things about the Ford Escape lately, so I may have to check that out as well.

I've been checking out all the links you sent, but I have to tell you, sometimes having TOO much info at your disposal is NOT a good thing!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks again!
 

tl01

New member
I really like using all the info available to me... that's how I've learned to make sure my DS is as safe as possible in the car... thanks to this website:)

Without the extra info I'm sure he would still be in Britax seat but I woudln't have know to get is professionally installed the first time or to leave him RFing as long as possible.. his seat probably wouldn't be tethered either.

I'm not going to buy a hybrid now... I'm going to wait until they develop a car that really makes an environmental difference. I just can't see spending en extra $2000-5000 for a car that's a hybrid that is just as environmentally unfriendly.... I'll use the $$ towards gas consumption. Mercedes is working on a hydrogen project and I hope it pans out. There's someone testing such a car (A-Class model) less than a mile from my house and the Sacramento Fire Department is also doing a test of these car.
 

TheRealMacGyver

New member
I'm test-driving a Prius this weekend

I love my Prius. I was worried that it wouldn't have the get-up-and-go to get out into traffic, but it really has some pep (considering what it is). Here are two good forums to use: www.priusonline.com and www.priuschat.com

It's a different car and it does take some getting used to, but I love to drive it. It's really my wifes car, but I always ask her if she needs gas at night, so I can drive it and get a whole 7 gallons! (Plus I get out of the house:D )
 

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