Category: Honda Accord Hybrid
July 7, 2008
Fuel Economy and the Speed Limit
I'm not really big on low speed limits where they don't make sense. If it's a straight road with excellent visibility and no concern for animals of any time, why not have it at 65mph, 75mph, or even higher? In this age of everything green, though, you don't have to look far to find a reason. You'll soon find groups wanting to return the federal speed limit of 55mph. Others want it even slower. Why?
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(0)April 25, 2007
A Great Weekend, With a Glitch
So, this last weekend we drove up to Eugene with my Grandmother to join my mom and sister there for my aunt's birthday. This brought much of the immediate family together in a less hectic environment than our wedding celebration last year.
We drove up most of the day Friday and back most of the day Sunday, leaving only Friday evening and Saturday for visiting. This worked out well, though. We went to their shop, had a few really nice meals with them, and played a board game, Cranium, which we hadn't played before. During the day, we went out for a game of bowling, too.
Just as we'd gotten in to the second game and I was waiting in line, which was slow, the one person helping the line left it to announce something. It started with something about an Accord (wait, I can't leave my lights on) but quickly mentioned California plates, which was a give-away.
Outside I go, not knowing quite what's wrong because it had been too noisy to hear well. There, I found the right rear window smashed! A passenger had left a bag on the seat and apparently someone had just walked by, noticed it, smashed the window, grabbed it, and moved on. Nothing else was taken, including items in the front seat, glove boxes, and trunk. We were glad for that, but the bag that was stolen had contained many personal items and keys from a couple of our passengers, so that's still causing a hassle with them.
The whole even was on a security video, which may aunt is sending to me. I'll have to make a copy and edit it up for posting online here. It might be fun. ;)
Cleaning up the glass ended up taking a couple of hours, which was a significant portion of the time we were there. Luckily, that gave some time for my grandma to visit with her daughters.
We taped up some plastic for the 500 mile drive back Sunday. By Monday at 1:00 PM the window had already been fixed. On Tuesday I got to give the list of property damage and items stolen to the police. When I get the security video, I may be calling them back to add some information if there is any detail of use on it.
Some lessons and interesting tidbits learned:
- Don't have items visible in a car, regardless of where you are
- Don't assume a car alarm will attract any sort of attention; it was 30 minutes before the broken glass was reported. In that time, someone could have climbed in and taken other stuff or even the car itself.
- When making a list of stolen items, provide serial numbers, brands, and replacement value for as much as possible. Details such as color and size are important, too, but the other bits of information are more clear for identifying the lot.
- Auto insurance does not cover the contents of items stolen. That's for home owner's or renter's insurance. Keep in mind, though, that filing a claim is subject to deductibles and possible dropping of insurance because home owner's is a loss leader.
- Glass is a special case for repair and insurance. Glass isn't fixed by the dealer and our insurance had a special option for it on their call menu. Other damage that the broken glass does is different, though, but from what we can tell none of the leather was scratched and maybe only one minor nick to the paint was done that we didn't notice until later.
- The police want to know how much it costs to repair the damage done. Theft and property damage are two difference illegal items.
- Don't be scared by filing a police report. In my case, the Eugene officer was friendly and polite on the phone, even though I could tell there was a lot of noise around her making it difficult to hear me.
- Calling 911 for a theft after the fact will get you someone who will give you the local police number. Have something to write on handy so you don't tie up the line longer than needed. (In this case, I used my LG VX9800 for taking notes while talking on the UpStage.)
- After calling 911, my cell phone (the Sprint UpStage, in this case) stayed in emergency only mode and wouldn't go out with a few presses of the end key and confirmation of such an action. This made it impossible to call any other number before getting out of this mode.
- Even though I called with a phone that certainly sent my location to 911, they wanted to know my exact address and location. Have someone around that knows, if possible. The police line won't get your location, either, so you'll need to know. Worst case, use a GPS fix or a map to get an estimate of the street address if you're not actually near a posted address.
- The police don't come out for this sort of event. After calling and giving the location and my contact information, I was told to make a complete list of items stolen and damage done, but that there was nothing else I needed to do at that time. They would call back within a couple of days. The fact that it was an out-of-state cell phone number did not matter.
I'm sure many of you know this, but I've never experience this for myself so I wanted to record some of the details while it was still fresh in my memory.
The photo above doesn't do a great job of showing that the glass was across the entire rear of the vehicle. It must have been hit pretty hard to cause even some large chunks to end up clear on the other side.
March 7, 2007
iPod Connector for Accord Hybrid Radio
Very shortly after getting my Honda Accord Hybrid, I got a module that provides a true iPod connector to the 
radio as well as a separate auxiliary audio input. The module I added is the USA Spec iPod Interface. Although this wasn't terribly cheap, it seemed to fit a need. Namely, I'd be able to plug-in my iPod, control it from the car stereo (even the wheel), and have it charge.
Installation was easier than I had expected, although pulling out snapped in pieces is always a challenge in will power. The piece around the center console really looked and felt like it was going to break before it just snapped out. I also goofed and pulled out the rubber insert in the "not-an-ashtray" compartment when the whole plastic piece came out (if I recall correctly).
After pulling the center junk box out, I was able to get in behind the radio without pulling it out. The fit was tight, but once I got the cable connected and the XM cable reconnected, I was able to keep some wires behind some of the small supports inside so it was nice and tidy. I zip tied up the auxiliary input, for the time being, as I wasn't quite ready to drill a hole in the plastic to have the second input (for a phone music player or the likes).
At first, I wanted to get the iPod connecter into the center elbow rest console. This would have required a bit more drilling than I wanted to do. Eventually, I found an easy opening in to the glove box area, which is also convenient because it can be locked and is easily accessible by the passenger (although the center storage would have been accessible by even the back seat).
Feature-wise, the unit has two modes. One is a smart mode that only uses a few specifically named playlists, but where you have slightly more control via the car's stereo controls. This mode does not allow the iPod controls to be used. The other mode, which is my preferred mode, allows the iPod controls to be used and anything to be played. When in a playlist, the next and previous buttons work, but that's about it. These can work for fast forwarding, too, which is convenient.
Now, the unit is not without problems. If a song isn't currently being played when it's plugged in, the unit starts playing the first song on the unit -- regardless of what you're doing with the iPod. If the unit is actually in play mode when you plug it in, it'll go to pause mode so you have to press play again. Personally, I choose what I want to play first, start it, put it in pause, and then plug it in -- at least when I can remember to do so.
If the playback stops at the end of a single song or playlist and then you turn the radio off or change to a radio station, the interface sends the play/pause signal (apparently) because you'll see it start to play. That's a bit annoying. When I still had XM service, this would cause a little bit of the iPod audio to bleed in with it, too. Of course, you can just reach over and pause the iPod, but it's a bit annoying.
Also, occasionally, if switching back and forth between the radio and iPod, occasionally it won't reconnect even when turning the radio completely off. On a few occasions, this has required powering the entire car down and back up to "fix." Although annoying, this is quite rare.
It's quite nice to always have my iPod charged. I listen to it for 40 minutes to and from work each day. Given the battery life of the newest 5.5Gen iPod Videos, this basically means I never have to specifically plug it in to anything to charge.
Overall, I found the USA Spec iPod Interface to be worth the money on my Honda Accord Hybrid. The installation was easy enough and the convenience of a full, single connector for power, controls, and audio is hard to beat. In addition, the auxiliary input may come in handy some day, too.
January 30, 2007
Honda Accord Hybrid
No blog entries about my now somewhat new car after over 3 months? Hrm, something must be wrong with me! ;)
I've been commuting with the car full time and have also used it on a number of 160 mile round trips between Santa Cruz and Concord over the holidays. Since it's a hybrid, I'll jump right to the fuel economy: on my commute, I can get 30-32mpg depending on how carefully I drive and what the weather is like. With the cold weather, it's dipped a bit under 30 but 32 wasn't a problem back in October. On the longer trips, I was easily seeing 38mpg or so over the distance if I kept my speed to 65mph and didn't run in to traffic.
In my opinion, this is good fuel economy for a heavy mid-sized sedan with a 250 hp V6 engine under the hood. Compared to the Jeep's 180ish hp V6 and 18mpg on the same commute, it's a huge improvement in fuel economy. It's no where near as quick as the Miata, of course, but it gets up to speed nicely and also beats out the Miata's 18-19mpg on the same commute.
It should be noted that the Honda Accord Hybrid (HAH, as it's called in forums) isn't designed around fuel economy but rather around decent power without sacrificing the standard economy of the weaker four cylinder version. As both Honda and Toyota sales people were quick to say when I said these were the two cars I was comparing, "There is no comparison." That's not entirely true since they're both mid-sized family sedans, but they do have different feature sets when it comes to economy.
The car is quite smooth and comfortable to drive, which still having relatively firm suspension for cornering. The interior noise is surprisingly quiet, although there is plenty of throaty V6 growl from the rear twin exhaust pipes when flooring the car and letting the RPMs get high.
The amenities are pretty standard and can be found easily. It's interesting to note the 8 cup holders, though, with plenty of storage pockets. These come in handy even with just two of us in the car. A soft light when the headlights are on illuminates the center console just enough to not be lost in the dark. The center storage area is two level with a wire pass through to the top level for phone use and a power port in the bottom area. There's another power port next to the big pocket below the radio.
The seats are heated, of course, and the climate controls have a dual zone thermostat with fully automatic settings. For instance, I can set the temperature to 72 degrees and it'll control the fan speed and temperature of the air that comes out. It also can determine when it needs to run the front defroster (probably a function of internal versus external temperature, or something). The rear and side mirror defrosters are separate controls. These controls are all very intuitive. For instance, if a passenger wants to be warmer, they just rotate the knob near them and the dual control automatically engages.
Overall, I've been enjoying the car and the comforts it provides. It's not quite as fuel efficient on my commute as I would like, but it's better than most non-hybrids (the commute is over the Santa Cruz mountains so there are no flat areas to really just cruise) and is likely about the same as the Toyota Camry Hybrid, which does better in the city. It also provides ample power for merging. It is, of course, just an Accord, though. I do also feel good, though, in supporting the efforts to make fuel economy better across all types of cars through the improvement of technology.
There's more to talk about with this car, but I'll save that for more posts... ;)
