My car in the early to mid 1990s

from my old ToledoTalk.com posts:

I tried to do my part 14 years ago. My comment from that posting:

"Driving 60 mph on Ohio's highways, I was getting 60 mpg. That was 1992 in an all-gas-powered vehicle."

14 years ago, all-gas car, no hybrid crap, not a motorcycle, 60 mpg. It was a Honda Civic hatchback model VX. The 1992 model was the first year Honda offered that car, and it disappeared from their lineup in less than five years. I owned that car for five years, but I should have kept it longer.

Next for me was a Honda Civic coup model HX that got a respectable 45 mpg. That was a two-year lease, and I definitely should have kept that car a lot longer because my 1999 Honda Civic coup model EX gets a piece of shit 32 mpg.

So I'm going the other way, getting less mpg. When I get the opportunity, I love driving my wife's 6-cylinder 4-door Honda Accord with 200+ horsepower. Smash down the accelerator when the light goes from red to green and racing the dude beside me a hundred yards to the next red light, it's a cheap thrill in T-town, and it sucks down the gas.

I'm still waiting for the government to award me a retroactive tax credit for driving that 1992 Honda, which I think was the highest rated mpg vehicle you could buy in the U.S. at that time.

Can you be addicted if you don't care? And always remember, rehab is for quitters.
posted by jr at 11:44 A.M. EST on Thu Feb 02, 2006 #

http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/comments.pl/10/1872#16398

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Additional info to my comment above which was:

"Just like car companies producing a handful of expensive piece of shit hybrid cars to get environmentalists off their back."

From an article in today's Blade about these hybrid pos also known as token attempts to appease environmentalists:

"... he bought a 2000 Honda Insight, since he didn't know whether batteries powering the $21,000 hybrid's electric motor would last."

The batteries held up. That's not my point. The price of the car is: $21,000? And the hygrid's gas mileage. "... averaging 52.4 miles on a gallon of gasoline."

So is 52.4 mpg good? Is that acceptable in 2005?

$21,000 for a two-seat car that gets 52.4 mpg. Is that progress? I'm guessing most people think this vehicle is a wonderous invention.

Compare to my posting here back in March about a car I bought many years ago.

"In March of 1992, I bought a Honda Civic hatchback model VX. I think the sticker rated the car at 56 mpg highway. At that time, the speed limit on our highways was still 55 mph. I monitored my mileage. Driving 60 mph on Ohio's highways, I was getting 60 mpg. That was 1992 in an all-gas-powered vehicle."

1992 was the first year for the Civic VX hatchback. Honda still had their other hatchbacks like the CX, DX, and whatever. The VX was called a commuter car, taking the place of the two-seater Honda CRX. But the VX looked identical to the other Honda hatchbacks, except the VX had smaller, lightweight aluminiun alloy wheels. The VX definitely did not have the goofy look associated with most "green" cars.

The price of the 1992 Civic VX was around $11,000. Converting those 1992 dollars to today, I don't think it's $21,000. And that Civic VX hatchback was a four-seater not two.

So praise for the hybrid Honda Insight? Sure, compared to what else is currently available and if you're a sucker. But for me, the Insight gets zero praise. Condemnation is more like it. I never found out why that Civic VX hatchback disappeared from Honda's lineup before 1997.
posted by jr at 12:06 P.M. EST on Fri Jul 15, 2005 #

http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/comments.pl/26/1248#5424

#auto