The Midlands Hybrid Club

Promoting the spread of clean personal transportation technologies.

 
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Why do speedometers go to 160mph?

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2009 Accord Speedomter

TreeHugger asks: Why Do Speedometers Go To 160MPH?

A great way to get all the testosterone soaked hard core engineers who hate whining environmentalists wound up is to say something nice about Jimmy Carter, but here is another eminently sensible thing he did: He capped the maximum speed on speedometers in cars at 85 MPH.

Tom Vanderbilt thinks it affects the way we drive. "even knowing that these numbers bear little relationship to reality, we’re affected by the visual display. No matter how fast we drive, the needle is always less than halfway up the dial, indicating there’s still plenty of room for acceleration. That remaining space may even goad us into testing the limits by going faster."

In these times of limited resources and soaring fuel prices (current temporary dip excepted)  Having the gauges go this high is promoting irresponsibility.  I’m not advocating that the automakers do anything in particular as the first one to drop their numbers would be at a disadvantage.  Having numbers this large is just too tempting for some folks and I must say that the ~120 on my first car did get me thinking racy thoughts on more than a few occasions, although common sense did take over before I did something stupid.

 

Four Civic Hybrids available!

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We have 3 new Hybrids There are three 2009 Honda Civic Hybrids available at Midlands Honda!

On the far left we have the Polished Metal, in the Center is the Spectrum White, and on the right is Atomic Blue.  There is also a pre-owned 2007.  All four of these hybrids are standard equipment.

Photo Galleries:

Spectrum White Pearl

I can make a gallery on the Atomic Blue, Polished Metal or Pre-Owned Taffeta White if you want.

 

48 State World Record Drive

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imageImage from Google Maps 

SE members, meet/clinic Friday Nov 28th, Columbia SC

There will be a meet at the Midlands Honda Dealership located in Columbia, SC just off I-77, exit 22 to Killian Rd on the morning of the 28th of November, that is the day after Thanksgiving.

Wayne Gerdes is the founder of www.cleanmpg.com and coined the term "hypermiling" will be stopping in Columbia, SC with two of his team mates, Justin and Jennie, while breaking the cross country MPG  record in a 2009 Honda HCHII.

There will be a www.cleanmpg.com multistate meet, presentation and then a clinic on Hypermiling  in a Honda HCHII provided by Kacey Green.

You don't have to be a member of www.cleanmpg.com to join us and learn about safe and efficient driving skills but you will want to when you leave. It's free. {More after the jump}

 

First FAQ Article: Signing up for the Club

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Registering as a member of the Hybrid Club or the Hybrid Owners’ Club

I have had a few people tell me that when they got to the site they did not know how to sign-up for an account here. To register, in the top right section of this site there is a section for logging in to your account; to create an account just click the link indicated in the graphic provided.

 

Kacey Green
for the Midlands Hybrid Club
"Promoting the spread of clean personal transportation technologies."

 

2008 HCHII Battery compartment Photo Gallery

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Wayne Gerdes requested pictures of the battery compartment of the Honda Civic Hybrid, so here they are.  These pictures come from a car of a customer of mine who had XM radio installed.  The vehicle is a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid CVT base trim.

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This shows the shielding on the outside of the battery compartment for the Civic Hybrid.

 

I still haven't turned on the computer that is holding my pictures of the actual battery pack, I'll do that eventually and post the pictures here.  (More pictures after the jump)

 

 

Pre-owned 2007 Civic Hybrid available

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IMAGE_080 Midlands Honda has a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid ( HCHII ) it has only 12,245 miles on it.  Please call Kacey @ 803.691.8563 or email me @ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For a test drive or more information.  This vehicle can be certified and has one owner, it is still under the Factory Comprehensive warranty too!

 

Maximizing Efficiencies

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heat In the few weeks that I have been a Civic Hybrid Owner I' used my heater one time.  Those who know me personally know I make some quirky decisions on how and when I choose to reduce the energy footprint of my cars.  One of the areas I found I could reduce waste in my car was from the heater core.  In a hybrid the engine works less than a conventional car, and they have smaller engines, which means that the car has to work harder to stay at operation temperature and still satisfy the driver's demand for heat.

 

 

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WARNING: the following information may be too technical, if you're reading this during a commercial break during "Family Guy" skip to the last paragraph

 

 

So why have I chosen to forgo my heater and aren't I uncomfortable?  I found that my seat heaters provide enough heat for me while the car warms up, and that when the car does warm up it will leak heat through the vents before it opens the valve in the radiator if the cabin temperature is below whatever the dial was set to before the system was turned off in my case 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Crystal Fusion

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car-in-front-of-me-rain-distortion-dont-try-this-at-home Photo by Rupert and representative of the opposite of what I see through my windshield when it rains.

Midlands Honda applied a product called Crystal Fusion to my front and rear windshields (Standard application is only to the front windshield).  It allows me to reduce my usage of the windshield wipers at speeds of around 25 miles per hour and higher.  In the time I've used my car I've needed the wipers 3 times, once was because I was on a road where the speed limit was around 15mph.  The other two times I needed the wipers I had a semi-truck cut me off and the spray was just a bit too fine for it to bead up and blow away in the reduced amount wind I was cutting through in the wake of such a large vehicle.

 
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