archGFX

The first night that we brought the hybrid (now named Sadie, in reference to the alkaline trio and gratitude songs) we celebrated our independence by driving around the city blasting alkaline trio, and driving through the drive through at taco bell.
We actually hadn't planeed on buying a car for sure that night, so we managed to forget melanie's ID and our checkbook, but somehow they sold us a car anyway. we did have to drive the salesman to our apartment, and then back to the dealership, though.
Driving the hybrid is incredibly fascinating. it's far smarter than any other car i've driven. for instance, when you start the car, there's absolutely no kick. that's because the engine is completely disengaged. turning the key is like turning on a light switch. it makes you wonder why other new cars don't do that. The dashboard reflects the rest of the brilliant design, so i'll use that as a guide to explaining how awesome she is to drive:

Charge/Assist Meter
Most cars have 1 guage that moves while you're driving. this car has 4. the charge/assist meter is the most obvious, since the charge guage is bright green.
Assist: the guage swings to this side when you're accelerating, or driving up hill. anytime that the electric motor is providing assistance. The top of this guage is your maximum accelaration. What's really cool about this is that you have the same level of assistance available whether you're sitting at a stoplight, or whether you're in the passing lane doing 65.
Charge: When you're slowing down, or just cruising, the engine charges the battery as you drive. after driving it for a while, though, i thought perhaps honda was totally faking out the guage, since it's directly related to acceleration/deceleration. when you slam on the brakes, the charge meter goes to the top. What i realized is, when you hit the brakes, you really are super-charging the battery. the polarity on the electric engine switches, and it uses the drive train as a generator. That electrical energy comes directly off the drive train, so it also contributes to slowing down the car.
Fuel Effieciency Guage: this guage got removed from 2006 models, because as it is, there's no way you'd have enough time to check it regularly. not to mention, the thing swings wildly when we're driving in the city. maybe it's useful on long road trips, but so far, not so much.

Auto-Stop light the bottom of the tachometer on this car isn't zero, it's auto-stop. when the battery is better than half charged, the engine actually shuts off when you're stopped. This car is full of tricks like that. it makes you wish every car were designed this way. For instance: the car doesn't idle. When you stop at a stop sign, the engine disengages. when you let your foot ALL THE WAY off the brake, it reengages. when you start up from an auto-stop, you (theorectically) are driving on purely electric power until the engine starts. in reality, the engine starts up so fast, you can't actually start driving before it's reengaged.

Battery Charge Level This is the guage that kind of negates the need for a fuel efficiency guage. when you're driving on a long stretch of road, the battery gradually recharges (like the battery on any typical car). This is helped by the fact that you spend more time slowing down than speeding up (if you're not a speed demon), so you're getting the added benefit of the generator action. When your driving stop and go, or driving short distances, you use more assitance, so you drain the battery. the salesman said that the battery fully recharges while you're driving, but since i've yet to see that happen, i'll assume he means highway driving. Generally, the guage is like a slower moving guage of how efficient your driving is.
all in all, it's a pretty awesome car. it's not just that it's a hybrid, it's that it fixes all the inherent inefficiencies of typical cars. it's a honda certified used car, so we have a bumper-to-bumper warranty until 2011, and an 8-year warranty on the battery. we got our insurance through geico, since they're miles cheaper than anyone else. although, when i was looking up prices for all-state and progressive, i didn't realize that i had an accident in the last 5 years, so if they had looked that up, that might have explained the difference. geico called me up after i bought the insurance and informed me that they'd have to increase my payments. i felt kinda dumb, since simple math would have alerted me to that fact, but i was thinking, "i haven't driven in years, and all my speed demon days are long behind me" i guess not. but now i have half a dozen guages to dynamically show me the benefits of slowing down.