Long-Term Road Tests
2007 Honda Civic GX
July 20, 2008
The 2007 Honda Civic GX, fell into my hands for two wonderful weeks and I had a chance to really experiment with stretching every last whiff of natural gas (as opposed to every last drop of gasoline). I filled it five times and got an average of 35 mpg over about 700 miles. With the price of natural gas at $3.15 a gallon, this seemed like a real bargain. For the record, the best tank I got was 41.2 mpg and the worst was 31.4 mpg.
My two weeks in the GX didn't evoke any new impressions. There were moments when the power was definitely missing such as when I climb an onramp to the freeway and needed to go from about 45 mph to 70 mph with all manner of vehicles hurtling up my tailpipe. But that one moment is largely erased by low cost fuel, life time car pool stickers and the Honda refinement present in the GX.
One thing that irritates me is how people just don't get this car. Is it a once-a-year family vacation vehicle? No. Is it a once-a-month canyon carver? Absolutely not. Is it a break-the-bank exotic? Forget it. It's an everyday commuter vehicle plain and simple. And it does that beautifully.
Philip Reed, Edmunds.com Senior Consumer Advice Editor @ 19,683 miles
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- Posted by: Philip Reed July 20, 2008, 6:46 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
June 9, 2008
Our 2007 Honda Civic GX is the kind of car that doesn't generate much news. If gas prices go up the story is always the same: Hey, you can buy natural gas at the equivalent of $2.99 a gallon! If gas prices are down, the story is also the same: This thing doesn't have much power.
But this week something actually happened...
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- Posted by: Philip Reed June 9, 2008, 9:53 AM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
May 27, 2008
Everytime I open the trunklet on the Civic GX, I bleed a little for Honda.
Gasoline prices are driving sales of this nifty compressed natural gas commuter car now, but for most of its life it has been relegated to the commercial and government fleet market because it has not been perceived as a very useful everyday vehicle for the consumer.
That's in large part because CNG isn't a fuel that's readily available in all states, making the Civic GX a car in which you wouldn't want to essay a cross-country trip.
But it's also because the trunk is so small, much of what had been a spacious cavity in the conventional Civic being occupied by the tanks for the GX's pressurized fuel...
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- Posted by: John O'Dell May 27, 2008, 11:50 AM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
May 9, 2008
Hey, Hey! We Won't Pay! Home fuel unit has CNG cost down to $2.04 a gallon.
After just over 16,000 miles
-- hard plastic,
intruding hand brake, pitifully poor acceleration and
boring exterior notwithstanding
-- the Civic GX is humming along quite nicely, and economically, thank you.
For sheer driving pleasure it's way down the queue, but as a daily commuter on Southern California's [insert colorful adjective of your choice here] freeways, it ranks way up at the top of my list of cars I want to keep using.
Except for two scheduled oil changes at 7,000 mile intervals, a recall to install a safety gasket and a round of tire adjustment when we discovered during Edmunds.com's Earth Day tire pressure project that inflation was high by about 2 pounds, or 6 percent, per tire, we've had no problems, although one might be developing.
We'll be making a service appointment because several of us have noticed a very slight and intermittent shiver or shudder when the car is idling. It's unpredictable, but most assuredly there. Feels like it might be caused by a clogged fuel injector nozzle.
It's not so significant that we're thinking of an immediate check up, but we'll be asking the service guys at the dealership to look at it during our next scheduled oil change, in about 5,000 miles.
Aside from that, things couldn't be better, especially since the home fueling unit was installed in my garage. That has ended the daily detour to find a retail CNG station and has lowered the GX's fuel bills considerably.
Regular gasoline is selling for $3.839 a gallon in my part of Southern California and CNG at the admittedly pricey Clean Energy pump near the office is going for $2.849. But $2.036 per gallon is what fuel from the natural gas pump in the garage cost during the past month.
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- Posted by: John O'Dell May 9, 2008, 2:39 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
May 7, 2008
The Civic GX NGV is pretty high tech - it runs on compressed natural gas. It's quite economical and has clean emissions, too (Senior Editor O'Dell has an upcoming summary). But this Civic NGV is too, uh, normal.
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- Posted by: Snake Doctor May 7, 2008, 4:30 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
April 17, 2008
Phill home CNG unit has cut fuel costs 30%, and best is yet to come.
When we posted our methodology for computing fuel economy in the natural gas Civic GX now that we're using a home CNG pump, several people wanted to know how much the fuel cost.
We didn't have an answer back then because we hadn't received our first home gas and electric bills and had no basis for figuring out a cost per gallon.
Well, the bills are in, we've done the conversions (one therm of natural gas is the equivalent of .784 gallons of gasoline) and the math and submitted our first expense report.
We pumped the GNG equivalent of 51.888 gasoline gallons through the Phill home unit during March, and figure that electricity to run the pump cost $40.29 while the natural gas itself cost $91.69, for total cost of $131.46, or $2.53 per gallon...
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- Posted by: John O'Dell April 17, 2008, 12:30 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
April 7, 2008
See where the red arrow's pointing? That swath of plastic, which extends around the digital speedometer, is the only soft-touch surface in sight. As for the dashboard surfaces that one actually touches on a regular basis, they're as hard as finding a filling station that carries natural gas. (Read: very.) I suppose it's nice that Honda puts soft-touch plastic somewhere on the Civic's dash -- can't say the same of our long-term Lancer, for instance -- but what's the rationale behind sticking it where only curious automotive journalist-types are likely to notice?..
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- Posted by: SadButTrue April 7, 2008, 2:29 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
April 2, 2008
When I bought the 2007 Honda Civic GX for the long term fleet last year I remembered hearing that one of the advantages of this car, besides low pollution and low fuel costs, was that you could go a long time between oil changes. The Honda brochure said that the natural gas it runs on is less corrosive than gasoline so the oil remains uncontaminated longer. And, since it has a maintenance minder, it just tells you when you need service.
When I got into the car I noticed the little wrench light icon and a "B1" in the odometer window. Looking in the manual, I saw that this called for an oil and filter change, a tire rotation, check fluids and various inspections. I emailed my local Honda service department to ask if they could work on the GX and what this would cost. They replied that the B1 service was $104 but that they also recommended two other filter changes that would run $165 so the total would be $269.95. There was nothing in the manual about these other filter changes so I decided to skip it for now.
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- Posted by: Philip Reed April 2, 2008, 8:03 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
March 31, 2008
After spending Friday and Saturday doing battle with our long-term Civic GX’s painfully positioned handbrake lever, my right knee cried uncle. So I visited the accessory department at my local Honda dealer and managed to find the somewhat unconventional kneepad depicted above. Tell you what -- the difference was night-and-day. I hear Honda’s considering making it a standard feature next year.
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- Posted by: SadButTrue March 31, 2008, 3:53 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
March 28, 2008
In the previous post, I laid out how we were going to be computing fuel economy in the 2007 Honda Civic GX now that we're using a home fueling unit that doesn't provide a way of measuring the amount of compressed natural gas being pumped.
After a lot of calculating, estimating and talking to Honda engineers, we decided to assign a value of .368 gallon-equivalent to each bar on the Civic GX's fuel gauge. Thus, if we were down 10 bars and refilled overnight, we'd figure we'd pumped 3.68 gallons.
To double check, I ran the tank down by 12 bars this morning and pulled into the neighborhood Clean Energy retail CNG pump to fill it back up on a pump that does measure gallonage...
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- Posted by: John O'Dell March 28, 2008, 3:41 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
March 21, 2008
A full tank is 20 lighted bars on fuel gauge. Each represents 0.368 gallon.
The city inspector has signed off on it, so our Phill home natural gas pump is officially up and operating. For the 1,395 miles the Civic GX has traveled since at-home refueling began, average fuel economy has jumped by a little more than 3 miles per gallon – an extra 21 miles per tank as best I can figure it.
Warning: What follows is a lengthy discourse on how we are computing fuel economy with a system that doesn't tell us how many gallons are being pumped into the tank.
For those who don't care about the how, the net result is that we're now averaging 29.38 miles per gallon in our compressed natural gas Civic GX after 13,562 miles, up from a little over 28 mpg at 10,000 miles. The boost comes mainly from the average of 32.34 mpg we're recorded over the 1,395 miles that we've been using the Phill.
If you do care, or are hoping to catch me in an error (not hard to do), feel free to read on 'til your eyes glaze over.
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- Posted by: John O'Dell March 21, 2008, 2:10 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
March 3, 2008
Phinally.
The Phill has been installed.
After waiting almost two months from the time we placed the order for the home fueling device at the end of December, I pumped the first made-at-home CNG into our long-term 2007 Civic GX on Friday evening, after the electrician did his thing and hooked the machine up to a 240-volt circuit.
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- Posted by: John O'Dell March 3, 2008, 12:21 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
February 22, 2008
The Civic GX works fine, but there are some frustrations when you're driving a car that requires specially trained repair people and special fueling equipment that comes from a sole source.
Mostly it boils down to time – time spent waiting.
Two cases in point are the ongoing saga of our Phill home natural gas fueling unit, and a recent recall to install a thermal insulator between the fuel tank and the back seat.
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- Posted by: John O'Dell February 22, 2008, 5:00 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
February 19, 2008
Took the Civic GX –just named greenest vehicle sold in the U.S. – on a 611-mile weekend trip. It takes a little planning when your fuel isn't the easiest to find, but all went well.
Part of the reason for taking the GX, usually just a commuter car, was to see if we could stand sitting in it for hours on end. Part was to see how difficult it would be to find the compressed natural gas it needs once we got out of the greater Los Angeles area.
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- Posted by: John O'Dell February 19, 2008, 1:51 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
February 4, 2008
A landmark, of sorts.
The odo passed 10K on the way home Friday (it is difficult to get a decent picture of a lighted digital odometer while stopped, in the dark, in the carpool lane – but as the traffic was cooperating, I tried!).
I've put most of those miles on our 2007 Honda Civic GX, a point driven home Friday morning when managing editor Donna DeRosa asked me whether I got bored driving the GX all the time.
What can I say?
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- Posted by: John O'Dell February 4, 2008, 11:08 AM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
January 11, 2008
It's like a second Christmas.
Mike, or Dr. Drain, as his business card identifies him, showed up at noon Thursday to rough-in the mounts and run the gas line for the Phill natural gas fueling unit we're installing in my garage.
If you drive a Civic GX, the home unit would seem to be a reasonable thing to lust after.
Without it, you stop every 175-200 miles to fill up, and natural gas stations aren't quite as plentiful as the regular kind.
For me, with a 116-mile round trip commute, that 's meant a stop every other day at least.
There happen to be five natural gas pump locations on my route -- Southern Caliofrnia along the 405 Freeway corridor from Santa Monica to Orange County apparently is a pretty gassy place -- but using them requires detours off the freeway and delays my arrivals at home or office.
With the Phill, I'll be able to hook up the hose when I pull into the garage at night and, presuming it works as advertised, Viola!, I'll have a topped-up tank every morning when I leave for work.
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- Posted by: John O'Dell January 11, 2008, 2:00 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
December 17, 2007
We received a letter in the mail from Honda today regarding an open safety recall on 1998-2007 Civic GX compressed natural gas vehicles. A faulty fuel tank heat insulator is to blame.
In the event of a severe interior fire in the area of the rear seat, the CNG tank may be heated unevenly, preventing the pressure relief device from venting the contents of the tank properly. This could result in a tank rupture, or its ejection from the vehicle.
This situation was discovered after studying an act of arson on a Civic GX earlier this year...
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- Posted by: December 17, 2007, 6:25 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
December 10, 2007
They told me when I joined the Edmunds team that I would probably be the designated driver for the long-term 2007 Honda Civic GX because I was the "green" guy and because, frankly, nobody wanted to put up with the hassles of finding the natural gas pumps the car requires and worrying about running out of fuel and being left high and dry.
A look at our fuel log over the almost six months the GX has been in the fleet bears that out. Only eight members of the staff have driven it, and most of them only once.
The average distance traveled between fill-ups of compressed natural gas has been well under 150 miles and only once has anyone had to put more than the equivalent of 6.5 gallons of fuel into the 8-gallon tank that's supposed to be good for an average of 224 miles.
Well, we pushed the limits the other day, watching the little light bars on the fuel gauge -- about 0.4 gallons-equivalent per bar --blink out until they all were gone and the bright amber "low fuel" light was all that was aglow on that side of the instrument panel...
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- Posted by: John O'Dell December 10, 2007, 7:44 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
November 13, 2007
On Fridays the traffic in Los Angeles isn't bad. Actually, it's horrible. Really, really horrible. But luckily, I've discovered a tunnel between my office and my house that cuts my commute time in half...
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- Posted by: Philip Reed November 13, 2007, 11:25 AM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
September 25, 2007
I had the long-term Civic GX for the past week, or at least its keys. I got to see how it performed in a variety of driving conditions, taking it on different errands -- daily commute, trip to Universal City for a press event, taking me to an excellent Editors concert at the Wiltern, and an airport venture that included four days parked while I was in Toronto. Here are some of the things I learned over this period of time.
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- Posted by: JRiz September 25, 2007, 2:03 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
September 13, 2007
This would have made sense had I done a lot of acid back then, but the ‘70s for me were a pretty clean decade.
Why then, was I having this weird flashback? A gas line. In 2007?
It wasn’t a hallucination, though...
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- Posted by: John O'Dell September 13, 2007, 5:46 PM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
August 31, 2007
How far are you willing to go to save the environment?
What kind of compromises will you have to make in order to 1) reduce emissions, 2) lower fuel costs, 3) get into the coveted car pool lanes?
We're going to find out. We've added a Honda Civic GX to our long-term fleet. It runs on compressed natural gas (CNG).
We have a CNG station near our offices in Santa Monica, but there aren't many around...
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- Posted by: Donna Derosa August 31, 2007, 10:54 AM
- Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX
