![]() The Civic's engine freely revs to its 6,000rpm redline and has a throaty exhaust note that will thrill car buffs, especially compared to the Prius's quiet efficiency. As a result, to get going, you have to gun the engine and gingerly slip the clutch pedal of the five-speed transmission out so as not to stall it. The IMA concept seems straightforward and sensible on paper, but on the road, the Civic's gas engine doesn't produce enough torque at low engine speeds, even with the assistance of the electric motor. In other words, the motor is as an electric turbocharger that boosts the Civic's gas engine from 85 horsepower to 93 horsepower when needed. It's different from a full hybrid power train unlike the Prius-which has two power plants (gas and electric) that work alone or together-the Civic's gas engine is the star, and the electric motor is a supporting actor who occasionally takes the stage. The driving force behind Honda's hybrids-Civic, Accord, and Insight-is a technology called integrated motor assist (IMA), wherein a small electric motor gives the car's 1.3-liter gasoline engine a little help. With a price of $19,900 ($20,415 delivered), the Civic Hybrid with a five-speed manual transmission costs $6,000 more than an entry-level Civic but comes in at about $1,000 less than the Toyota Prius's base price. True, the Civic Hybrid goes farther on a gallon of gas than its nonhybrid version, but it's slow and, in most areas, comes in a distant second to the Toyota Prius. But after putting hundreds of miles on a Civic Hybrid, we think Honda would have done better by starting with a blank slate. The company added an electric motor to a downsized version of the Civic's drivetrain to create a mild hybrid that's kinder to the environment. Rather than start from scratch to create an all-new hybrid vehicle as Toyota did with the Prius, Honda took a more conservative route by hybridizing its popular Civic.
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