2006 Honda Civic Hybrid vs.Toyota Prius vs. Honda Accord Hybri

Sixty mpg from the Toyota Prius during city driving? Sounds good, doesn't it--especially when you motor past a gas station and see the price of regular unleaded starting with a 3. Trouble is, Toyota's little eco-hellion hasn't quite been able to back up this braggery--a fact even the federal government now concurs with. We're not talking about the EPA here, but fueleconomy.gov, where 77 2005 Prius drivers have posted their personal gas use, the average being 47.6 (see below).

So what's the EPA proposing to do to temper its hallucinatory mileage claims? What about those rumored changes coming to the federal tax credits available for 2006? We'll get to those questions. But first, let's greet the two newest players in the hybrid game, the 2006 Honda Civic and 2007 Toyota Camry, as we compare them to their familiar nemesi--the Prius and Accord Hybrid.

Civic Hybrid vs. Prius
Fancy this: two Motor Trend Car of the Year winners, face to face. The Prius captured the calipers two years ago; the Civic (its entire lineup) for 2006. However, don't presume Toyota's mad scientist of family sedans is suddenly working from a technological deficit. Catching the Prius would be a Manhattan Project undertaking.

Beneath the hood of Honda's resurgent compact is the latest refinement of its Integrated Motor Assist (IMA), an elegant engineering idea if ever there was one. The crux of the system is a disc-like electric motor that's thin (but now more powerful due to compact square-section windings) and substitutes for the standard flywheel disc. It rotates rigidly with the crankshaft, offering some power (20 horses) but mostly torque (76 pound-feet; recall that large diameter) to its efficient but gruntless 1.3-liter four-cylinder companion engine. It's also a starter motor to instantly get things going again after the engine's shut down at a stop (just release the brake), and a generator to recapture kinetic energy while slowing. Simplicity often carries constraints, though, and one of IMA's is that the car doesn't go without its engine turning, meaning neither the engine nor motor can independently propel the Civic (well almost). Nor can either be optimized.

Honda's been whittling away at its system's limitations, however. In fact, we're startled at how close the Civic Hybrid's mileage numbers now come to those of the cuckoo-clock-complex Prius. This Prius--spiffed up with a few new-for-2006 upgrades itself--returned 44 mpg in our paws; the Civic, 40. Cruising on the highway, the Honda frequently registered 45 mpg. Geez.