Got Tired of Waiting Picked up our New Civic Hybrid Yesterday

[stevenvillatoro]

The Civic Hybrid is an awesome car. Try the greenhybrid.com forum for a great group of people and good tips. You should see mileage in high-40s when you start to master hybrid driving techniques. Best of luck... love your car!

[bottlerocket]

Originally Posted by hopeto

My order # is 1225 and configured on 12-29-07. Got tired of the wait. New car for my wife and she got cold feet over most of the issues hammered to death on this forum.
1. Short Warranty
2. "Funny" automatic with shifting issues.
3. No back seat and no trunk
4. No cruise control.
5. Premium fuel recomended
6. Etc., etc., etc.

This was our experience buying a Civic Hybrid in the Dallas area: There are none to be found in dealer inventory. Most dealers were telling us that they pre-sold them as soon as they had VIN confirmation and they would arrive within around 30 to 45 days. Two weeks ago on 05-06-08 we struck a deal on one coming in with no navigation. Gave us a great price on our 03 Mazda 6 trade in. Got a call about a week later that someone with a no-nav on order wanted to get one with nav, so we moved up on the list. Got a call Saturday the 17th that the car was here. Picked it up yesterday. The Civic Hybrid comes with all the options. Your only choices are with/without a nav system and what color.
1. Sticker price (not higher) for car.
2. Great trade-in allowance.
3. 2.8% Honda finance for 5 years (good credit).
4. Bought genuine Honda Care extended warranty for 8 years - 120,000 miles - $0 deductible for additional $1000. (even covers the battery pack)
5. No other add-ons to car (fabric protector, VIN etching, etc)
6. Wife loves it!

Don't know what I'll do when/if the Smart ever gets here. Maybe I'll drive it.

Good Luck with your Smarts!

Congrats on the car! That's great that you paid sticker for it and got a great rate. Too bad the "perceived" problems gave your wife cold feet. I'm about to hit 1000 miles without a single problem other than I want to drive it all the time.

Maybe when yours comes you can keep it for yourself

[curtis]

haha, you got tired of waiting since Dec, I ordered my car March 30 07 and just picked up last week, you don't know what waiting is..

[bradgarbus]

I have had 2 friends do the same thing. One purchased a new hybrid Camry and the other got the Honda. Both are really nice.

I think smart is making a BIG mistake with this long waiting period. Too many people just can't/won't wait.

People that have reserved are dropping like flies. I am even thinking twice as I see the list of problems grow with little signs of solid solutions...
My complaint list is:

-horn too quiet
-no cruise control
-problems with sticking tranny
-alarm going off when it's not supposed to.
-issues starting to pop up with the SRS system
-now reports of smarts having complete power failures
-short warranty & lack of loaners with list of issues climbing
-non-auto chromic rear view mirror
-lack of a good answer for a spare tire...

My list keeps growing...

I am trying to stay hopeful that by the time they get around to building mine most of these issues will be resolved.

Time will tell...

(did I mention I'm not in the best of moods today...)

[Bum-bling-B]

You made a great choice! Don't settle for less than 50mpg - it can be done will little effort and driving like a sane person. Once you master it, there will be a few tank this next fall where you can even get 60mpg. I've had a few Honda hybrids.

[curtis]

they have been making these cars for 10 years I doubt they'll change anything by the time yours is built. Also, I think SmartUSA reservation plan and wait is pretty smart (no pun intended) because those that want to wait for their special reserved car can and those who don't care can pick up an orphan. Don't get me wrong the 406 days I waited for my car did start to wear on me and if I knew last year I could get an orphan I may have never done the reservation but know that all is said and done I'm glad I waited for "my smart".

If you'd go from a Smart to a Honda civic hybrid I don't think the Smart was really ever the car for you.

[SuperGeek]

I can definitely empathize with the choice to get something good now, rather than wait. You'll probably be waiting till March 09 to get your smart, and in the next 10 months you'll have a good feel for what a Civic Hybrid is like. I also debated getting a Prius or Civic, but fully loaded they were more than I could afford. Technically the $16k smart Passion is bursting my budget as far as payments go, but I justified it. I had just looked at used cars a week before I got the call... an 8 year old Camry for $12k, everything else under 5 years of age was $15k or more - demand pricing, guaranteed... oh, except the trucks, those were like $10k. My wife wanted me to make a decision on the spot, I chose to wait.

I'm glad I waited a week. But if I'd known it would be another year, I'd have gotten something short term and kept the smart on order. Don't cancel your smart order until you've had time to decide... you may just decide to sell the Civic in a year, and who knows, you may turn a tidy profit.


Smart USA could beef up production asap to avoid losing their new customer base to competition. Just double it, not 10 times... I still want a unique work of art, not a commonplace car like a Prius. But I also want to be sure there are enough parts for service. My biggest worry is being smacked by a big Ford F350, totalling his front end, and I need a new air conditioner. He can get all his parts within a week; I'd hate to go without A/C in the summer.

[MENSA42]

congrats on your Civic.....i've had many Civics over the years and i really think highly of them.

"hopeto" see some pics of you in your smart soon though too!

[SmartDE]

I don't understand, wait is too long, get on a "orphan list" if one comes in you don't like, stay on the list and wait a bit more.

I have a res, #1548 my dde says is due oct - dec 2009.

I got a Orphan, turned out it is the same colors I wanted, except no leather seats. Still gets me to work and all about, will probably sell this one and get my reserved one next year, except, now that I have Blk/Blk, I may go Blue/Blk. Meanwhile....... I am having a blast driving this car!!

Actually after driving this now for a month, I been driving it more than riding my Honda 1800vtx motorcycle, both get about the same mpg, even on nice days, I find myself taking out my Smart.

As far as Issues? (my Opinions)

* Short Warranty - (Being I usually drive used cars, I usually do my own repairs, two years is plenty for me)
* "Funny" automatic with shifting issues. (First two weeks I drove the car I would agree, but now I am in the groove!!!Zoom zoom!! This car wants to be driven, don't be afraid to give it some gas)
* No back seat and no trunk- (its a "for Two", &no trunk? forget about it, definitely ain't no cadillac - ;) I got $100 dollars of groceries in the back areaand I forgot about hatchback hideaway.)
* No cruise control. - You know, some use them some don't, I had a 95 BMW 740il and never used it, except to see if it worked. Maybe depends where you live, traffic here, by the time you set it, you need to reset it, more of a bother to me.)
* Premium fuel recomended - (Even If you could use regular, it would cost you approx. 40 cents less per gallon, regular vs premium, 40 cents times approx. 9 gallon tank, a whopping $3.60 cents? Need I say more)
* Horn to quiet - (really isn't, people want them louder for personal reasons)
* Alarm going off when is shouldn't - (mine did that, because of all the keys in my tight pants, my "to do list" has on it, "buy looser pants")
* Issues starting to pop up with the SRS system - (not sure about this one, But should say "No- Pun intended")
* Power Failures - (not sure about this)
* Non-auto rear view mirror - (only thing I can say is: "Lift arm, use index finger and thumb...")
* lack of spare tire - (has a repair kit for simple flats, I thought was a cool concept, but yes a spare is nice to have if Tires that end up in shreads from driving on it longer than supposed to be, instead pulling over right away, or Slashed? from knives, be kinda screwed anyways, prob would need to have 4 spares.)

I pesonally don't see many issues that are major concerns, this car is a small, it's a fun driving vehicle, if I needed to go on a 12 hour trip to florida, I would do it, but thats me, and remember, these are my opinions and we all know what we think about those*

[SmartCard]

Originally Posted by curtis

haha, you got tired of waiting since Dec, I ordered my car March 30 07 and just picked up last week, you don't know what waiting is..

actaully, he configured in December....ordered about in May (1225). So he has been waiting!

Hopeto - what was your DDE? with a december configure, you could have been less then a month away!