SPECIAL NOTE: In a crazed moment we decided that our family of four, including two teenagers, no longer "fits" into a two-door car (the 2001 Civic Coupe -- see below). We bought a new Honda Fit. Stay tuned for more information.
Here are some figures showing the fuel efficiency of a 1985 Honda Civic Wagovan. This car was principally driven in the city but about once per year it was taken (heavily loaded) on a long road trip.
We sold the Wagovan in September 2002 and replaced it with a 2001 Honda Civic DX.
Go here for a summary of the 2001 Civic's performance.
The following values were obtained using the total distance travelled and other total amounts. The amount of CO2 produced was estimated using the ratio of 2.4 kg of CO2 per litre of gasoline. The efficiency estimate is too low because some fill ups were not recorded (though the distance driven still accumulated on the odometer).
Total fuel consumed = 3318 litres
Total cost of fuel = 2218 dollars
Total distance travelled = 46336.0 kilometres
Total CO2 produced = 7964 kg
CO2 per km travelled = 0.17 kg/km
Mean fuel cost per km = 4.8 cents/km
Mean efficiency = 7.2 l/100km
The next set of values were obtained by taking pairs of odometer readings and using the amount put in the tank as the fuel consumed for the measured distance. Obvious outlyers (such as efficiency values obtained when a trip to the gas station wasn't recorded) were thrown away first.
Fuel efficiency in litres per 100 km
Minimum Mean Maximum
4.6 7.9 +/- 1.8 12
This car recently (2000) had an emissions test. It scored as follows.
Hydrocarbons (HC): 48 ppm maximum allowed for this model: 350 ppm
for model year >1996: 90 ppm
Carbon (CO): 0.146 % maximum allowed for this model: 4.0 %
Monoxide for model year >1996: 0.6 %
The little notches (where the slope approaches zero) correspond to times when we forgot to record a fuel purchase or entered the data incorrectly.