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Old 16th April 2010, 16:51   #31
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Lovely picks.

When ever I see a CIVIC I tell myself, why didn't I stretch myself.

But, probably it would be my next ride in near future.

Enjoy.
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Old 17th April 2010, 08:30   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Praveen1 View Post
Have you used Cruise control in any of your highway drive?

Can't we use paddle shift in normal mode other than Sports mode? This is not the case in ANHC. P.Shift can be used in any modes. Pls confirm.

Love the way you drive. Extracting every drop of fuel with a very good FE.

My two cents: Try to ease-off the gas pedal at very 2.5k and allow to shift. This would be a best method to tame AT. May take sometime to practice.
I have used CC on good straight roads many times. Its pretty relaxing to drive with. Paddle shifts can be used in both D and S mode, though I rarely use it these days, unless driving on ghat roads. I got an avg FE of 14.6 kmpl on the BLR-MYS stretch. The remaining part gave me between 13.2 and 13.8 on most stretches. Except for overtaking maneuvers or ghat roads, I rarely go above 3 K RPM.

Last edited by vasoo : 17th April 2010 at 08:32.
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Old 17th April 2010, 19:32   #33
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Vasoo your car looks lovely. Very cheerful and eye catching colour :-)

BTW, dont mind me saying so, I noticed you had Goodyears from the factory - GYs are awful specially with road noise. Get rid of them ASAP and go in for better shoes BS Turanzas ER300, Michelin P-LCs in stock sizes. Since your car is new you wont need to pay too much and it will be a worthwhile investment. When you have a trustworthy tyre guru like Nikhilb2008 in your city drive right over to his place for the best shoes.

Cheers!
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Old 21st April 2010, 18:03   #34
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Decided to keep the NCTs for some more time. So far it has been ok for speeds below 130 kmph. It does tend to activate ABS pretty often than required though. Cam back today from a long trip to Kerala. Used the NH47/NH7 route on the way back. These are excellent roads for more than 90% of the stretches. Can maintain 100-120 for most part of the road. Took exactly 6 hours from Palakkad to Bangalore, a distance of 400 kms, with a couple of short pit stops.

Last edited by vasoo : 21st April 2010 at 18:05.
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Old 8th July 2010, 14:59   #35
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Done my second free service along with the fixing of bumper and front right fender after the last accident. It cost about 8k altogether. The bumper straightening and tinkering of fender was done pretty decently by Dakshin Honda.

Car is perfectly fine and gives an average of about 12 kmpl in b2b city driving in S mode. In D mode the FE is about 9kmpl, on average.

I will explain my experience with the AT transmission so far in city driving and how using S mode helps to improve FE.

In D mode, the gear changes to 1st, when speed drops below 10 kmph and goes back to 3rd at 25-30 kmph. Note that most of the b2b city driving happens between these speeds. In S mode, we can force the car to use 2nd gear in most cases. We can also engage 3rd gear at speeds near 15kmph, which will not happen in D mode. I can see the FE indicator going to 14 kmpl at times while in 3rd gear and coasting below 25kmph.

In D mode, even when I give a slight pressure on gas pedal at any gear position above 1st gear, it eagerly downshifts to provide power and to possibly cover up the lack of low speed torque. This is detrimental to FE, especially in city driving, where torque is rarely required. Using S mode will help to prevent this automatic downshift.

I can change gear using paddles in D mode as well. But the tolerance levels are pretty bad compared to S mode and is mostly ineffective. I am yet to find the real purpose of this feature.

Overall, driving in S mode is helping me to keep the FE between 11 and 13 even in the slowest traffic in the city.
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Old 22nd November 2010, 15:37   #36
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Completed the third free service last month. I stayed back at Dakshin Honda till they finished the work and handed over the car. Washing and cleaning was done pretty well even though the car tends to attract dust within a few minutes of wash in that conditions. Cost me less than 1000, with the oil change. Did not opt for synthetic oil as my car has run only about 6500 kms in the last 8 months. Will consider it later.

Overall car is in excellent shape and never had any issues so far, touch wood. I get about 10-12 kmpl in city conditions and about 14-16 kmpl on highways. I have already upgraded headlight bulbs and tyres and I am quite satisfied with them. My next upgrade will be mostly in the ICE segment. Plan to replace the front speakers with a pair of good quality components and dampen the doors. Any recommended brands and service centers for the same?
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Old 28th November 2010, 12:56   #37
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vasoo, great to hear that your Civic is giving you great driving pleasure without burning hole in pocket. I have a query, it will be great if you can help me. I have bought a 07 preworshipped Civic SAT last week and finding your thread very useful. I am having similar thoughts on using S mode and ICE improvements. There is a thread on the initial ownership experience which I will hopefully populate as we go along. My immediate learning need is how to use the S mode. For the last few days I have simply left the lever in D mode as I was concentrating more on the driving. However from the DTE I feel that the car is returning roughly around 9kpl. Would like to know if we can start the car in S mode and use the paddle shifter for any subsequent gear changes. What happens if the gear choice is too tall, will the car stall? For example lets say the car is driving at 20kmph. By mistake if the gear chosen is M4 then will the car stall. Another question, suppose I start the car in S mode and dont use the paddle shifter at all, will the gear system drive as if it is in D mode? Many quesions, I know. Looking forward for your reply.
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Old 29th November 2010, 17:00   #38
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^^
dot, I would suggest you to experiment it yourself. There is no way you can stall or damage the car with any combination of shift lever or paddles. For example if you are trying to shift to M1 while going at 80 kmph, it simply wont work, even in S mode. Note that S with paddles mode is not exactly the same as a fully manual gear shift. It still imposes restrictions on up-shifting or down-shifting when inappropriate.

You cannot start the car in D or S mode. It needs to be in P or N mode to start. So there is no question of using paddles. Once you start, you can shift to S mode and decide to use or not use paddles from then on.

You cannot shift to M4 while at 20 kmph, even if you try, the display will simply blink and stay on M3. Each gear, even in S with paddles mode, has a specified range of speed, RPM and engine load factor.

If you keep the lever on S mode and dont use paddles, it will work almost similar to D mode, but the shifts will happen at higher RPMs while accelerating than in D mode. For example the shift from 3 to 4 typically happens at about 45 kmph in D mode whereas in S mode it can be as late as about 70-80 kmph. It gives better acceleration and sporty feel.
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Old 29th November 2010, 21:31   #39
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vasoo, you are truly right. I tried experimenting. In a few words - amazing. What a system.
The + paddle shifter really allows to quickly upshift to M2 or M3 which otherwise would have been in M1. And the car decides to downshift as required. As you said, the upshift wont go to M4 unless the speed has reached 40kmph. So all my fears of stalling was totally unfounded. Thanks for the explanation, really helping me.

Another thing I noticed that the DTE value increased after using the paddle shifter as you have pointed. Before driving it was showing 110 after driving for about 10kms it is showing 128! Thanks to you, my smiles just got wider.
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Old 30th November 2010, 12:13   #40
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You have a DTE in your car? I dont have it! It just shows the average FE for each trips.
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Old 30th November 2010, 20:26   #41
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vasoo View Post
You have a DTE in your car? I dont have it! It just shows the average FE for each trips.
Thats what I thought it is. If not what is it? The number stays in Trip A next to the total odo reading and in second mode where outside temperature is on the left and this number on the right. The manual also didnt say much. You can see the picture of the display on my thread in the following link
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...nda-civic.html
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Old 3rd December 2010, 23:13   #42
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Well it is not DTE. Looks like it is a trip meter. So Civic has two trip meters? I am going to Honda workshop tomorrow, will check on this also.
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