Accord Hybrid
 

After work I am picking up a 2018 Accord Hybrid, champagne/ivory. Hopefully there'll be an uptick in hybrid activity here.

I said this in the other topic, but....change again? Congrats anyway, I hope you like this one and keep it longer than the previous 2! Post pics if you want.

Yeah, I change too often. I think I'll like this one better. It's a better ride and quieter and much better colors. We'll see.

Congratulations on the new car. I read in Car And Driver that the Accord Hybrid has the best CVT of any car. What made you get an Accord Hybrid instead of a Clarity Plug-in Hybrid?

Higher mpg and better price.

I made my first fill today. I could have waited several more days but had a personal reason to do it. I drove mostly local trips usually less than 4 miles per segment. I did do one longer trip about 47 miles each way about 41 freeway miles. As it now shows I got 46mpg overall. I expected more like 44 so that was nice. I now think an all freeway long distance trip would definitely beat the EPA 47mpg rating. I'm very satisfied with my choice of this car and the results it's producing.

Good numbers for such a big car.

Pretty good, very similar to a diesel, but probably quieter.

It actually isn't a CVT at all. The car runs as a series hybrid most of the time with just a one speed transmission like a BEV. The engine can clutch in at highway speeds for better cruising efficiency.

It should only get better as the tires wear.

Not a great shot but can't get my other camera to cooperate.

Not a bad looking vehicle at all, prefer Hondas design to Toyotas that's for sure.

Very nice, I also prefer Honda design / engineering to Toyota or any other Japanese company. I also dislike Acuras, even though they are Hondas.

Well, my hope of annual oil changes blew up as I just went over 5k miles and the maintenance A1 notification is popping up on the display every time now. As Maxwell Smart used to say, "Missed it by that much.". In this case about 7 weeks shy of one year.

Honda calls for changing the oil but not the filter. That seems backward to me. If anything I'd be more inclined to put in a clean filter and let the oil go to the 10k mark. I guess they know more than I do but it still seems backward.

Overall I really like the car but I wish there was less road noise from the tires. I keep threatening to go from the 225/50-17 on it now to a 205/60-16 on lightweight wheels and choosing a highest rated tire from tirerack for quietness.

Not changing the oil filter doesn't make any sense. Probably a bean-counter came up with that stupid idea during a committee meeting on how to save money.

I also hate when car manufacturers say that the transmission fluid is life time. Everyone knows there is no such thing.

If it was me and was planning on keeping the car for a long time, I would regularly change the oil with the oil filter. It's a small cost compared to what is at stake if the engine goes. I know oils are a lot better now than before, but they are not magic fluid.

Did you hear about the massive engine recall for Hondas? The 1.5L engines have a huge problem with oil lubrication, the Chinese government put a stop sale to all the cars with that engine until Honda fixes the problem. The people in North America have the same engine problems, but not sure why nothing has been done about it.

"Beware of experts!" - Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs

The oil change intervals on my Porsche are every 20,000 miles. I'll be doing it every two years, if I keep it that long, but I certainly won't have done 20,000 miles in that time. The Peugeot has a higher compression engine, and despite being 10 years newer, needs a 15,000 or annual oil change.

The argument some on an Accord forum are making is the filter is better at 5k because it's partially used up and clogged so it only allows even smaller particles to pass. They also note it can't go too long or it will be fully clogged and then go on bypass and filter nothing. Their argument is at least logical enough to make a good debate/argument whether it's accurate or not.

I've heard about the recalls and issues with the 1.5T engine. It doesn't affect my car but it's quite an issue.

When a car company says lifetime, they mean 100k to 150k miles.

I've heard oil filters goto bypass within a few thousand miles. I once changed the filter a week before the oil, and the fluid went from black to cloudy brown over those 300 miles. Even if they aren't in bypass, the majority of what they are filtering out is organic compounds from oil breakdown. These form acids with water regardless of whether they are free floating or trapped in filter media.

How much oil does the Porsche hold?

Quite a bit I think, somewhere around 7-8 litres from a quick Google search.

Or about twice as much as a typical car. Its starting out with more oil additives, so it should go longer between changes.

We had a 1975 911S and added a remote oil cooler at the front under the nose. With the added lines and cooler it was 12 quarts per change. We never had oil temp problems though.