2007 Honda Civic GX - Pure Beauty!!!
There are people who would argue that that sinister little creation, the automobile, is responsible for it all. I'd blame Al Gore, China, sweatshops, and greenie celebrities who flit about in private jets. Those who want to make a difference drive hybrids, while those who researched their decision drive diesels. Those who are truly enlightened and want to make a difference, however, seek something higher, lighter, more ethereal. They find natural gas.
For the most part, the hunt is conducted outside of new-car showrooms, although the game is no longer found in the back-yard sheds of neighborhood madmen or the workshops of “some guy my uncle’s caterer’s yoga instructor knows,” but in experienced shops that sometimes charge twice the list price of the customer’s 1989 Toyota Corolla to convert it to natural-gas propulsion.
The Only Natural-Gas-Powered Vehicle Available to New-Car Buyers in the U.S.
Natural-gas seekers in California and New York, however, can simply stroll into a Honda dealership, plunk down $25,185 for a new Civic GX sedan—a premium of $8780 over a $16,405 base Civic DX automatic—and whoosh out of the showroom on a massive tide of self-empowerment and an itty-bitty ripple of torque: 103 pound-feet, to be exact.
Originally conceived as a parking-enforcement cruiser in L.A. back in 1998, the GX was strictly a fleet vehicle meant to do its small part to reduce pollution. Emissions from natural-gas-burning engines are a fraction of those of similarly sized gasoline units, the GX being recognized by the EPA as the cleanest-burning engine it had ever tested when introduced. Today, when the EPA’s Tier 2 Bin 5 standards are causing a panic among auto execs, the Civic GX easily skips past Bin 5 and is the only vehicle to meet the lofty Tier 2 Bin 2 standards. If this talk of tiers and bins makes no sense, just be impressed by the fact that the GX is so clean it is the only vehicle in its emissions class. In 2005, Honda saw fit to finally offer the Civic GX directly to the public in California. New York citizens have only been able to buy the car since October 2006.
It Ain’t Magic—The Greenie Car Comes with a Few Compromises
Why only California and New York? Because that pricing premium and the torque output—15 percent below the base car’s 128 pound-feet—are just the beginning of the compromises to be made in the name of lower emissions and a head seat at the greenie table. The car’s trunk shrinks from a reasonable 12 cubic feet in dinosaur-fueled form to just 6 cubic feet with the tanks for the compressed natural gas (CNG) taking up residence behind the back seats. If that were all the luggage space we needed, we’d be driving a Lamborghini Murciélago, thank you.
In addition to taking up more space, those CNG tanks weigh a lot. At 2904 pounds, the GX is 204 pounds heavier than a similar base DX model. With 27 fewer horsepower—113—than the gasoline-powered car and the added weight of a body stuffed in the minuscule trunk, the GX is a slug. The last Civic sedan we tested with a gasoline-burning 1.8-liter did go from 0 to 60 in 7.7 seconds. Figure the greenie at right around 10 seconds with a brisk tailwind
But the Civic GX is not about cargo carrying, and it’s certainly not about performance. It’s about compressed natural gas. Compressed to 3600 psi, the natural gas fueling the GX is served up in gallon gasoline equivalents (GGE)—the amount of CNG that holds as much energy as a gallon of gasoline. If your home is heated with natural gas, you pay by the CCF, which is 100 cubic feet of natural gas at 60 degrees Fahrenheit and 14.7 psi, also called a therm. Prices in California are currently 75 to 80 cents per therm. A GGE is about 1.25 therm and costs on average about $2.24 in the Golden State, or about $1.30 more per GGE than it would cost if we could refuel at home.
A Gas Station in Your Garage, but without the Stink of Gas or Mechanics
Aha! Home refueling is possible, for a price. For about $3500 (plus $1000 to $2000 for installation), CNG junkies can refuel natural-gas-powered vehicles at home. A Toronto-based company—Fuelmaker—sells a device called Phill that can be installed in the garage and will refuel CNG vehicles from the home’s natural-gas line. The catch is that Philling up a full tank takes much longer.
Refueling at a commercial station takes only a couple minutes longer than refueling a regular gasoline-powered car. Pumps use a slip-collar fitting that will be immediately familiar to anyone who has ever used an air compressor. It’s just bigger. Once the hose is locked onto the car’s fuel-fill nozzle, flipping a lever on the side of the collar starts the flow.
Phill, essentially an air compressor drawing natural gas instead of air and without a storage tank to compress air into, simply uses the fuel tank of the GX as its tank. It will take up to 20 hours to fill a completely empty fuel tank. An overnight fill (eight hours) will give owners enough fuel for about 100 miles of driving. Even on a full 3600-psi tank, the Civic GX will only make it about 250 miles.
2007 Hyundai Veracruz Limited
Plop down into the driver’s seat of the Hyundai Veracruz, and you’ll find yourself in the middle of a quiet, comfortable, content-rich revelation. With a smooth, competent powertrain and luxury touches everywhere you look, it’s not hard to convince yourself that you’re behind the wheel of a Lexus. That’s hardly a shock, of course, given that Hyundai chose the Lexus RX350 as the benchmark for its seven-passenger Veracruz, which is now the largest SUV in Hyundai’s lineup.
I tested an upscale front-wheel-drive Limited model, but all-wheel drive is available on any trim level for a $1700 premium. Ours was $33,120, with the only extra a set of floor mats for $125. Those luxury touches we mentioned? Mood lighting, heated leather seats, a six-CD Infinity stereo, a power liftgate, a sunroof, and auto-dimming rearview and side mirrors are all standard. Granted, many of those items are optional on lesser trim levels, but even the base Veracruz includes second-row climate controls, satellite radio, six airbags, and defroster-equipped side mirrors for $26,995, $100 less than an entry-level Honda Pilot and $500 or so less than a similarly outfitted Toyota Highlander. (A base Highlander costs some $1500 less than a Veracruz but doesn’t include a V-6 or third-row seating.) Should you feel particularly self-indulgent, available packages will add anything from a rear-seat DVD entertainment system to an upgraded, 605-watt stereo to power-adjustable pedals to hands-free keyless entry.
Refined and Smooth: Hyundai Hallmarks?
A 3.8-liter, 24-valve V-6 is the only engine for the Veracruz, no matter which trim level you choose—GLS, SE, or Limited. Its 260 horsepower provides acceleration that we can’t call particularly fast or ridiculously slow. Figure on about eight seconds for the 0-to-60-mph benchmark. But power delivery is very linear, and there’s a respectable 257 pound-feet of torque. The big Hyundai is quiet, too. Very little engine noise makes it into the cabin, and at idle, the Veracruz is so quiet and vibration-free that, if you’re like us, you’ll need to double-check that you’ve twisted the key before slipping into gear. Fuel-economy ratings are 18 mpg city and 25 mpg highway, on par with the Pilot and Highlander. As refined as the V-6 is, the best part of the drivetrain is perhaps the Aisin-sourced six-speed automatic, Hyundai’s first. Upshifts are hiccup-free and quick, and the box operates so seamlessly, you hardly know it’s there. There’s a manumatic shifting feature, although tipping the lever toward the passenger side to activate it rather than toward the driver seems backward.
The strut-front and multilink-rear suspension delivers a plush, comfortable ride, especially on the freeway, and we found body control to be exemplary. Sure, there’s some lean when you pitch the Veracruz into a corner with any aggression, but it’s taken care of so quickly that you hardly care. This is certainly no bobbing oceanliner, and there’s little of the rear-end wiggle that usually accompanies soft-riding vehicles with a high center of gravity. The steering has luxury-grade heft but unfortunately is as dead as Orson Welles; you’d be better off looking for feedback from a room full of mimes than from this rack. The brakes are nothing special, although at least there’s no dead zone in initial pedal travel—when you call on the brakes, you get brakes.
Rolling in Style
The cabin of the Veracruz is beautifully trimmed using top-shelf materials, and the buttons and the switchgear are all relatively substantial. Fit and finish is excellent, but we will admit to finding a few ergonomic mistakes. Besides the foot-operated parking brake, which is positioned to rip out chunks of shin at will, the ashtray takes up far too much of the center console and the seats—all seven of them—could use longer bottom cushions. This is not to say, however, that inside a Veracruz isn’t a good place to be. Despite the too-short cushions, the seats are comfy enough for long trips, and we appreciate the iPod hookup, which is neatly located behind a flip-down door on the dash. Hyundai even thoughtfully provides a short 1/8-inch-to-1/8-inch connection cable and a spot to stash it.
Second-row passengers ride on a sliding and reclining 60/40-split bench, and it’s nearly as comfortable as the front row. Getting into and out of the two-person third row is a simple task, with only one hand required to move the middle row out of the way. Average-size folks will be relatively comfortable back there even with the middle seats pushed all the way back in their travel; unfortunately, you sit so low and the windows are so high that you feel like you’ve fallen into a hole. The cargo area features a shallow, snap-shut bin under the floor, but there’s scant room to be had until you fold the third row. Once those seats are flat, though, the cargo area will hold 40 cubic feet of stuff.
Final words....
The Veracruz is quite good, and its interior is astonishingly well-appointed, but an unfortunate side effect of Hyundai’s devotion to the Toyota/Lexus creed is that the Veracruz is also unmistakably boring. It’s not as fun to drive as even the Pilot, never mind something more sporting like the Mazda CX-9. So there’s little about this new Hyundai that will attract enthusiasts, but with its low price and loads of standard equipment, the Veracruz shouldn’t fail to find plenty of buyers. And besides, being boring hasn’t really held back a certain goliath from Japan, has it?
