Hybrid for (nearly) 17 year old...

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So. They don’t make these any more, and this one is one of the first, so is 8 years old.

The really great thing is, it’s about the same insurance as a Mini for a 17 year old. While technically there are 4 seats, the rear two can only fit small children, or vertically challenged peeps!

I always wanted my lad to have a two seater, as my theory is he’ll be less likely to try ‘showing off’ to his mates, if there’s just one other in the car. The insurance companies don’t share my theory - the cheapest insurance I could find for an MX-5 was three times the price of this! As I say, this, technically, being a 4 seater, lowers the insurance considerably!

Something a bit out of the ordinary, and I guess, not something you’d see many 17 year olds driving - but despite the sporty looks, they’re not that fast, and are fully loaded with modern-day safety features that we never had when I was busy sticking my cars through hedges and into ditches!

Various trim levels; this is the GT, so has leather seating, and a panoramic glass roof.

It’s a really nice car, and somewhere I’d be quite happy to sit for a few hours at a time. Certainly knocks the spots off my starter car - a 1970’s Opel Kadett!

Oh, and it’s the only hybrid with a 6 speed manual gearbox! (There may be some supercars out there that qualify, but, yeh.....)
 
Nice car for a youngster.
I had a couple of CRX's in my younger days - this is a sort of updated version with electrical assistance from Honda's IMA unit. Heavier and slower, probably much safer, but hopefully still fun.
I used to get over 40MPG from mine - be interesting to see how much more the electical assistance adds, if any ...
As you say they are 2 seaters with the capability of giving a couple of small people a lift for a short distance (Once had 5 on the way back from the pub (thankfully only a mile or two) back in the early '90's...
 
I think they are 'spiritually' based on the CRX - but have nowhere near the performance.

The IMA is an interesting concept, as, unlike other hybrids, the car will not run on electricity alone - the ICE is always running. The capacity of the battery is tiny - a couple of large hills on the way up to us from town, and it's done - but equally, it recharges to full capacity quickly enough. Coasting sees a 'trickle' charge (as does cruising, when the battery is depleted) - and the first couple of cm of brake pedal travel sees a more aggressive replenishment.

In Econ mode - the car is most definitely sluggish, fine around town, and maybe once cruising on M'ways, but on country roads, you'll quickly end up with traffic up your chuff; for day to day driving, Normal works well enough, with Sport mode making throttle response that much more sensitive, and weighting up the steering.

Mpg seems good - it was delivered, showing an average of 35-ish - that has now climbed to 44+, and that's driving around country roads, occasionally giving it the beans to blow out any lingering cobwebs. I think on a run it'd be quite easy to get 50+ and more. I think the CRX probably encouraged more 'spirited' driving though - I had a mate with one when I had my Renault 5 Turbo, and we frequently would give them a good caning around the Lincolnshire back roads, they were quite evenly matched!

Safety wise, it has a lot going for it, ABS, EBA, DSC, and whole bunch of other TLA's I can't think of - but hopefully will help to keep my lad safe - I can't help thinking how reckless I used to be in a car as a youngster. I'd like to think he's a bit more level headed than I was - but you never know!
 
At the moment, it’s £200-ish a year, but that’s because my lad isn’t driving yet - that happens at the end of October. With him added as a provisional driver, it looks like it’ll be just over £500 a year.

The real rise is when he takes over the car as a 17 year old newly qualified driver. With a black box fitted, it comes out at around £1200 per year - without a black box, it’s around £3000!!

The prices are within a £100 per year of what it would cost to insure him on a 1.4 Mini, which was the other car we were looking at for him. A couple of neighbours put their kids in small Toyotas and Suzukis, which I think were cheaper alternatives - but they’re not very substantial cars.
 

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