As Honda is known worldwide for producing high performance vehicles, they would like the other side of their business to be known this time. It’s high time for them to be recognized as a manufacturer of fuel efficient and environment-friendly vehicles. To reinforce that fact, they have been holding fuel economy runs regularly, starting with the first Civic fuel economy run last 2001.
With the arrival of the new Honda Civic sometime 2006, it was but natural for Honda to subject it to real-world driving conditions so as to prove the veracity of their claim: that the Civic’s 1.8 liter i-VTEC engine has a power of a larger engine but with a fuel consumption of a much smaller engine. This time around, Honda teamed up with Total along with Motolite Batteries, BPI/MS Insurance, Concept One Wheels, and AVT Intelligent Car Multimedia to come up with the Totally Amazing Fuel Eco Run.
By this time, every motorist should be aware of how a fuel economy run is conducted, and the benefits of holding such. The car is filled with fuel up to the brim at the starting point; then the trip is made, and then refueled at the end point to determine the actual fuel consumption. As such, all permissible fuel saving techniques and strategies are employed, but must be within the bounds of the rule book Honda is handing out. The bottom line here is that the participating car must be in stock condition, and no modifications are allowed except for aesthetics such as after market body kits and alloy wheels, and of course, the participants’ driving style. To ensure fairness and accuracy, air-conditioning controls are set to the participants’ preference and then sealed. Other possible cheat points such as the fuel tank lid, the hood, and the trunk, are also sealed.
Now on its third leg, the Totally Amazing Fuel Eco Run was host to a whopping 33 teams from the customer category, and four teams from the Media Category. All teams were to drive northwards from the TOTAL Balintawak-Cloverleaf Station in Quezon City to the TOTAL Angeles Station in Pampanga, which has a total distance of 73.8 kilometers. The Civic owners were further subdivided into manual and automatic transmission subcategory, while participants from the Media category were all driving Civics equipped with automatic transmission. To further highlight the importance of this event, representatives from the AAP (Automobile Association of the Philippines) and the Department of Energy were present. A Civic Hybrid traversed the leg’s route as well.
As the event’s day was a Saturday, there were naturally more vehicles to negotiate. Also something of great importance for this leg was the varying traffic conditions of the NLEX as it undergoes partial rehabilitation. With these scenarios, the choice of which lane to take was very crucial, and also the time to step on the gas and apply the brakes. Of equal importance as well was the presence of motorists who do not know a thing about using a world-class highway. What does this writer mean by that? In a left-hand drive environment, the left lane is the passing lane and should be kept open at all times. Therefore, one must not hog the left lane except when overtaking. But this is not the case, especially with overloaded trucks or poorly-engineered vehicles hogging the left lane and then swerving to the right lane whenever they feel like doing so. In a fuel economy run, that fact must also be kept in mind so that sudden braking, which leads to a higher fuel consumption, is eliminated.
After refueling at Total Angeles everyone was advised to proceed to Fontana in Pampanga where lunch was waiting as well as a raffle, after which the awarding ceremonies followed. For those curious as to how the Civic Hybrid fared in this trip, it had a fuel consumption of 30.14 kilometers per liter. Official cars driven by AAP representatives, on the other hand, posted 16.85 kms/li for the Manual Transmission Variant and 17.10 kms/li for the Automatic Transmission variant. With this occurrence, gone is the fact that automatic transmission vehicles consume more fuel than their manual transmission counterparts. It is now the other way around.
For the Media Category, Aries Espinosa of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Claudine Najera of Heart 103.5 bested other media teams by registering 24.49 kilometers per liter overall consumption. For the Customer Category, Jay Ambrosio won the Manual Transmission sub category with 22.95 kilometers per liter, while Noelito Feliciano coveted the trophy for the Automatic Transmission variant, posting an amazing record of 47.92 kilometers per liter. Now that is truly amazing! All participants received exclusive Honda and Total items, while cash prizes amounting to P10,000 and a trophy were given to the winning teams.