Honda Civic Hybrid Manual: It Exists

Honda Civic Hybrid Manual: It Exists

Manual transmission and a hybrid drivetrain. These things seem like they’d go hand-in-hand. Manuals are fuel efficient. Hybrids are fuel efficient. This is the perfect combination!

The only problem is most hybrid people don’t want to bother with driving a stick. And, love ‘em or hate ‘em, CVT automatics tend to be just as good at gas mileage as manuals – if not better. The result is there are a precious few manual hybrids in existence today.

We all know one of them: the original Honda Insight. That was initially offered only with a stick, though a CVT came online later, ensuring the car would never be able to climb steep hills, or medium-sized hills, or speed bumps.

There’s also the Honda CR-Z, the Insight’s successor, which offers a stick shift to drivers who want to really wring out the 13.2-second 0-to-60 time in their “sport” hybrid.

But did you know there’s another manual hybrid out there?

That’s right, folks: the first-generation Honda Civic Hybrid came with a stick shift from 2003 to 2005. It looks like installation rates were surprisingly high, reaching about 20 percent of all Civic Hybrid models. That figure, coupled with the first-generation Civic Hybrid’s reasonable popularity, means there are a few stick shift Civic Hybrids available on the used market.

Unfortunately, the days of a manual hybrid sedan are probably long behind us. But for hypermilers who do most of their driving in the diesel-unfriendly big city, the Civic Hybrid stick is a good choice. Except for that whole thing about replacing the batteries.

5 Responses to “ “Honda Civic Hybrid Manual: It Exists”

  1. Walt says:

    Like you said the whole “battery” issue is a problem, I wonder what the resale rate of these things is?. I bet not good.

    • Doug DeMuro says:

      It’s not great, and the bizarre thing is it’s not as dependent on the battery being replaced as you think. People are asking like $500 less for cars on their original battery than people with cars on new batteries. It makes no sense.

  2. Dermot says:

    *wring out….

    :-) Sorry. Pedant. I love you!

  3. Catachanninja says:

    My dad actually had one of the first manual hybrid civics, Sold it after a few years when he got a company van and the stop mom couldn’t drive stick. This was well before “hybrid battery replacement” became a thing and he did pretty well on it

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