Honda Announces $3000 Prepaid Gas Card With Natural Gas Civic Purchase

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Honda Offering $3,000 Gas Card With Purchases Of Natural Gas Civic
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With gasoline prices creeping up again to as high as an average of $4.67 a gallon (€1.23 a liter) in California on Tuesday, according to the AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, Honda thought it would be a good idea to launch a new promotion for its natural gas-powered Civic.

The Japanese carmaker said that it will offer customers purchasing a new 2012 Civic Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) at participating dealers from now until January 2, 2013, a debit card pre-loaded with $3,000 worth of fuel. As always, there's some small print including that the card can only be used at Clean Energy CNG fueling stations around the country to purchase fuel. There are approximately 150 Clean Energy filling stations in the U.S., 40 of which are located inside California.

According to the most recent Department of Energy, Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price report on fuel prices, the nation-wide average price of natural gas fuel for vehicles in July was $2.05 per equivalent gasoline gallon. Even though Honda is a Japanese company, the automaker points out that the Civic NGV is made at its U.S. plant in Greensburg, Indiana, and that 98 per cent of natural gas consumed in North America is domestically produced.

The Civic NGV is powered by a natural gas variant of the 1.8-liter engine used in the regular model that delivers an output of 110Hp returning a combined EPA fuel economy rating of 31 mpg (7.6lt/100km), which is the same as the manual gearbox-equipped 1.8L gasoline models.

Honda says that the NGV should be able to cover over 200 miles (320km) on a single tank of fuel, depending, of course, on driving conditions and style. Another benefit (though, in the long run), for California residents is that the Civic NGV qualifies for single-occupant access to High Occupancy Vehicle "carpool" lanes from March 2, 2014 through January 1, 2015.

"With gas prices spiking in California, Civic Natural Gas vehicles sales at an all-time high, and the public gaining greater awareness of the benefits of using natural gas, we believe this a great time to launch our fuel card promotion with our partner Clean Energy," commented Steve Center, vice president of the American Honda Environmental Business Development Office.

The 2012 Civic NGV is priced at $26,305 excluding a $790 destination charge, making it the most expensive model in the range.
 
I like this article especially because the prices and consumption are written both in mpg and l/100km :
 
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are there nat gas filling stations around your area? I'm not really familiar with the number of filling stations outside the US.
 
I live in Slovenia. As this is a small country I have 1 hour from my home to Italy, Austria, Hungary, ... So I live almost in the heart of Europe. Actually there are a lot of stations with LPG. And even more 20kms from here in Italy. NGC is not very popular in Europe. People tend to buy diesel cars as they have a lot of torque, the price of diesel is much lower than gasoline and the consumption is low. A LPG converted car costs around the price of the diesel so people don't like to complicate things :)
(for the record, I drive an 8th gen gasoline powered civic) :)

http://www.mylpg.eu/stations/
http://cngeurope.com/

Honda doesn't offer a CNG version of the civic. I remember they were offering a LPG version of the Accord type S (Acura TSX) a couple of years ago but I don't think the offer had much success. I think bigger boot, lots of torque and 650 miles / tank are still more appealing

The number of gas/diesel/lpg stations is much greater than in US (at least from what I've seen). I live in a small town of 8000 people and there are 6 gas stations in the 3 mile area. There is also a gas station every 25/35 miles on the highways...

The LPG price here is 0,8 € / liter which would be around 4 $ / US gallon (which is cheap!!). The average gasoline price is around 1.6 € / liter which would be around 7,75 $ / US gallon

For comparison: the fuel price in the United Arab Emirates is around 1,7 $ / US gallon :) :) :) :)
 
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Gas is around $4/gallon here for regular, and around $4.20/gallon for premium gas. Diesel is right at $3.99/gallon around me today. Some of the cheaper gas stations around texas and whatnot are around $3.40/gallon for regular. New York and Cali are more like $4.50 or so a gallon of regular. Prices in canada are higher than in the US.

So, natural gas at $2.05/gallon average is obviously a substantial discount from regular gasoline here. There just aren't nearly as many diesel vehicles in the US to pick from.
 
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oh, and the natural gas version is rated 27mpg city / 38mpg highway. The standard civic is rated 22mpg city / 31 mpg highway
 
Here is totally different. For example: Audi A4 sedan has 13 TDI (turbo charged diesel) versions and 7 TFSI (turbo charged) gasoline versions and no naturally aspirated versions.

For "versions" I'm counting gearbox type, different power, ...

To add on. I personally don't know anybody who bought a gasoline powered Audi in the last 10 years :)

As for Honda: they don't have a lot of engines available. 1,8 nat aspirated, 2,4 nat aspirated, 2,2 diesel (this engine is really a good one), 1.3 nat aspirated (insight), 1.2 and 1,4 nat aspirated (Jazz = Fit)

The available models differ from country to country but the main models are: Jazz (Fit), Civic (euro, in some countries also sedan), Accord (TSX) sedan and tourer, CR-V, Insight, CR-Z

http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/
 
Gas is around $4/gallon here for regular, and around $4.20/gallon for premium gas. Diesel is right at $3.99/gallon around me today. Some of the cheaper gas stations around texas and whatnot are around $3.40/gallon for regular. New York and Cali are more like $4.50 or so a gallon of regular. Prices in canada are higher than in the US.

So, natural gas at $2.05/gallon average is obviously a substantial discount from regular gasoline here. There just aren't nearly as many diesel vehicles in the US to pick from.

But in the article up top it said this Civic would cover 200 miles. Seems to me that you would kust aboit break even or save jist a little with this version of the civic.
 
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and for comparison, the audi a4 in the states has a 2.0liter 4 cyl gas engine. No option for a diesel listed.
 
webby: I totally agree. I don't want to like your post lol - there's no "not like" button :) :)
...and I see no avant version available either :(

Does anyone on this forum actually own a CNG version of the Civic? For me I would be bothered I cannot split and fold the rear seats...?!?
 
I haven't seen anyone post as to having the natural gas civic yet...but there could be an owner here. Agree with you on the folding seats as well. It does suck a bit, but there could be a decent amount of buyers who would never use that feature. Guess it depends on how much stuff you haul around.

for the US, we only have a few diesel options (unless you're looking for a full sized diesel pickup truck). Volkswagon, Mercedes, BMW, & Mazda now offer some vehicles in Diesel. That's all I can think of off hand, and as you can imagine the bmw/mercedes options are pricey compared to other vehicles.
 
I would imagine. I drove a diesel version of the new Mercedes A a couple of days ago and you are right. The price you get with some options is essentially the same as the C class.

I find interesting as a few youtube car reviews were comparing diesel powered cars with hybrid cars (prius for example). My own opinion is that maybe they should also include a CNG powered car as the CO2 emissions are much lower as in hybrid cars but the CO2 is only one side. There are a lot of other dangerous gasses in gasoline which are not present in CNG and obviously we cannot forget the impact of building a battery pack for an electrix/hybrid car.

Mercedes A - VW Golf sized premium hot hatch

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk9luozdZXM


An interesting alternative are also diesel hybrids, firstly introduced by Peugeot/Citroen last year
Citroen DS5 diesel hybrid - Honda Civic sedan sized premium compact car

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7BbuGb8V6U



View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvdddriydgw
 
mazda/jeep/audi are planning some for 2014 according to rumors. As you can see below, the most affordable ones are available from VW.
===== & like you said, as you start adding any options on some of these, the package prices can go up quite significantly.

mercedes e350 - diesel starts at like $52k
http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehicles/build/class-E/model-E350BTC

the s350 diesel starts at $93k
http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehicles/build/class-S/model-S350BTC4

ml350 starts at $51k
http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehicles/build/class-M/model-ML350BTC

gl350 starts at $62k
http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehicles/build/class-GL/model-GL350BTC

=======

bmw x5 diesel starts at $57k
http://www.bmwusa.com/standard/content/byo/byohome.aspx?namodelcode=12XI

=======

vw passat tdi starts at $26k
http://www.vw.com/portal/en/configurator?context=tdi#10210/21002/41

vw golf tdi starts at $24k
http://www.vw.com/portal/en/configurator?context=tdi#10203/20303/94

vw jetta tdi starts at $22k
http://www.vw.com/portal/en/configurator?context=tdi#10205/20504/20
jetta wagon
http://www.vw.com/portal/en/configurator?context=tdi#10206/20603/20

vw beetle tdi starts at $23k
http://www.vw.com/portal/en/configurator?context=tdi#10211/21103/20

vw touareg tdi starts at $46k
http://www.vw.com/portal/en/configurator?context=Global#10209/20902/76

=======
 
Do these prices include vat? If yes, cars in Europe are much more expensive than in the States.But this is not news :)

The Touareg for instance costs from 52.000 € keys in hand which would be around 65.000 $

It is also interesting how some makers sell cars with different quality material in some cars. The best example is the VW Jetta you mentioned. I had the chance to sit in both US and EU version. And what it struck me is that the US version has cheap plastic dash and hard plastic all around as the EU version gets soft touch all around the interior except the doors and also the rear suspension is a multilink...

If jeep gets the Fiat diesel engines it will be a win. Engines is what Fiat know how to build! At least for the last 20 years. I heard that Mazda will put its diesel engine in the upcoming Mazda 6 and the current CX-5 also for the US market
 
The only thing missing from those prices listed above would be sales tax which varies by what county/state you live in. That can be anywhere from like 5% of the purchase price, to 9.5% of the purchase price. I'm not sure what kind of salary range people make around your area, but the latest figures I'm seeing online show an income average of ~ $25k /year before taxes are taken out (around me). Take out social security, federal taxes, state taxes, city taxes, health insurance (if you have that)... and you're left with a lot less.

A large metropolitan city with well over a million people (few hrs away) - stats say the median average income is $34k a yr.

So, as far as that goes, a number of those cars are 2-3x (or more) than the average income earned (before taxes). Not sure if you can see how that compares for you?

The A3 is a sweet little ride. I've been reading about it's production over the last few months.
 
Wikipedia says: 2011 Per capita $28,648
So about the same.

I saw the new A3 (not sportback) on a German Autobahn last month when going to Amsterdam. I really had to go fast to get to see it good because it was going around 110mph (in Germany there are no speed limits on highways). In reality is even better looking :)

It won't be cheap. The base model hot hatch version (2 door) is on sale here for around 22.300 eur (incl taxes). I think they will want about a 1000 eur more for the sportback version :)
 
The current A3 in the US is like 29-34k dollars (base price) which is the 4dr deal. I did a search locally to see what they're listing for at dealerships with options, and most of them are in the high $30k range to $42k MSRP.
 
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