My Green Sonoma

I love my Honda Civic NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle that runs on compressed natural gas) BUT want to make the reader aware of some shortcomings, and delays that should be taken into account when making a decision about purchasing one of these vehicles.  The bottom line is that the infrastructure is not yet in place for mainstream sales of this vehicle.

I believe that car dealerships should be required to disclose this information to the buyer before they sign a purchase agreement...but they aren't required and they don't disclose, so as a consumer you need to be informed.

1.  The dealer estimate of 3 week to install the Phil unit is significantly underestimated.  Plan on waiting 10-12 weeks.  Also plan on waiting 4-6 weeks for your card from PG&E rather than the 7 day estimate given by the dealer.  

2.  The Phil installation itself is not as simple as the dealer and manufacturer would have you believe.  I strongly advise you to check with your city or county permit department regarding their requirements before you purchase the vehicle.  After waiting 11 weeks, my installation date finally arrived, only to learn on the date of installation that Sonoma County recently added new requirements that the dealer was not aware of that more than doubled the cost of installation (Bay area costs are now approximately $1,800 to $2,000 for a fairly straightforward installation).  Sonoma's new requirements:

• a dedicated electrical line be installed, and
• a 4 inch post be installed 4 inches away from the unit to prevent objects from accidentally striking the unit.

These are good safety requirements and I support them but finding those extra 8 inches was a bit of a problem as the post interferes with the walkway I need to get out of the car, and will probably be the source of more than 1 door ding in the future.  I believe that the dealer should disclose and strongly advise buyers to check with their permit department and installer regarding requirements and costs.  If they were selling real estate and not cars the law would require them to disclose this information.

3. While you are waiting for installation, or if you aren't planning to purchase a Phil unit, count on several anxious weeks of fuel gauge monitoring and planning fuel stops into your daily routes.  Since many stations don't have the equipment to pump at higher PSIs, the little 8 gallon tank is really an even smaller 5 gallon tank...that's only 150 miles before you have to refill the tank. 

4.  As an NGV owner, don't expect much from the Honda Care program.  Out of curiosity I called them to find out how they would handle NGV customers that ran out of gas.    They did not have a procedure at the time of the call and promised to call me back.  I'm happy to report that, about 4 weeks after I called, I actually did get a call back.  Unfortunately their solution to the problem is to tow the vehicle to the nearest Honda dealer.  Since the Dealers don't have filling stations at their facilities I'm not really sure what that accomplishes.

All the above said, there may be good news on the horizon.  Rumor has it that the state of California has approved a retroactive rebate of $3,000 to anyone who purchased an NGV vehicle.  This rebate is said to be retroactive to purchases that took place as early as May of this year ... we'll see!