Honda Civic – Review: Auto enthusiasts oughta love hybrids. But many grind their teeth, and stick up their snouts, pshawing these compact commuters even though growing crowds and environmental concerns are making them increasingly valuable. The truth is, our commute is growing in actual miles and time spent wallowing behind a long line of cars -- thus the value of hybrids like the Civic, and other efficient cars.

Hybrids are part of the automotive universe now, and that’s a good thing. They specialize in doing what many cars do: commute in traffic bad enough to curl your toes. In fact, there should be more hybrids and clean-burning cars on the road, because as traffic worsens, hybrids are an excellent step in the right direction toward clean mobility. As one of the most popular cars on the planet, the Civic needs a Hybrid model -- and so we drove one. The 2006 version we drove (which carries over to the 2007 model year), had a sticker price of $23,195 -- including $595 destination. That's not cheap, but it’s loaded like an EX trim; the only add-on is a $1,650 navigation system.

Take "power" out of "powertrain" and you’ve got the Civic Hybrid’s performance. The electric motor provides a nice torquey take off, but then it bottoms out like a drunk at a wedding. Going up a hill, you start feeling bad for the car – it eventually gets there but complains loudly as it tries. But with patience the Civic Hybrid gets you to where you’re going, and unless there’s a hill, you may not even notice the lack of power. With all that braking regeneration hoo-ha attached, you’d think that braking would be funky. It’s a bit weird and mushy at times, but the pedal was prompt, if not very linear. It’s much better than the previous Civic Hybrid.

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