The Honda Civic Solution

With the London Congestion charge rising to £8 this week and UK petrol prices nudging £4 per gallon, Honda still carries the crown for Britain’s most affordable petrol electric hybrid. The Honda Civic IMA is easy on the pocket as well as the planet.

More and more motorists are saying "NO" to the Congestion Charge by opting for a petrol electric model like the Civic IMA. And this week, Britain’s most affordable hybrid has become even more attractive, with the daily Charge rising from £5 to £8.

With the clean and green Civic eligible for a 100% discount on the Congestion Charge, London commuters can now save up to £2000 per year - and they’d travel in air-conditioned, leather-trimmed comfort too!

Even for motorists outside the capital, the car makes financial sense. Its ability to recover and re-use energy that normal cars waste means that petrol consumption is around 30% better than non hybrid cars - so the Civic IMA’s combined fuel figure is 58 mpg instead of 44 mpg for a 1.4 litre petrol model, for example.

It’s as if unleaded petrol was suddenly reduced in price to 66 pence per litre! Just think how beneficial this is to annual running costs: for a Civic IMA driver travelling 12,000 mile per year, it represents a saving of around £250, at today’s fuel prices.

Then there is the environmental benefit. The Civic IMA has a lowest in class CO2 exhaust emissions rating of just 116 g/km, better than any diesel competitor - and better even than the vast majority of small city cars such as the Ford Ka (147 g/km) or VW Lupo (119 g/km).

The Civic IMA is one of just a handful of cars to qualify for the ultra-green (101 - 120 g/km) banding within the new energy efficiency new car colour coded labels launched last week. It qualifies for the special band "B" VED rate of just £65 per annum - another saving!

To read our in depth road test of the Honda Civic IMA [ click here ]