Officer, It's a Honda Accord Hybrid November 2004

Honda's gas miser doesn't feel like a nerd's gadgetmobile, and it kicks out an electrifying 255 horses. Watch for speed traps

As I cruise along a leafy Washington, D.C., parkway, I decide to see what the hybrid Honda Accord can do. I veer into the passing lane, punch the accelerator and suddenly I'm silently propelled ahead of all other traffic. No engine roar. No squeal of winding gears. Just an electric warp-speed thrust. I glance down and am startled to discover I'm going 90mph. My passenger warns this road is heavily patrolled. I slow down.

This $30,000 Honda is nothing like other hybrids I've driven. The others are just as stingy on horsepower as they are on gas. But the Accord packs 255 horses under the hood15 more than a regular V-6 Accord.

And it handles nimbly and hugs the road. Indeed, there's no nerdy gadgetry in this car. It doesn't have an in-dash computer, like other hybrids, giving me constantand distractingreadouts on mileage. There's just a pair of subtle blue and green light bars beneath the speedometer that show when the electric motor is working and when it's charging. There's also a green eco-light that tells when the V-6 engine is operating on only three cylinders to save gas. The trade-off for all this power is that the Accord didn't come close to the 44mpg I got in a Prius. But for a V-6 car, I still got an impressive 32mpg in city and highway driving. (Although, I must confess, it dropped to 29mpg when I stood on the gas.)

Perhaps, though, the Accord is most impressive when it's standing still. Like other hybrids, its engine and electric motor go dead at a stoplight. But Honda found a way to keep the AC flowing. And when the light turns green, the Accord confidently comes to life as soon as you lift your foot off the brake. There's no heart-stopping moment like I've felt turning left in a Prius, when you wonder if you'll get out of the way of oncoming traffic. In fact, the only anxiety the hybrid Accord provoked in me was a fear of getting nabbed by a traffic cop.

SOURCE: MSN

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