Here you go, here is the video of me and the crz!!!!
YouTube - honda crz test drive LOL
Just kidding, here is a walk around.
YouTube - crz walk around
For the most part my test drive was the cvt model and disappointing. Half way through the test drive with the ac on manual mode it quit blowing cold air in stop n go traffic. The mid read 90 degrees, a sign said 97 out. I had it in all 3 modes, but no help and rolling with the ac issue. I later got the ac to work again by pressing the on/off button and a few miles later turning it back on. The average mpg read out for the ten mile treck was 34.6mpg, I did the same with the insight and got 44mpg. It was nicer having all 3 buttons on the left edge of the dash to change modes and the auto stop spins the engine til you come to a complete stop.
YouTube - 17mpg Honda crz
The car was doing the regen thing, neg recal while driving and accelerating. The rpms were all over the place. At one time I was doing just over a thousand at 65, another I was doing 4 grand at 35mph. Seems in normal and sport mode the car delivers acceleration based on petal position using the 2 motors vs YOU having to give more gas when it does a neg recal. In econ mode it behaved similar to the insight and was gutless like it had a vacuum leak. You floor it, it red lines, but not much else is happening thenv it recals. Otherwise it acts like a dead petal and labors to get up to speed.
I thought the insight doing neg recals was agrvigating the few times it did it, but this was worse and more frequent. The rear blower was very noticable as it was rather loud, like the exhaust fan in most residential bathrooms. The system seemed rather agressive at recharging the battery, however it would give up recharging to assist.
The car did not coast that well when the foot was lifted from the gas petal. I do not know if it was the design or low psi in the tires. The steering was rather quick and almost felt like the steering wheel could of benefitted from a few inches larger in diameter.
The B pillars make great blind spots and the rear side windows were useless. The back had no seat belts, however impressions for two people to sit. The rear back folded flat making it a hatch back. Appears they have a full size spare in the back. The front was nice and roomy, but no center arm rest or storage area, but a cup holder at the rear of the parking brake lever.
In sport mode it seemed to lug the engine well and put it to work like I was driving with a 2.4l engine. Oddly not much assist was used too. It was pretty impressive in sport mode for 0-50 and 50-70. The econ mode seem to use the most assist. Yes, auto stop was there and when in auto stop, no ac.
The best part was the brakes, those were perfect and no strange transation of braking power as you come to a stop.
In the end my take away was to make better use of sport mode on the insight and turning econ off and on too. Basically "Normal" mode was like turning off econ and sport was the combination of sport and econ off.
Although I told the sales person I was interested in a stick shift, he said automatics got better mpg. I told him I use to get 46mpg with my scion xa, once I got a scan guage and learned the shift points. I also mentioned the first gen Insight how well the stick did over cvt and lean burn. He didnt know if it had it or not.
Then he said I was circuvmenting the design of the car and my driving caused the ac to cut out and the sport model will not get the mpg the insight does. Now its my fault? He asked meto redo the test drive as I did it with a passenger. The sales person did the driving, was rather agressive and blamed me for being too lax as its a sport car.
I just told him when he for a stick shift to let me know and I can tell from the test drive.
I test drove the CRZ.
