Honda Civic Diesel tops 70 mpg in Coast-to-Coast Challenge
*Fleet Car undertakes North/South drive between Titanic Centres.After covering almost 900 kilometres of ‘normal’ drivingon motorway and urban routes in one day, the Honda Civic 1.6 litre i-DTECdiesel recorded an average of 70.25 mpg. The drive undertaken by Fleet Car magazine had two ESversions of the popular 5-door hatch bridging the gap between the two TitanicCentres in Belfast and Cobh, County Cork.
The test drive duo Jarlath Sweeney and Cathal Doyle accompanied by Universal Honda personnel Emmet Kavanagh and Ciaran Cullan set off at 10a.m. on Monday morning last to each replicate a day’s experience by the company car driver. At the end of the North-South coast-to-coast journey both carschalked up 422 and 465 kilometres respectively. Remarkably, the average speed for both drivers was almost 90kp/h andboth recorded identical fuel consumption of 4.0L/100km.
En route various stops were made at the Applegreen and Topaz Services at Castlebellingham, County Louth and Cashel, County Tipperaryto stream ongoing progress of the run on the Social Media (Twitter and Facebook). Both cars then finally met up at the Junction 14 (Mayfield) Services at Monasterevin, County Kildare to gothrough the facts and figures to determine the averages.
Frank Kennedy, Sales and Marketing Director at Universal Honda was very pleased with the result saying: “ We were confident based on our own testing that the Fleet Car Challenge woulddeliver a very positive outcome and the end result vindicated our expectations. In a new car market dominated by sticker prices we believe that the importanceof ownership costs over the lifetime of the car is now too understated which prompted us to take the brave decision and go public with this challenge. The benefit ofincreased fuel efficiency can amount to a significant saving in running costs over the life of a car and is worthy of serious consideration in the new carbuying process”.
“The clever bit with the new Civic 1.6 diesel is that for a car that delivers such outstanding fuel efficiencies performance is notcompromised”, he added.Likewise, Jarlath Sweeney, Editor Fleet Car magazine was impressed with the smoothness and high comfort levels of the new Honda Civicdiesel, “the new 1.6 I-DTEC diesel is a great addition and attraction to the new Honda Civic range. Even though it isthe lightest engine of its type in the world, it produces 120bhp for effortless power and yet has only 94 g/km of CO2, one of the lowest on the market,” hesaid.
“Both Cathal and I enjoyed our time in the car and even after the long drive, we were still left refreshed. Thanks to Universal Honda for the opportunity to undertake thisunique test and also to the Titanic Visitor Centres in Belfast and Cobh for their warm welcome to us and hospitality,” he added.
“The new Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC is truly a welcome member of the fleet car and corporate carsector,” commented Cathal Doyle.Fleet Strategy & Safety highlighted at
the 2013 Motorcheck.ie Fleet Car Awards.
*Accolades for five brands in seven categories
The significance of the fleet sector in the Irish motor industry and the car brand’s fleet strategywere in focus at the presentation of the second annual Motorcheck.ie Fleet CarAwards 2013, held at Johnstown House Hotel, Enfield, County Meath. Over twodays, the 27 shortlisted cars from 7 categories were assessed by an expertadjudication panel with the winners revealed at the Fleet Networking Luncheon.Volkswagen, BMW, Skoda and Audi were successful again (as per last year), withMazda joining them on the victor’s podium for the first time.
Prize ceremony compere, Mark Richardson, presented some interesting statistics relating to theimportance of the fleet car sector to the overall annual new car registrations.“Of the 2.4 million vehicles in ownership in Ireland almost 200,000 of theseare dedicated company cars. On average 48% of all new cars sold here are fromthe fleet sector, which signifies that this business element of the motorindustry is very important.” Relating to potential company car replacements,Mark revealed from Motorcheck.ie data that almost 6,200 2009/2010 one ownercars are still registered to companies and that many of these are expected tobe due for renewal in the coming year.
The 27 shortlisted contenders for the 2013 Motorcheck.ie Fleet Car Awards were subjected tovigorous testing and analysis before the category winners were determined.Before introducing the contenders on the shortlist for this year’sMotorcheck.ie Fleet Car programme, Mark outlined some details on the criteriainvolved. Car brands were asked to submit their fleet policy, outline thesafety enhancements on their company cars as standard and whether they providedriver training. Marks were awarded to the car’s styling, quality, engine anddriving performance, equipment levels, safety, residuals and running costs.
Motorcheck.ie Fleet Car Awards 2013 Category Winners and Adjudicator Comments:
C Segment: Volkswagen Golf
“Best in class, excellent and magnificent,” were just some of thecomments by the judges. Another said that the driver ergonomics were superb.
D Segment: Mazda 6
“Stunning looks, lovely drive and smooth ride. Ample boot space.”
D Segment Premium: BMW 3 Series
“Driver ergonomics very good. Excellent handling. Build quality topnotch. Best 3 Series ever.”
Estate: Skoda Superb Combi
“Sound drive and performance. Still remains the class leader for spaceand load carrying capabilities.”
Estate Premium: BMW 5 Series Touring
“Beautiful looking car and wonderful to drive.” Another reviewer said,“A perfect all-round car.”
Executive: BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe
“Ultimate combination of performance and style. Could well be considereda BMW flagship.”
Luxury: Audi A8
“Chauffeurs choice. Proved its worth over the two day test. The car todesire. Excellent combination of build quality and driving pleasure.”
Cathal Doyle, Deputy Editor, Fleet Car Magazine was impressed with the list of winners in the 2013Awards. “From the shortlist it was good to see some brands as seriouscontenders as they had new cars launched during this year. In the C-Segment,for example, 4 out of 5 shortlisted were new generation models and to indicate just how close the contest was, just 14points separated the second placed car from the fifth.” “Each category wasalmost as close,” he added.
Shane Teskey, Managing Director, Motorcheck.ie was pleased with the success of the second running ofthe event. “Congratulations to all of the winners and shortlisted candidates.Compliments also to the adjudication panel for their intense work over the pastsix weeks. Special thanks to associate sponsors Bridgestone, Fast Fit andNifast for their support. Our focus this year was on the emphasis the carbrands pay to the safety of the professional driver and from equipment levelsspecified, they are heading in the right direction.”
Full details to feature in the next edition of Fleet Car magazine.
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