Michael Archbald

Wednesday, June 26, 2002 -- MICHAEL and Montserrat Archbald figured somebody had to go first - and they were glad to do the honors.

"I love thinking that we're the pioneers for this," said Montserrat Archbald one evening last week, as she and her husband stood in their driveway next to their new, white Honda Civic Hybrid.

About two months ago, the Whately couple bought the first Civic Hybrid delivered to the Northampton Honda dealership.

The car derives its name from the fact that it's powered by both regular gasoline and electricity.When the driver slows down or steps on the brakes, energy is captured by the electric motor and stored for later use.During acceleration, stored energy is directed to the electric motor to boost the gasoline engine's performance.Honda says the car will get close to 50 miles per gallon of gasoline: The model with an automatic transmission gets 47 mpg on the highway; the manual version, 51.
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Montserrat Archbald, a staff assistant at Greenfield Community College's peer tutoring program, and Michael, a registered nurse, were drawn to the car because of their interest in environmental issues.They had no interest whatsoever in buying a gas-guzzler.

"It's crazy to be making cars that get 12 miles per gallon," said Michael Archbald.As he and his wife see it, this country should lessen its consumption of foreign oil - and driving a hybrid vehicle would be their way of supporting that idea.

Their goal was to find a fuel-efficient car with low emissions that was roomy enough to hold themselves and their two daughters, ages 10 and 8 - for around $20,000.

No, you don't plug it in

The Civic Hybrid from Honda that the Archbalds chose joins a couple of other gas-electric vehicles already on the market.

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"It's a car without a history," said Michael, adding that he did wonder if it would be smarter to wait a few more years.They also knew, he said, that at least for now, they'd have the car serviced through a Honda dealer familiar with the hybrid technology.The downside to that, he said, was that they would almost certainly be facing more expensive service charges.

To ease the way for potential buyers like the Archbalds, Honda is offering an eight-year, 80,000-mile warranty on the battery system; Toyota has given the Prius an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty covering what it calls its hybrid system - the battery pack and the controls that switch the car between the gas and electric systems.

So far, the Archbalds say they've had no regrets.They're pleased with the way the car drives and handles.Though they expected its pickup to be a bit sluggish because of the hybrid's smallish, 85-horsepower gasoline engine, they say they haven't noticed any lack of power.

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"I feel we did the right thing," Michael said.