I been to many road trip to north of Peninsular Malaysia (including Southern Thailand) and I must say usually the fuel cost is one of the highest cost for travelling. Just last week where I had the privilege to drive the brand new Honda Civic Hybrid 1.5L.to Ipoh, Perak courtesy of Honda Malaysia. I was really really excited as this is my first time driving a hybrid car however this is not my first time driving Honda cars as we have Honda City as our family car, so I'm pretty familiar with it :)
Oh do you know you too can enjoy the same privilege too because Honda Malaysia is currently running a campaign for Malaysians to test drive Honda Hybrid for 3days 2nights! How cool is that? Before I tell you how, why not I share with about this Honda Civic Hybrid works and a little bit more about my Ipoh trip :)
Before I talk about my Ipoh trip, let's talk about the car first.
What is hybrid car ?
A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. For Honda Hybrid car, it is powered by an engine and assisted by an electric motor. It actually means the car is not 100% fully operated by fuel.
In simpler word - hybrid car saves petrol consumption and you can actually saves a lot of hard-earned money!
And combining fuel efficiency, and driving performance with environmental performance through reduced fuel consumption and reduced CO2 emissions, Honda hybrid cars are much more eco friendly compared to other cars. Yes now as a car driver, we also can play a part to protect our environment by driving a hybrid car.
With a click of button, we can activate the Econ function of the hybrid car. Looks really cool right
In case you are wondering how the battery of the electrical motor recharged by itself, well every time you step on the brake the electric motor would be recharge by itself. Therefore there is no way Honda Hybrid car can never run out of battery!
I discovered that when the car on Eco mode and as I completely stop at a traffic jam, the car will jerk a little which I later found out that because Honda Civic Hybrid is using electric brake and as compared to other models. Also one of the hybrid car benefit is that it does not burn any fuel when the car stop (perfect for Malaysian traffic jam). Hence this is one of the things that makes driving a hybrid so eco-friendly.
Oh one more thing do you know Honda Civic Hybrid is a keyless car, as it works on Smart Entry which means we do not need to take our the key to unlock the car. With the key in our pocket or handbag (don't even need to take out), it would actually automatically unlock the car as we walked next to the car. Well I love this feature because I always can't seems to find my keys and now I more cautious with the surrounding before getting running into the car.
Oh one more thing do you know Honda Civic Hybrid is a keyless car, as it works on Smart Entry and Push Start Button which means we just press the push start button to start the engine of the car after pressing the brake.
Honda Civic Hybrid colours comes in Frosty White Metallic, Crystal Black Pearl, Polished Metal Metallic and Taffeta White. Which is your favourite colour ?
Check out a short video of the car I took here
The Honda's i-VTEC engine is assisted by an Intelligent Motor Assist (IMA) to produce impressive power to the Civic Hybrid and help with its fuel efficiency.
Love the LED tail lights, very stylish
Spacious boot space is perfect for family road trip
Spare parts under the boots
Spacious leg room & <3 the leather seats
Very spacious back seats too!
It has air conditioning for the back seat passenger :)
Spot that green leaf on the right- it means we have switch on Eco Mode
I really like Honda Civic Hybrid Intelligent Multi Information Display (i-MID because it shows all the information like the eco guide, average speed, energy flow, fuel consumption and range capability all at a touch of our fingertip at the steering wheel switch control.
By pushing ON the Econ button in Honda Hybrid car, we SAVE FUEL, REDUCE emissions and INCREASE the IMA battery recharging rate. The Eco-sharing function at the below picture provides feedback about our current and long term practices by showing the leaves as our ECO scores. And by drive economically (without keep speeding) and we will receive ‘leaves’ as our ‘eco score’. As our driving improves, the ‘leaves’ will grow into trophy.
Trip to Ipoh, Perak with Honda City Hybrid
That's me & Juli my teammates, she looked so serious driving! We left KL around 8am and took us around 2 hours to reach....Safety first, no speeding okay.... ahem!
Our journey to Ipoh is pretty smooth with Honda Civic Hybrid. Ride was stable, comfortable & engine is quiet. There is one thing I realised that when we are on Eco mode, the car picked up, is a little bit slower than their normal driving mode because it is fuel saving mode, hence the pick up speed is compromised which is acceptable.
Our journey from KL to Ipoh only used less than half a tank, super fuel efficient!
A picture with the bunch of bloggers who also joined the Ipoh road trip with Honda Malaysia . Check out what car the rest are driving here
First stop we visitied the Honda Hybrid Family Road Trip in Tesco Ipoh. There are a lot of acitivites on-going. There are car exhibition, test drive session, games, eco green bazaar and performances from local artists at night time.
The showroom
There are some activities going on the booth,to show how a hybrid car work.
Honda Hybrid is a power of two (electric motor and engine)..just like a bicycle you need to paddle to generate power and speed
I won some Honda merchandiser from those mini games they have in the booth!
Yes don't worry, all Honda Hybrid cars come with 8-year warranty on the battery! So at least you will be worry free for the next 8 years! I checked that even a battery replacement is only about RM2-5k depends on models
We managed to rush back after our heritage visit (which I will tell a bit more) to watch The Honda Hybrid Family Road Trip 2013 concert which is in collaboration with One FM.
A lot of people came to see Danny One performing and he is quite cute in entertaining the guests.
Another Chinese local artists Gina
During the concert, there are lucky draw session and this lucky boy won a brand new Nikon camera!
And this girl can't contained her happiness when she got her Crabtree & Evelyn prize.. (maybe I will laugh like that too if I were to win those lah)
After the roadshow, we need to fill our tummy... because we are so hungry!
Some of the famous Ipoh food we tried in 2 days time..thanks to some of our friends, they are food hunter.... so they know where is the best food around Ipoh! Ah....I still miss the custard egg and Ipoh chicken hor fun! And these are heritage food because usually they are pass down from generation to generation!
After tummy is happy, it's time to visit some of the heritage sites in Ipoh!
I am ashamed to tell you that I have not actually visited a lot of places in Ipoh...and I think I only been to Sam Poh Tong Cave Temple...and seriously I didn't know got so many heritage sites to go until I google it here
This is Nam Thean Tong at Gunung Rapat ( just realized that this is very near Sam Poh Tong too).
This Kuan Yin statue is looking majestic surrounded by the green . Actually great to see that Ipoh is still preserving its greenery, thumbs up to Ipoh local council in proper preserving our beautiful heritage. .just like how Honda Hybrid technology will help to preserve our environment!
Nam Thean Cave is located next to Lin Sen Tong was built on water (if I'm not mistaken). There is a koi fish pond nearby too. Watch my instavideo of the beautiful surrounding here
Next is the haunted Kellie's Castle where Anna & The King movie was filmed here!
Well been hearing about this so much , finally finally get to visit this famous haunted Kellie's castle! In fact I was quite chicken to visit.... but when I saw a big crowds visiting there.... okay I think not so scary anymore!
Took this panaroma view of Kellie's castle with my Samsung Galaxy S3 , very nice right!
This beautiful yet deserted mansion is located in Batu Gajah, half an hour's drive from Ipoh city center. Kellie's Castle was built by William Kellie Smith, a Scotish planter in the 19th century for his wife Agnes Smith and kudos to the Ipoh local council restoration works, this place is still looking good.
The entrance fee for this Kellie's castle is RM5/person and it's opened from 9am to 6pm
The first place you have to visit in Kellie's Castle is of course the Ghostly Cloister Balcony!
This is it..... do you see any shadow.... okay lah too bright can't see anything (THANK GOD!)
This is inside the living room
I pass by the wine cellar and seriously feeling spooky, got the cool breeze like that ... blew on me....I decided not to go down to see as the staircase is very narrow and dark. Anyone been down there to see the secret tunnel ?
So I went up to see, a lot of empty rooms and I went further up to the rooftop. These stairs are very narrow and small. The stair hand rail is shaky and don't seems reliable to me, so got to be careful to go up & down.
Another pic with my Samsung Galaxy S3
This place actually reminds me of Agra Fort in India because the bricks that used to built here are all imported from India..and. I actually found out Kellie's Castle architecture is a mix of Greco-Roman, Moorish, and Indian architecture where 70 craftsmen from Madras India to build this place.
However a Spanish flu epidemic killed most of the 70 Indian construction workers. So Kellie Smith built a Hindu temple near the castle to please the Indians and to restart construction. Kellie Smith left to England to to fetch a lift for the castle tower, but he died shortly thereafter from pneumonia. So the construction on the castle built for love was left uncompleted. The castle ruins are rumored to be haunted until today ( I think got 70 Indian ghosts ?)
I was really happy to see the surrounding of Kellie's Castle is still properly preserved although it has been built since 1909 ( OMG it's now is 104 years old!). Heritage sites like this must be preserved so that our next next next generations can see.
I'm sure you know global warming is getting worst from day to day... and the fuel is not a natural resources which is not a renewable energy and would come into exhaustion one day. Why not consider getting a hybrid car, although it might be a little more pricey but in long run it is more cost efficient because it has lesser fuel consumption up to 54% annually. Not only that it emits lesser c02 too which would help preserve our environment :)
So why not give a chance to yourself and test drive any Honda Hybrid car today? Sign up now today at http://bit.ly/IQcsrI so that you can stands a chance to drive around with Honda Hybrid car for 3D 2N for FREE as long as you have a MyKad & valid driving license!
Honda Power of Dream - let's aim to turn our dreams into reality for our coming generations!
Honda Civic Hybrid 1.5L is currently selling at RM 119,980 (On-The-Road with Insurance ).
For more information about Honda Hybrid cars visit http://honda.com.my
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