Honda IMA For Sale

Integrated Motor Assist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Honda Insight IMA, 1999. Honda Insight IMA, 2009. Integrated Motor Assist (commonly abbreviated as IMA) is Honda's hybrid car technology, introduced in 1999 on the Insight. It is a specific implementation of a parallel hybrid. It uses an electric motor mounted between the internal combustion engine and transmission to act as a starter motor, engine balancer, and assist traction motor. In its first generation, IMA could not power the car on electricity alone, and could only use the motor to assist or start the engine. The 2006 Civic Hybrid, however, can activate the electric motor while the vehicle is coasting without turning the internal combustion engine on, though in contrast to Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) or General Motors and DaimlerChrysler's Global Hybrid Cooperation, the IMA has a less powerful motor/generator which allows the car to slow or stop its rate of deceleration to a lesser extent; it cannot operate without turning over the engine which is directly coupled to its electric motor. The theory behind IMA is to use regenerative braking to recapture some of the energy lost through deceleration, and reuse that energy later on to help accelerate the vehicle. This has two effects: it increases the rate of acceleration, and it reduces the work required of the petrol engine. The acceleration boost is important as it allows the engine to be scaled down to a smaller but more fuel-efficient variant without rendering the vehicle overly slow or weak. This smaller engine is the primary reason cars equipped with IMA get better highway mileage than their more conventional counterparts. Additionally, vehicles equipped with IMA can shut off their engine when the vehicle stops and use the electric motor to rapidly spin it back up when the driver releases the brake pedal. They also have a conventional starter as a backup, making it the only production hybrid system which can operate with its high voltage electric system disabled, using only its engine like a traditional vehicle. However, since the IMA also acts as the vehicle's alternator, eventually the 12 volt accessory battery would require an external charge. Honda powered their Dualnote with a 3.5 litres (213.6 cu in) double overhead camshaft (DOHC) i-VTEC V6 concept engine featuring IMA. Honda claimed the vehicle to produce 400 horsepower (298 kW; 406 PS) while still being capable of fuel efficiency of approximately 18 kilometres per litre (51 mpg-imp; 42 mpg-US).[1] Contents 1 Other names 2 List of vehicles using IMA 3 References 4 External links [edit] Other names ISG: Integrated Starter Generator ISA: Integrated Starter Alternator ISAD: Integrated Starter Alternator Damper CAS: Combined Alternator Starter CSA: Crankshaft Starter Alternator or Combined Starter Alternator CISG: Crank-mounted Integrated Starter Generator [edit] List of vehicles using IMA IMA-equipped Honda Civic Hybrid Honda J-VX (1997 concept car) Honda Insight (1999-2006, 2010-present) Honda Dualnote (2001 concept car) Honda Civic Hybrid (2003-present) Honda Accord Hybrid (2005-2007) Honda CR-Z (2010-present) [edit] References ^ Honda Worldwide - Tokyo 2001 [edit] External links Honda Official "Green Technology - Hybrid" Official Honda Press Release for 3-Stage i-VTEC + IMA 9 min movie introducing the new 3-Stage i-VTEC + IMA Honda IMA czech (česky) || LA21/Councils Feedback Submissions Site Map Courses Get News on your WAP Home > Honda Civic IMA. Road Test Honda Civic IMA. Road Test "..With just 116g/km of carbon dioxide emissions, the Civic falls into the lowest tax bracket..." Building on the pioneering Insight, Honda introduces the Civic IMA. The Civic is the first commercial application of Honda’s new petrol-electric system known as Integrated Motor Assist (IMA). Having already sold over 15,000 models in Japan and the US, Honda now brings the eco-friendly IMA to Europe. The second generation IMA unit works in tandem with a 1.3 petrol engine to deliver the car’s impressive green statistics. The technical benefits of the IMA are clear - fewer emissions and higher fuel economy. With just 116g/km of carbon dioxide emissions, the Civic falls into the lowest tax bracket, and is exempt from the dreaded London Congestion Charge. However the most important issue for the possible commercial success of the IMA is of course the overall quality of the car, and how well it can position itself into the mainstream. Honda is clearly confident that it’s hit the hybrid nail on the head this time, and has plans to expand the IMA technology into other models across its range. The Green Consumer Guide took a Civic IMA on the road, to test Honda’s claims. Energy saving. Driving the IMA for the first time was a rather surreal sensation. The feather-light gear-shift and accelerator, coupled with the near-total lack of noise at low speeds were the main contributors to this feeling, but it was not a difficult situation to get used to. In fact, the IMA drives almost exactly like a regular Civic saloon. The electric motor assist is constantly either powering the car or charging up. A dashboard indicator lets you know which of these tasks the IMA is performing, but there are otherwise no signs that anything cutting-edge or hi-tech is taking place. There are no real audible shifts from electric to petrol, and the ride remains as smooth as ever. Going into neutral and applying the handbrake during a journey, say, at traffic lights, immediately disengages the engine. This is one of the key energy saving features of the IMA, and green plus points. A significant amount of air pollution comes from cars crawling at low speeds, or stationary vehicles still pumping out fumes. Honda’s thinking behind this scenario is - why use energy when you’re not moving? So in the IMA, you don’t. Clicking back into first gear to get going restarts the engine, and you’re off again. A further nod to energy saving comes in the shape of a gear-shift indicator, which urges a change up or down when you’re in an uneconomical gear. Refined ride. The IMA offers a fairly refined ride. The car doesn’t feel like it is being stretched at motorway speeds, nor is it cramped in the city. Fuel economy is hyped as one of the main benefits of the IMA, and our road test emphatically backed this claim up. For general city commutes, with plenty of stopping and starting over runs of around 10 miles, the IMA offered between 50 and 52 mile per gallon. On longer journeys we found this stretched to around 54.5. This is where the IMA can make a significant commercial impact. Offering a car with low emissions at a premium, no matter how green it is, will never break into the mass market. Honda’s Insight, and Toyota’s Prius demonstrated this. However, the IMA’s quite remarkable petrol consumption will certainly raise eyebrows, especially for long haul commuters. For anyone who considers petrol costs a significant factor of their motoring, the IMA represents a shrewd choice. The IMA comes with a fairly high specification. Cream leather, air conditioning and CD player are all standard, along with heated seats and wing mirrors. These features lend the IMA a genuinely luxurious feel, and at no point do you feel like you’re sitting in something experimental or prototype. The interior is roomy, with well-proportioned rear seats. Boot space is impressive, especially considering the placement of the (suitcase-sized) electric unit behind the rear seats. Storage space in the IMA is easily comparable with other saloons, and any fears of a compromise with the housing of the new technology are quickly put to rest. Green motoring breakthrough? All in all, the Civic IMA is very easy to live with, and is a pleasant daily drive. The environmental benefits have all been delivered without any compromising essential elements that would let the car down. It is hard to believe that the car is such a step-forward in eco-friendliness, given its performance and familiarity. If we are to see a green motoring breakthrough before the distant hydrogen introduction, the IMA certainly has the innovation, quality and style to deliver it. For more information on the Honda Civic IMA - click here. Tell a friend | How to link to us | | About Us | Contact Us | Legal | Privacy Policy | Memory Foam Mattress | Garden Offices | Memory Foam Mattress Australia © 2010 Green Media - Web Design Newcastle. || Log in | New account Home Ask Honest John Reviews Best Deals Advice Good Garages News Back Room Insurance Shop Car by Car Reviews The HJ Road Test Videos Top 10 Cars Prices and Specs The Honest John Road Test Home » Road Tests » Honda » Honda IMA Honda IMA Mon, 29 Dec 2003 Main Report Prices/Specifications Engine/Transmission Dimensions Performance Unlike the Prius II, it doesn’t look or feel like a car of the future. Even though it has the flat floorpan body of a current Civic, it’s styled like the previous generation Civic saloon. And it’s manual. Apart from the regenerate/assist display on the dash and a battery charge indicator there’s nothing inside the Honda IMA that makes you feel you’re not in a normal car. Turn the key, though, and the engine starts eerily quietly. Not like the Prius in which the engine doesn’t start at all. Just a quiet engine. Yet if you rev it you get a rorty VTEC roar which tells you it’s alive and well. Then off you go. Feels very flat and gutless at first. And you watch the dials a bit too much as you refill the battery. But it feels like a normal car. It actually takes about five days of driving to get in tune with the Civic IMA. At first you think you’ve got to drive slowly to make the thing work. Then gradually, by watching the mpg indicator, you find out that’s not completely necessary. Since it’s geared at about 27mph per 1,000 rpm in 5th, it’s quite long legged. And whenever the 76PS of the 1,339cc VTEC engine isn’t enough, a prod of the accelerator engages an extra 14PS of electric motorvation which doesn’t exactly kick you in the back like a burst of Nitrous Oxide but can help you get past a truck and out of the way of the BMW behind you. What Honda has done is fit an regenerative electric motor in between the engine from the Jazz and the transmission. They call it Integrated Motor Assist (hence the IMA badge). It works the same way as the Dynastart did on Isetta bubble cars. Put a charge through it and it turns the engine (you could drive an Isetta on the Dynastart). Then, once the engine is running and turning the electric motor it becomes a generator, and in the Honda’s case stores up power in a massive battery. It’s a bit more clever than that, though. If you lift off when decelerating or descending a hill, or if you brake, the VTEC system closes the valves in four of the engine’s combustion chambers so there’s less resistance and more regeneration of power via the Integrated Motor Assist. Not rocket science. But it works. It’s smooth, quiet, relaxing to drive and easily does 45 mpg. That’s what the dashboard indicator told me and a brim to brim confirmed 45.3, which is even better. More so when you consider that the Civic IMA is a proper 5 seater with plenty of head and legroom even in the centre rear. And to make it a bit special Honda has covered the seats with black leather. Handling isn’t anything to write home about, though the weight of the batteries helps keep it flatter than a normal Civic. Gearshift is excellent. Comfort is good and cabin noise low. It’s pricey, admittedly. But Honda tells me that the few which have crept onto the second hand market have held their value remarkably well, with £12,000 - £15,000 being asked and got. It also had the benefits of being London Congestion Charge exempt, with very low VED and only 12% BIK for company car drivers. And hybrids seem to be multiplying. When I came out of the Classic auction at Blackbushe on Saturday, what should have parked itself next to me but a Mk 1 Toyota Prius? Honest John's Car Buying Advice Get the low-down on how to buy and sell cars the hassle-free way Related News & Road Tests Review: Honda Civic IMA Hybrid 2003 A petrol-electric hybrid that accommodates five people and luggage. Smooth, quiet and relaxing to drive. Road Test: Honda Jazz hybrid road test Hybrid version of Jazz offers improved performance and 60mpg economy with no sacrifice in magic seat versatility. Road Test: Peugeot RCZ Road Test Guest Test of the stunning Peugeot RCZ THP 156 and THP 200 by George Fowler, 'Motormouth' of The Daily Star Back Room Honda Civic IMA hybrid (2003 - 2005) - 03 1.4 What car is this based upon? Hi I have recently purchased a 2003 Honda Civic IMA. Very few places have this vehicle listed for parts etc. I would like to get a Haynes manual for simple... • Terms and Conditions • Advertise on this site • Contact Honest John || ||