The Unloved Spaceship: Life With A CR-Z

About a year ago, I was getting tired of the daily commute in my V8 4Runner. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing car, but seeing that 16mpg day in and day out...

I looked into a nicer, newer, diesel Grand Cherokee, but the reliability ratings and having to get a loan talked me out of that. Two cars it is, then. To make it work, the car had to get roughly twice the mpg on my commute (mixed city/highway). It also had to be cheap, reliable, and fun.

Long story short, after running what felt like hundreds of permutations, I noticed the CR-Z fit all the requirements. Turns out, there were a few for sale locally. A few months later, I was the proud owner of a low-mile 2001 CR-Z EX, with the 6 speed.

I've owned it 4 months now. What do I think?

Well, results are mixed. It's getting 37mpg on my commute, and eats up the miles nicely. It's sorta sporty in Sport Mode. It looks great. It keeps me from being the "lunch bus" at work.

But man, could it use more power. The HPD supercharger from all accounts livens it up nicely, but that 5 grand would buy a lot of gas for, say, an S2000...

That's it for now!

I've always kind of wanted one of those. Kind of a shame that the hybrid drivetrain seems to offer no advantages over a k series, though.

Now that you've had it for a little while, do you also find that it's hard to get a consistent throttle blip? I can only figure it's regen braking making the ECU second-guess my request for RPMs.

Also, I just got my airbag recall letter. If you haven't already, be sure to get that new inflator.

Any of those supercharger setups come up for sale used? I know they're pricey but there also really isn't any other way to get the same result on a CRZ for much less money unless you're giving something else up.