Re: Unhappy Civic Hybrid owner? Gee, who'd'a THUNK?

This isn't "your sticker said 27, I'm getting only 25".

This is WAY different.

No, what matters is that Honda knowingly built a bad battery, and then to save themselves on warranty costs they "fixed" the car's software in a way that pretty much eliminated the battery and forced the end user to use more gas.

THAT'S what Honda faces in court, should this go that far.

The threshold issue aside, you are avoiding the question.

I don't *care* about the question. It's immaterial to the issue at hand.

We can fix that with modern technology: put three hundred pounds of batteries and a hundred pounds of electric motor in your trunk, and you can then equal new hybrid mileage. It really doesn't matter much whether they are all in boxes or hooked up to the wheels.

J.

well the prius hybrid works just great, despite its weight. and it's halfway drivable.

it's not the hybrid concept at fault, just honda's execution. and when you put their hybrid in the context of their past offerings such as the crx hf, civic vx and civic hx, all of which were routinely high 40's mpg cars, their hybrid is a very unfunny joke.

And the very last thing Honda wants is for the details of the development of their hybrid system to be made fun of in the public forum, on the record for all to see.

They won't let their horrible internal business and policy making processes see the light of day.

I have a 2003 Civic Hybrid CVT with 135,000 miles on it.

I get around 53mpg on the highway, 47 in a mix of city/highway, and about

43-45 around my house, in very hilly country, with few freeway miles any more. I have hit 62mpg, with cruise control at 50mph on a hilly country road on a 60 mile drive. A/C, even for defrost in the winter, is probably a 2mpg penalty. 80mph on I-5 for several hours gave me 42mpg.

As they say, YMMV.

And that's no big secret. I read of this problem well over a year ago.

A "short cut" that should cost Honda dearly in the future..

JT

I've also got a 2003 Civic Hybrid (bought mid-2002). It's got over 220,000 km, and has averaged about 5.0 L/100km (~47 miles/US gallon). Not quite the EPA estimate, but the EPA did not include cold weather (Southern Ontario), or any speeds above

55 mph.

How you drive makes an enormous difference. When someone else is driving the mileage always drops off.