Honda loses Small Claims Civic Fuel Economy suit

[hbrocks]

Small Victory for us little people!


http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-honda-lawsuit-20120202,0,845180.story

 

[62caddy]

Not so fast...Honda plans to appeal. Stay tuned...

 

[hbrocks]

Not so fast...Honda plans to appeal. Stay tuned...

Yes, this will be interesting to watch what unfolds. While Honda does "plan" to appeal.....this is still good news (so far) for us, avg Joe consumers.
I'm no lawyer but the advantage of small claims is NO LAWYERS ALLOWED...!
Fingers crossed.

 

[Wigwam Jones]

Here's the real problem...

Peters sued Honda after learning that the proposed settlement covering her 2006 vehicle would pay trial lawyers $8.5 million while Civic hybrid owners would get as little as $100 and rebate coupons for the purchase of a new car.

I got sick off some peanut butter a few years back that was contaminated with salmonella. Class-action lawsuit, settlement in the tens of millions of dollars. What did I get? A coupon for 50 cents off my next jar of that brand peanut butter. That was for three days of puking my guts up.

 

[JohnVF]

Not so fast...Honda plans to appeal. Stay tuned...

Wow--potential PR nightmare for them. Squashing a class-action suit looks a lot different than squashing a single woman with a very easy to understand claim. Yet caving to her, opens the door for others. Just reading this article, with the fuel economy that she and others are getting, has made me not want one of their hybrids.

 

[mhardy6647]

Honda's hybrids are different than (e.g.) Ford's and Toyota's. The Honda hybrids show better EPA highway than city figures (and not all that impressive for hybrids at that).

I just want to know how any right-minded jury/judge could expect a car company to be responsible for how its customers drive; which is the implication of the finding in the aforementioned case as far as I can tell.

Our 2005 Escape hybrid 4WD returned 33 mpg in a trip to and from Hanover, NH yesterday.

My experience with rental Priuses in the Baltimore/DC metro area is consistently 50 to 55 mpg in the standard, mayhem-filled mixed driving that characterizes that venue.

Not that Ford nor Toyota could guarantee me either; nor do I expect them to. I like hybrids if for no other reason than that they pollute just a bit less when I am slogging around than would a similar, all IC vehicle.

 

[KeninDC]

I think this is a case where YMMV speaks volumes.

On appeal, Honda will be able to bring in a platoon of virtuous, exceedingly smart, and extremely good-looking lawyers and, with justice, reason, and vodka Gimlets on their side, emerge victorious after multiple decades or even eons of discovery, depositions, expert testimony, bear baiting, pencil fights, cross examination, and a soundtrack provided by the Hondels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqKi_9p1zks

 

[stereofanboy]

My brother had a Honda hybrid and he regularly got better than 45 MPG. He treated it like a game, seeing how well he could do. I was never impressed that his expensive hybrid got that mileage when I compared it to the mileage that inexpensive Hondas got during the '80s.

 

[Wigwam Jones]

It's all down to cost per mile to drive the car. Mine cost $500 on eBay. The mileage is also good, but it hardly matters; it costs a LOT less to drive than any hybrid. Do the math if the money is what you're concerned about. Of course, once must be able to endure the scorn of one's neighbors; not a problem for me, but I understand if you can't show up at the soccer field with an eBay rustbucket.

 

[Hoho]

I've never understood why auto manufacturers are required by law to cite only the EPA's gas mileage figures, but they are. And the ads always say, "Your mileage may vary." This woman didn't have a leg to stand on, but she won anyway. Also, I thought that in Small Claims Court, in California, the judge wasn't allowed to increase the award more than the plaintiff requested.

 

[Tom Brennan]

People used to bullshit you about how fast their cars were, now they bullshit you about their mileage.

 

[x_25]

All this said, my Honda Fit was advertised by the EPA to get 33 highway and 27 city. I get 34-35 highway, 38 on my normal driving and the lifetime average is 37.49. I don't see why people would by a hybrid at this point with how much more they cost.

Oh, and I don't drive my Fit kindly either, people can do 40+ with it if they try.

 

[240sx4u]

People used to bullshit you about how fast their cars were, now they bullshit you about their mileage.

A great 6,666th post!

 

[hbrocks]

All this said, my Honda Fit was advertised by the EPA to get 33 highway and 27 city. I get 34-35 highway, 38 on my normal driving and the lifetime average is 37.49. I don't see why people would by a hybrid at this point with how much more they cost.

Oh, and I don't drive my Fit kindly either, people can do 40+ with it if they try.

woooooooo nelly....scoffing at us pioneers who may be paving the way for better/affordable tech?
Glad you like your FIT and you're happy with 37mpg avg.....!
Not sure how much smaller the Fit is than my Prius which can pack quite a bit of gear into it with the hatch open and the back seats down. Nor am I certain if your FIT came with built-in Navigation or 4 wheel disc brakes or bluetooth, dimming mirrors, spare tire, AC...etc...etc...!

I Paid close to $30k for mine 7 years ago and have averaged 50mpg in that time.
I did also benefit from a tax credit for purchasing the Prius AND carpool stickers.

My next move would be to full electric but having done just a bit of research I'm finding with the limited range (so far) that electrics just aren't the right "fit" for me right now. But....the plug-in hybrids seem to be the next logical step with the Prius Plug-in getting upwards of 95mpg between Gas/electric motor.

 

[hbrocks]

People used to bullshit you about how fast their cars were, now they bullshit you about their mileage.

+10 :thmbsp:

 

[62caddy]

Wow--potential PR nightmare for them. Squashing a class-action suit looks a lot different than squashing a single woman with a very easy to understand claim. Yet caving to her, opens the door for others. Just reading this article, with the fuel economy that she and others are getting, has made me not want one of their hybrids.

Absolutely right about opening a pandora's box should they settle- which is why they won't. It'll all boil down to something proportional to Wigwam's 50 cent peanut butter deal.

-As an aside, I wouldn't take a hybrid if someone gave it to me. When all is factored, the numbers don't work.

 

[gadget73]

No thanks on the hybrid. Honestly modern cars should get 100 mpg anyway. They were doing 50 easily in the 1980s with econoboxes. The Lincoln Mark VIII with its 285 hp V8 engine and 3800 lbs of bulk would easily do low-mid 30s in the mid 1990s. Now we have midsize and compact cars that barely do better with much smaller engines, and hybrids won't do what a Honda CRX or a Geo Metro would do with nothing more than a small engine and a light body. They didn't even have fuel injection.

 

[Scuzzer]

This woman didn't have a leg to stand on, but she won anyway.

What about this part?

Honda has acknowledged that the battery on the 2006 through 2008 Civic hybrids "may deteriorate and eventually fail" earlier than expected. When the battery pack can't be charged to full capacity, the car relies more on the gas engine and fuel economy suffers.

 

[hbrocks]

No thanks on the hybrid. Honestly modern cars should get 100 mpg anyway. They were doing 50 easily in the 1980s with econoboxes. The Lincoln Mark VIII with its 285 hp V8 engine and 3800 lbs of bulk would easily do low-mid 30s in the mid 1990s.

From what I've read....
Some of this is due to the fuel.
The "gas" we put into our tanks now usually contains 10 percent corn alcohol -- ethanol. As a result, our gas mileage goes down by a sizable amount. People usually don’t notice anymore because unlike Back in the Day, we no longer only get "Not Quite Gas" during the winter months, we get it all year ‘round. Like air travel before Gate Rape, real gas is something only people over 30 have any real memory of.

 

[Bigerik]

That's because cars weigh a lot more now then they did back then. They are also immeasurably safer than they were then.