Civic Hybrid, don't buy one: here's why:

Nice first post.

disregard

OP is not doing himself any favors by handling his problem with attitude, but I sympathize. I feel lucky that my Prius has been trouble free, because I doubt my local dealers would have been an asset for any problem, let alone a rare one like we are reading in this thread.

Time to go up the corporate tree. Politely.

The Insight right now is only a few $K more expensive than the Fit, and a few $K cheaper than the Prius III. I think you get the difference back in the next few years--in gas prices and in resale value. When mpg requirements increase, they'll be a lot more hybrids, and that will drop the resale value of conventional cars--and increase that of used hybrids.

Assuming the new Insight holds up as most Hondas do, it can carve a nice niche as a low-cost compact hybrid--a bit smaller than the Prius. The Civic Hybrid is competing with the Prius cost-wise, and that is tougher to do.

I was talked to like a dog from a man who worked at Honda.
I was talking to him about financing a 2006 Civic Hybrid and he flipped and said "lets
cut the bulls**t" and get to the car, because I don't have f****** time for this!" in a very rude tone. So I hung
up, and he had the nerve to call back and tell me that hanging up on him
was the coldest thing a person has done to him. And i said "You will not be earning my business." and he tried to say sorry, but I hung up.
(Honda loves there customers) : D

If anything, this proves the importance of a longer warranty on the battery and related components - and the difference between a company which has put its reputation behind hybrids vs one that hasn't.

Well I have no idea if the Original Poster is a troll or not.

No response to numerous questions after the original post is suspicious.

I, as others, wonder why the OP would file a safety complaint with the NHTSA? His post doesn't communicate that he was having any issue other than poor gas mileage. If it's purely a Hybrid gas mileage issue where's the "safety" complaint?

Having said that, in my research into Hybrids I did find similar re-occuring complaints about the IMA system. This isn't the first or only time I've read about a similar happenings.

It's always the same from the POV that usually the owner say's they were happy with the gas mileage for X amount of miles and then suddenly it deteriates rapidly. Then the ensuing battle to find out what caused it and get it fixed. Often with the same frustration the original poster communicated.

On the internet, it's hard to gauge the actual scope of the problem. It could be one person with a lot of time on their hands and a grudge against Honda. Or it could be a very small percentage of people with a real problem. But I have to say, this isn't the first time I've read a complaint about the Civic IMA system rapidly deteriating and then the owner struggling to find out why and get resolution from Honda.

Not like it makes a difference if it was a Prius brought to Toyota. Two threads of many cases:

http://priuschat.com/forums/generat...brid-battery-dead-toyota-denies-warranty.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/generat...-battery-dies-70k-toyota-wont-pay-repair.html

Good luck with Honda, OP.

Am I correct in thinking that was the old warranty (70k)?

when we got fed up with gm, my wife went to the local honda dealer and asked to take a test drive of an accord. the salesman said to her "i don't think you'd be interested in an accord."
she walked next door to toyota, (same dealer!) asked to drive a camry. 8 years later, we're on our 5th toyota. just our experience, i'm sure it woorks both ways.

what is with all the trolls lately!

Nope, they denied the warranty based on age. If you read the 70k thread, they said they wouldn't honor the warranty because it started when the car left the factory (which is BS). Personally, I really regret spending money on the extended warranty since my original warranty is likely worthless (they didn't honor it the one time they should have at 36k miles).

Factory warranty is supposed to start from the date that the car was first sold as new (In Service Date). BTW, if you buy a used car from Toyota and it has the Certified warranty, the warranty also starts from the original in service date, not from the date you buy it.

A convenient excuse (there always seems to be more)...if the car was bought used. It was bought new.

The guy wrote:

To those of you who have had bad experiences at dealerships, there is a wide variation in management, and it has nothing to do with the car.
I went to a Toyota dealer to look at a Prius. The price they offered for my trade was an embarrassment--to them.I walked out, and went to another Toyota dealer. They took my price--and they made a deal in 10 minutes.
My advice is don't give up on the car you like, just go to another dealership.There are good ones and bad ones for every car make.

Wasn't meant to be an excuse; just trying to give the correct info.

Totally agree. There are good and bad dealers of every make. It's not limited to Toyota. The treatment I got at Honda of Kirkland (WA) when I was in the market for an medium sized family car in late 01 was echoed by many other people (who I don't personally know) at my work.

I bought an 02 Nissan Maxima instead...

I herd about this.
A random man with a Civic Hybrid was saying that his performance in his 2007 Civic Hybrid was decreased so much, that he didn't feel safe driving it due to the software update Honda installed on his car. He said his MPG went from 45mpg to 27-33mpg. Turns out, the battery's were failing and since a battery is thousands of dollars, and most Civic Hybrids are still under warranty, they did this software update to "make the car run better and to protect the battery more." Huh, I think Honda needs to invest in Toyota's second generation Synergy Drive system. Then I'd be interested.

Maybe you should look at this article:

Ridiculously Expensive Hybrid Repairs! | evtalk

Sort of explains why hybrid repairs can be so problematic.