Consumer Law

The Honda Hybrid Civic that Cannot Make it Up a Hill

By Kemnitzer, Anderson, Barron, Ogilvie & Brewer

One of our clients has a 2006 Honda Civic hybrid that cannot always make it up the hill to her house! Even when she floors the accelerator, the car just stops. Turns out the problem is that when the battery to the electric booster engine on the car is low, the tiny gasoline engine just does not have the power to move the car up the rather steep hill going to her house.

When the car stops, the owner has to back down the hill, drive around for a while to charge up the battery, and then make the run back up the hill. At times, she had to park the car and walk home.

The Honda dealer looked at the car three times, but gave up trying to fix the car because there is no fix.

Channel 7 ABC News consumer reporter Michael Finney took a ride with the owner. Here is his report.

After filing the lawsuit, Honda to refund the owner all her money and take back the car.

Full post as published by Lemon Law Blog on July 10, 2007 (boomark / email).