Two problems related to battery dead have been reported for the 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
This car fails to start. Had been reported to dealer and was told every thing was ok. On 27 Aug 2005 this cars engine stopped while driving down hill. When it was towed to dealer . I was told the main battery was dead.
The transmission seemed to slip, the engine rpm's would go up but speed would not change. As you drove down the road you could see the tach which shows rpm go up & down, up & down all the time but the speed would stay the same. Very poor gas mileage around the mid 30's not even close to the 50 mpg that we were told. Then one day the car just made a bang and stopped, the transmission steel belt inside broke into many pieces and the car wouldn't move. $1800. 00 to fix this then we still had the rpm up & down problem. Then @ 80,000 miles the battery light came on had update done to computer, made the mpg even lower and we were told the hybrid battery is going bad, replacement cost $3000. 00. Couldn't afford this then the hybrid battery died 100% couldn't drive car without any kind of charge in battery and it also cause another part of the hybrid system to go bad which cost $1700. 00 to fix. So we needed a new battery @ $3000. 00 and another hybrid component for $1700. 00 so we could drive this car. It had under 100,000 miles and Honda wouldn't help pay a dime, and all this not to long after we spent $1800. 00 to have transmission belt fixed. So we traded in the car to Honda for a Ford. We also spent $1200. 00 to have the ac compressor replaced on this car so it was a lemon from the start and all this time Honda wouldn't help at all even though we had complained time and time again. Now they are in a class action law suit which I hope they are made to pay millions. I would never purchase another Honda hybrid, this car was to save us money on gas because of the mpg but it cost us thousands in repairs that by far cost us more than the money we saved in gasoline.