general problems of the 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid

The contact owns a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid. The contact stated that he received a recall notice on his vehicle (recall information was unavailable). The vehicle was inspected by a dealer for the recall and after the component was repaired, the vehicle began getting less mpg than what it was prior to the recall repair. The failure mileage was approximately 35,200.

Purchased vehicle new in March of 2008. In October of 2010 an ima battery update was required by manufacturer. Since the update I have taken the vehicle back to the dealer on a monthly basis for almost a year with the following problems, they of course can not get the vehicle to do everything that it does to me and the dealer always tells me it is operating within manufacturers standards. I have given up taking it in every month and now just take it in for its routine maintenance, I give them a printout of my concerns and the tech attaches it to the workorder. A) low fuel mileage, averages 25 to 28 mpg. Before ima update, was averaging 35 to 45 mpg. B) slow acceleration from stops, this is very dangerous because we never know if the vehicle is going to move or not. We must leave ourselves alot of space when trying to merge with traffic because of this. C) idles rough, off & on, while stopped or parked, this is using up gas because the ima battery does not come on as much as it used to. D) assist is not coming on as much as it used to, if at all. E) ima battery reading goes from 1-2 bars upto 8 or so in minutes and then back down to 1-2 bars within a minute or less. Usually reads about 1-2 bars most of time. Ima is charging itself on flat ground, up hills, down hills and when braking. I would trade the vehicle in for another, but am afraid that some other sucker would end up with something that is not operating correctly. I did purchase the extended warranty on this vehicle.

In August 2010 I took my 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid to the dealer for routine maintenance. The dealer performed a purported software update on the battery system without notifying me until afterwards. Immediately upon leaving the dealer, I noticed a profound reduction in power and acceleration. On the freeway portion of the drive home, I was almost rear-ended twice as I drove in the slow lane up a minor grade where the vehicle could not accelerate over 40 miles per hour (with the pedal fully depressed in the passing gear)-- prior to this date I had driven my vehicle for its prior 20 months of ownership up that same grade at 70mph. Additionally, prior to this date I had never even utilized the "s" gear on my transmission. Ever since Honda's software update my car has become a severely underpowered accident waiting to happen. I am reduced to driving in the slow lane on the freeway with vehicles flashing me as they approach a 40-45 mph vehicle at 60-70 mph from behind. I have called the Honda service departments at several local dealers regarding this problem, and get a universal response- "wait for your system to adjust to the software update" or "you need to adjust your driving". What the heck does this mean? I drove the vehicle fine for 20 months prior to the software update and now it drives like a 20 year old 4 cylinder engine with 2 bad pistons. The decreased power and acceleration are a dangerous accident in the making. I am fearful of being rear ended. This is an every day problem that was caused by this "software update" and I suspect that it is happening to every 2006-2008 Honda Civic Hybrid that goes to the dealer for this software update. An additional consequence of this alleged "software update" is a profound drop in gas mileage from approximately 37 combined mpg prior to "update" to 29-30 post "update". I have never lodged a complaint with any organization before, but like I've previously stated, this "update" is a danger to the public.

Upon receiving the 'mandatory' ima recall issued by Honda, I noticed my Honda Civic Hybrid (2008) acted very differently when it came to accelerating from a stop, particularly on a hill. From a stop it takes several seconds before the car will move forward at a reasonable speed (which it did not do prior to the update). Prior to the update, the car would accelerate like a normal car with the ima kicking in to assist the car forward. Post update it's like the gas engine wants the ima to engage but the new firmware won't allow it to. The first time I experienced this, I was nearly hit coming out into traffic as my car hesitated. Honda has stated there is no way to reverse the update. This decrease in power continues to affect me today (at 60,000 miles and climbing). This update has affected my fuel economy as well (having dropped between 30-33 mpg on a "good" day). While the fuel economy may not be a personal safety issue, it is an environmental safety issue.

I tracked my Honda Civic Hybrid gas mileage. From 12/09 to 1/10 my average gas mileage was 40. 2mpg. Took my car into Honda dealership for recall work in spring of 2010. They told me that there was a software update on the engine/battery. I asked if there would be any affect on the car's performance. The dealership response was that without the update I would risk voiding the warranty on my car battery/engine. So I had to get the update. From that date I continued to track my gas mileage. From that point onward my gas mileage has averaged 30. 9mpg. I called the dealership to ask if they could set the software back to the way it was previously. They said no. They insisted that it was my driving habits that had changed. . . . When nothing in my life changed so this could not be the case.