Woman Takes Unique Road To Sue Honda Over Mileage

[SparrowHawk]

Looks like she won in small claims. I am sure Honda will appeal so that they can use their lawyers to bury the plaintiff in paperwork. It could still back fire on them. If everyone sues Honda they would have to appeal each case. That could cost them some bucks.

Small Claims

The Southern California owner of a Honda hybrid car won her unusual small-claims court lawsuit against the automaker over the vehicle's failure to deliver its stated fuel economy.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan awarded Heather Peters $9,867 on Wednesday, saying Honda did mislead her about the expected mileage.

"At a bare minimum Honda was aware ... that by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised mileage," he wrote in the judgment.

She will need to move on Honda's assets before an appeal is heard. Now that she has won she has quite a few tools at her disposal including having the Sheriff's Department padlock Honda's real property. She also has the right to demand payment in cash as Honda would stop payment on any check as part of their maneuvering.

Also, depending upon how much publicity this gets, Honda may just pay her and walk away. Dragging a major corporation into Small Claims is an excellent way to "help" that corporation be more attentive and responsive to customers. If you ever go after a giant company make sure your complaint is sent to every media outlet you can think of.

 

[BoeingBoy]

I will say this - in 2006 when the Honda hybrid in question was purchased, the EPA city and highway numbers were something of a joke - it was a rare car that matched them. Enough people complained that the EPA changed how it calculated the fuel mileage (the actual test remained the same) in 2008 (I think). For those paying attention, the EPA mileage for identical cars dropped significantly after the change. My wife has a 2007 Civic Hybrid and it has been an education in fuel mileage. Adding one person can make 1 mpg difference. Drive 4-5 mph faster - another 1 mpg difference. Change from the OEM tires - 2-3 mpg difference. Drive it "normally" - quicker acceleration and later braking - up to 5 mpg difference. I often drive ~90 miles to where my sister lives, which is 500' lower than home. 1-2 mpg difference between going and returning just due to the elevation difference.

Jim

 

[Ms Tree]

She will need to move on Honda's assets before an appeal is heard. Now that she has won she has quite a few tools at her disposal including having the Sheriff's Department padlock Honda's real property. She also has the right to demand payment in cash as Honda would stop payment on any check as part of their maneuvering.

Also, depending upon how much publicity this gets, Honda may just pay her and walk away. Dragging a major corporation into Small Claims is an excellent way to "help" that corporation be more attentive and responsive to customers. If you ever go after a giant company make sure your complaint is sent to every media outlet you can think of.

I do not know much about that aspect of the law but in order for her to move on their assets they would have had to refuse to pay. As of yet they have not done so have they? I would think that the people who own Honda's would be following this quite closely. It would not take many of them to make Honda's world a bit uncomfortable

 

[SparrowHawk]

I do not know much about that aspect of the law but in order for her to move on their assets they would have had to refuse to pay. As of yet they have not done so have they? I would think that the people who own Honda's would be following this quite closely. It would not take many of them to make Honda's world a bit uncomfortable

They don't have to refuse a thing. In PA if you have their checking account number once Judgement is made you fill out the paperwork and they court goes in an yanks it right out of the account. We did it with a US Airways Customer. Somehow she got the Checking account number and BOOM The money was gone. End of Story. Not the same in all states but I believe CA law is similar to PA.

It's not that tough to win as the company will just flat out ignore you. Just like Obama ignores the COTUS. Collecting is where it gets tricky and frankly you need a large pair of solid Brass Balls to prevail.

 

[delldude]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner.

LOS ANGELES (AP) —

A Southern California woman took Honda to small-claims court and won in a big way.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan ruled Wednesday that the automaker misled Heather Peters about the potential fuel economy of her hybrid car and awarded her $9,867 – much more than the couple hundred dollars cash that a proposed class-action settlement is offering.

“At a bare minimum Honda was aware … that by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised mileage,” Carnahan wrote in the judgment.

Honda disagrees with the judgment rendered in the case and plans to appeal the decision, company spokesman Chris Martin said in a statement.

 

[Veritas]

I will say this - in 2006 when the Honda hybrid in question was purchased, the EPA city and highway numbers were something of a joke - it was a rare car that matched them. Enough people complained that the EPA changed how it calculated the fuel mileage (the actual test remained the same) in 2008 (I think). For those paying attention, the EPA mileage for identical cars dropped significantly after the change. My wife has a 2007 Civic Hybrid and it has been an education in fuel mileage. Adding one person can make 1 mpg difference. Drive 4-5 mph faster - another 1 mpg difference. Change from the OEM tires - 2-3 mpg difference. Drive it "normally" - quicker acceleration and later braking - up to 5 mpg difference. I often drive ~90 miles to where my sister lives, which is 500' lower than home. 1-2 mpg difference between going and returning just due to the elevation difference.

Jim

I drove a 2005 Prius (rated 60 city / 51 highway) for four years before giving it to my daughter when she got her license. She drove it for two years before it was totaled (not her fault) just before she left for college.

I never got 60 mpg in the city; most often I got in the low 50's in town. My best tank ever was 57 mpg. I regularly beat the 51 highway estimate. Even my daughter was able to average around 50 mpg. When my lead footed wife touched the car, the mileage dropped into the high thirties.

I would add a few more variables to the ones that you listed.

• Anticipating stops, coasting when approaching red traffic signal lights and minimizing the use of the brakes (you sort of covered this one).
• Tire pressure. I raised it by about 10% from the manufacturer recommendation. That resulted in about a 5% mpg gain.
• Using the air conditioning a hot days can reduce the mileage by as much as 10% (try setting it no lower than 76*).
• Cold weather will cause the engine to run longer to maintain proper operation temperature and reduce the battery efficiency.

I now drive a Toyota Camry Hybrid, made in Georgetown, KY, rated at 33 city and 34 highway. I average about 38 mpg in my everyday mostly suburban driving. On the road, I often get better than 40 mpg, even if driving at 70 mph.

 

[BoeingBoy]

I agree with all of that if your goal is maximum gas mileage. Even engine oil can make a difference. The hybrid calls for 0W20 oil, but since our other car specifies 5W20 I use that in both, at a cost of about 1/2 a MPG on the Hybrid.

This lady seems to be claiming is that Honda knowingly lied about the gas mileage, which couldn't be further from the truth. Maybe an over-zealous salesman did, so sue the dealer. The EPA does the test for mileage and the calculations that supposedly convert the dyno data into real world data and it's the EPA numbers that must be on the window sticker. No manufacturer just makes up numbers and puts them on that sticker. The sticker even has a disclaimer stating that actual mileage can vary depending on blah, blah, blah. When the EPA changed it's calculations, identical cars except for year of production produced different EPA numbers. Also, as we've both said, how you operate a hybrid can make a big difference in mileage but most people drive hybrids just like they drove previous non-hybrid cars and pay the price in fuel mileage. Just look at the hyper-milers, people who use every trick in the book to increase fuel mileage - shutting the engine off and putting the tranny in neutral when coasting, letting speed bleed off going uphill then letting gravity accelerate them back up going downhill, etc. They get 70-100 mpg with regular economy cars.

What I wouldn't expect the average consumer to know is that the Civic Hybrid and Prius are toward opposite ends of the hybrid spectrum. Where the Civic is a gas engined car with some electric capability, the Prius is more toward an electric car with gas engine capability. Not drastically different, just leaning in different directions.

Jim