When I picked up my 2006 HCHII last week, I talked to the dealer for a while. He is quite a hybrid fan (he was driving the car I bought for the first two years). We where also talking about the reliability of the IMA system, and he told me: "I'm wondering how much it will cost to replace the battery...Honda don't even tells us (the dealers) the actual price of the battery". He assumed that Honda is probably not telling the price of the battery because they don't know how much the price will be when the first HCHs are out of warranty (the price of the battery might fall quite a bit until then).
So, I guess nobody really knows the price for a replacement a costumer will pay when the IMA system is out of warranty.

Lori

Wow. Is this what this site is all about?

I found this place during my search for information on Civic Hybrids. My brother bought one new (and got carpool stickers) and I love the thing. Here in California, if you buy an existing used car that has the DOT HOV lane stickers in place, you get to use the carpool lane. There are no new stickers available. So folks like myself will be increasingly considering the purchase of a used Civic. We will pay a premium for a used car with stickers. I am trying to figure out what I am facing if I buy a car with 72,000 miles on it. I would not hesitate if it were a standard Honda Civic. I would figure 150k miles as a reasonable lifespan before major repairs may be called for. But the Hybrid has "a battery" that is an "X factor" in terms of the overall cost of driving the car over time. If I know that at 72k miles I will buy a car for $14k and can expect to spend money on new batteries at 80k or 100k...it would be nice to have a feel for what that cost will be.

Did I come to the wrong place? I want a car that will save me money, stick a finger in the eye of OPEC, pump less bad stuff into the air, and allow me to drive in the carpool lane.

Is this a religious site, or can I find real answers to real questions?

Is the answer basically, "Forget about a used hybrid...they are a nightmare waiting to happen...forget about the HOV stickers and buy new...a Hybrid out of warranty is a time bomb...etc..."?

HOV lane access is HUGE in CA. Not something to pass on without serious consideration. The cars for sale with stickers are few and far between.

The battery warranty in CA is 10yr/150k miles, I believe.

I recommend used hybrids.

nf

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/3686.html

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/4955.html

what do you mean by this? How much do you think it costs to replace a transmission when it fails? Well for my car at ~124k miles, they quoted 2500-3500. Which is what it would probably cost to replace the battery. The warranty in Cali is 10 years or 150k miles, whichever is sooner.

Hi I don't know if this will help but i have a HCH1 2003 i spoke to the Potamkin honda service manager in NYC 3 weeks ago and he looked up the price for a compleate replacement IMA battery for my 2003 and gave me a price for $4,500 Installed. i was talking to my friend at work his brother owns his own service station (not honda dealer) and he said he looked into it for me and his price would be to do the job for me IF i need it for $3,500. not that i need it my IMAbattery seems to be fine but i just wanted to know what i was getting into before i bought the car.

Someone asks a legitimate question and they get this as a response:

"The "how much does it cost if ....." inquiry is an example of an advocacy question -- one that's not really seeking information, but simply posing a specious hypothetical in order to justify the questioner's disdain for the subject; in this case, hybrid cars."

Disdain? For a car? Are folks who see a hybrid as a practical choice welcome here? Or is the hybrid a sort of cilice belt that can't be discussed in Earthly terms?

Thanks for your response. The State of California is providing a HUGE incentive to buy used...if the car has the stickers.

wtf?

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/3686.html

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/4955.html

As this short thread approaches the one-year mark, it is enjoying renewed life, albeit with a tendency to drift.

I believe the definitive answer to "how much does the battery cost?" is $4,000. However, I also believe that the HCH will continue to run even if the battery fails.

Correct?
.

As far as we know.

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/3686.html

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/4955.html

Nope.

The HCH-2 will not run forever if the traction battery fails. While it may run for a while, that condition is not sustainable at all. One of the reasons why is because the 12V needs to be recharged since without it the car wont even start.

With regards to the price of a new battery pack:
The retail price for a battery pack does exceed a little over $4000, and that does not include a new BCM module which BTW is often part of a battery replacement.

Now for the sake of being realistic: In almost all of the battery replacements performed on the HCH-1's that exceeded their warranty coverage period, Honda has been stepping in and paying for half of the costs for the battery replacement - often HCH-1 owners are expected to pay anywhere from $2300 to $2500.
And since this will remain the standard approach for the foreseeable future there's no reason to fear a $4000+ cost for the battery replacement at all. Now if you buy a salvage title HCH-II or some other unit that has lost the manufacturer warranty then yes, expect to pay the full fare for a pack replacement.

Lastly, we are often talking about the better known battery replacements on the HCH-1. That does not infer or relate into the life expectancy of the HCH-2 battery pack at all. The HCH-2 battery management routines implement much of "new knowledge" that Honda did not have when they designed their Insight and HCH-1. Also the manufacturing and packaging of the cells has improved as well on the HCH-2.
So there is no reason to believe the HCH-II battery will be not be reliable and dependable for most owners .

By the way, Toyota learned the same way on their Prius 1 and factored their new found knowledge into their Prius II platform.

Cheers;

MSantos