Just had my check engine and IMA lights come on in my 2005 HCH I (CVT). My mileage has been slipping from high 40s to low 30s over last eight years or so, much worse since I moved to a big city and rarely drive highway anymore.

Came back from a two-week trip overseas during which my HCH was parked in subzero temps the whole time. Started up just fine, but IMA and check engine light came on immediately. Noticed my battery readings were kind of erratic - it charged almost all the way up during one long off-ramp decel, and suddenly read 3 bars after I sat at a red light for a minute. My mileage was in the mid-20s, which is terrible even for my new low standard.

I took the car in and the codes were related to battery failure. My car is at 99k miles now, and I thought that since I originally bought it in South Carolina, the 8yr/80k warranty had long since expired. But now that I live and register my car in Pennsylvania, I have the 10yr/150k warranty, so I just got my battery replaced (presumably by a refurb battery) for free! I was expecting to have to shell out $3000, and now my car has a new lease on life. Mileage is back up in the high 30s city, which would have horrified me 7 or 8 years ago, but I've learned to accept that with city driving.

The only other problem I've ever had was needed to get my clutch burnished several years ago for the famous judder problem, but otherwise the car is still in perfect shape. I'm not going to have an excuse to finally get a new hybrid (I'm looking at the plug-in C-Max) as long as this HCH still runs so well!

 

Congratulations on the savings! I thought PA adopted the CA standards only in 2006 for model year 2008 onwards... (http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/). I think my 2007 HCH II battery is dying too and am wondering what my car's warranty is. I live in MD, which adopted the CA standard in 2007, applicable to model years 2011 onwards.