That's exactly my thinking. I am also concerned that $250 is most likely just a beginning of it, the fees may be much higher. Ideally we go to arbitration and end up getting batteries replaced. But if that requires lawyers, we know who'll come out on top- it won't be us

 

Woman wins small-claims suit over Honda hybrid mpg:
http://www.ktvb.com/news/national/138524009.html

 

A counterpoint to that is the warranty is useless if the company refuses to acknowledge battery failure.

How many HCH2's are limping out there with crappy battery capacity, constant recals, 8 bars of charge disappearing overnight, etc. Yet the company will not change the IMA battery unless a Code error lights. Okay.... but who controls the when Code error lights up? They do. Seems like the last crappy firmware will never light, no matter how many recals one suffers through each day.

What we really need is a 3rd party escrow to judge and declare failures. Someone who has no vested interest in denying problems.

Sadly, I am suprised at how the company has acted on the IMA battery. I've owned many of their gas cars over the years, and the experience had been perfect. Oh, the memories...

I wonder how the lady's win of $10,000 against them changes things...

 

The judgement.

http://library.constantcontact.com/d...3/judgment.pdf

 

Don't kid yourself people. Those "coupons" will be worth at MOST $200-$250, not $500 (that's if you can sell them). Remember, they will be sent out at the same time, which means there will be a FLOOD of them on the market. You'll be competing to sell yours with tens of thousands of others. If you try to put $400, someone else will put $380, and someone else will put $350, etc. Realistically, expect to get maybe $200-$220 for them, then figure in the costs of shipping them, PayPal fees, and other stuff, I'd say $200 each is a safe bet -- if you can even sell them.

One thing for SURE has come out of this: our family will never have another Honda again. Things go wrong with cars. But it's how the company addresses those problems. Other companies "may all be the same" but it was HONDA (which supposedly is the "above-board" car company) that screwed us, and everyone else here -- that still -- to this day -- insists the car can get 50mpg after the software "updates" ("downgrades") if you know how to drive it. I'm a hypermiler who used to get above 56mpg for mostly freeway driving (A/C off, did mostly freeway driving) -- and GOT that for extended periods (I have a photo of my dash showing 56.6 at I believe it's 9,500 miles on the trip meter). And even a super hypermiler like me can now only get 46 max. That's a huge drop. I wouldn't even have minded so much if we never got the mileage in the first place -- what really peeved me was Honda forcing "performance" (de-formance) "upgrades" (downgrades) on everyone because they DON'T want to take responsibility for replacing their crappy batteries that couldn't withstand the use. I object to FORCING us to having a substantially altered product than the one we bought and thought we were getting -- after the fact. And still making every HCH driver out there to look like liars and people who "just don't know how to drive right."

NEVER AGAIN, HONDA.

And this isn't anger in the moment. This has been going on for quite a while now (my hybrid batteries died in 2 years). I'm still using my car (it's great -- for a normal gas Civic that's supposed to be a hybrid) and will use it until it's time to get another. But I will never walk onto a Honda lot again, I will never even CONSIDER anything with a Honda nameplate again.

 

Don't get me wrong, but I think the HCHII is probably the best A to B car I've owned so far. Despite the recalls I've encountered, the IMA issue was the worst of them. I was told the battery pack would cost about $5k if it wasn't covered by warranty. Luckily it was and it was replaced and software firmware update was performed and so far so good until it craps out again in the future! Now this has got me thinking, that this car will become a money pit in the long haul. Perhaps, I should trade in my car before the value depreciates even more!

 

I mailed in the opt out forms. I'm just not willing to give up my rights to pursue damages if eventually I do have a problem with my car. So far so good but it only has 29k on it. From what I've read on these forums the IMA problems start around 60-100k.

 

I replaced my IMA ~50k under warranty. I would suggest you get a software update if you don't want to go through the hassle of replacing your IMA possibly out of pocket if your warranty expires.

 

the software fix is screwing me outta 13MPG when i compare this winter with past winters, that amounts to 1500$ for the next 6 years (car will be 12 years old by then and will need to be replaced anyway) and the class action will give me around $800 if i can sell the 1k in transferable coupons for $600 on ebay.

take the money and run

 

I'm reading over the settlement statement now. There is zero information on the dispute resolution process. Furthermore, it appears to only focus on the decreased performance of the car after the software update was applied (~15% from what I can tell), and NOT the fact that the battery simply doesn't hold a charge, particularly when it is warm. There's just absolutely no information at all out there on the dispute resolution path. How am I supposed to make an informed decision? I didn't buy this car to get treated like this. My wife's Odyssey blew its transmission out last year - at 114,000 miles - and Honda, having settled for a warranty extending to 109,000 in the class action on that vehicle, did absolutely nothing to help me. I've owned nothing buy Honda and Acura vehicles for 20 years. I will never again buy a Honda or Acura vehicle, for myself, my wife, or my children. That's probably 4-5 guaranteed lost vehicle purchases over then next 30 years they've lost. I suppose their accountants have done the math and they don't seem to think the cost of losing nearly 200,000 customers who bought these cars is significant enough long term. I genuinely hope that calculation is wrong. They need to lose customers en masse for their poor engineering and worse customer care. Horrible company, junk vehicles, never again. Done.