Not happy with his mileage, this guy sues Honda over MPG claims

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...707060350/1148

 

What a fregging idiot!
All car makers are required to report EPA mileage estimates.

Also I have a beef with this editor.
The $7000 figure is thousands off.
The buyer vastly overpaid - he got ripped off.

The price difference for a stock Hybrid vs. EX is $3890.
That took 30 seconds to learn from Honda's website.
Yet this "journalist" didn't bother to check, they just repeated the $7000 figure.

Oh and he forgot to mention that must be for the navigation model and include tax, plus a few thousand for dealer rip-off mark up that only stupid buyers pay.
Oh and he got back $2100 from the IRS, forgot to mention that too.
So the difference is 3890 - 2100 or $1790. (Not 7000)

If this guy is a bad negotiator he should sue himself. Sheesh!
No wonder people think hybrids are a rip off.

I hate the media, spreading misinformation again about hybrids.

 

The Detroit News reporter David Shepardson gives his phone number: (202) 662-8735 and his eMail: dshepardson@detnews.com, I am sending him my comments.

As mentioned a difference of $7,000 in price between the Civic EX and the Civic Hybrid is innacurate. Consumer Reports finding of 26 mpg in city driving for the HCH is also unrealistic, at home with our 2 HCHs, I am getting around 47 mpg (combined city/highway), my wife gets a little less (46 mpg), city driving only. I had a few tanks over 50 mpg by driving more efficiently initially.

I know of at least 5 friends that wanted to buy Hybrid Civics recently, they were all discouraged by the Honda car dealers themselves. They bought accord, regular civics, GM and Ford vehicles instead.

In Canada (Ontario) the Civic Hybrid is cheaper than the Civic EX when the goverment tax refunds are included. The EX is $23,630 cdn ... the Hybrid is $22,250 ($4k tax back included). The provincial sales tax refund requires a form to be filled-out and sent with your bill of sale. The Honda Dealers pretend not to know about the process to get the refund, they don't even mention the refunds. If they wanted to sell Hybrids they would have the simple one page forms available for customers. They only sell Hybrids because they have to... some of them stop short of refusing to sell the car.

 

I already emailed Mr. Shepardson and told him his 7000 figure was wrong per Honda's website.

His short and curt reply was something like, he got the $7000 figure from the lawsuit. Would I like a copy?

So much for journalistic integrity and fact checking.
So much for editors feeling a responsibility for unfair effects of what they publish.

What do you expect from Detroit?
Fair journalism about Japanese hybrids?

 

I think he is a "jazz pianist" - not that there is anything wrong with that.

I hope Honda does not sue me for getting better than EPA.

 

I emailed the reporter pics of my 50 mpg readout, along with a link to greenhybrid.

Maybe it'll inspire him to do a story about HCH owners who get ABOVE EPA mpg.

Maybe it'll inspire the sue-happy owner to sue me, too.

Whatever.

 

He must have a lead foot. I average over 54 mpg on my '04 HCH MT.

 

KNBC Los Angeles was once looking for local hybrid owners to interview.
I heard about it through greenhybrid.

I contacted them and told them I'm getting over 60 MPG.
The producer actually told me I'm not the story angle they are looking for.

I asked him if he wanted to include me, for balance.
Clearly annoyed he said, "No thank you" and hung up.

 

I likewise sent a brief, polite message to Mr. Shepardson with a picture of my 55.6mpg trip to DC and back yesterday and a little background on the tax credits available.

I realize Mr. True bought the car last year, but the $7000 premium sure doesn't show up now in a search of dealer inventory in a 75-mile radius around Ontario, CA. I have no doubt that that's what he paid, however, as it would be legally fraught to make such a misrepresentation of a verifiable fact in a public filing.

Anyway, a class action seems precipitous. He might just have a lemon.

 

The guy suing is a jazz pianist. I wonder if he would support a lawsuit by an average guy buying a Steinway Piano and then suing Steinway because he doesn't sound like Billy Joel when playing his new Steinway?

Point being, one has to learn how to play/use the new piano/car to get the most out of it.

I just bought my 2007 HCH 2 and a half weeks ago. I traded in my Chevy Blazer that got around 18 mpg. Fist tank of gas, I took it easy on the engine as I would any new car but didn't alter too much of my driving style and returned 41mpg.

I read this site and cleanmpg to help in my research before purchasing the HCH, but not too deeply into the forums. After my purchase, I began to read the boards in more detail to learn as much as I could about getting the most out of my new car. I am now 390 miles into my second tank with a 52.6 mpg average. I haven't altered my driving style too much. I use cruise control all the time on the highways - only now set at 60 instead of 70 and minimize A/C usage. That, along with knowing how to use the sensitive gas pedal and using the gauges to maximize the cars efficiency is pretty much all it has taken for me to be happy be with my mpg returns so far.

If this guy is only getting 26 mpg then I would guess he drove a non-hybrid car very inefficiently as well.