I am looking to buy a HCH but can't seem to get the info on how much the battery is to replace and how long it will actually last. The warranty is 80,000 miles or 8 years. i live in the bay area and 80k could go real fast.

Also- anyone want to recommend what I should ask/expect to pay for a 2005?
thanks

 

I believe that in CA it is warrantied for 150K miles... or is that just the parts that make it AT-PZEV?

 

I wouldn't worry about the battery. I had the IMA batteries tested around 70,000 miles and they were still functioning at 96% of original capacity. You don't even have to start worrying until it gets below 75%. Even after that, the HCH is a 1st generation (mild) hybrid, which means that the car will still function on depleted batteries, but will basically act like a standard 4-cyl gasoline Civic. At 4% depletion per 70,000 miles, that means you wouldn't enter the danger zone until 420,000 miles! God bless you if you hang onto a car that long!

 

Powertrain Warranty is 3years, 36,000 miles.
Why don't you worry about the engine replacement than the battery?

 

That's really awesome news !! I have constant discussions with "hybrid naysayers" over at Edmunds who ALWAYS come back to their seminal point of "what about the battery replacement cost? See? See? See? Hybrids are stupid!!" and now I have a good fact to slap in their sorry mugs !!!

 

Ok enough about warranty and all that, we've heard it. I also want to know how much it will cost to replace them.

I don't believe that the battery depletion would be a linear scale. I think it's just as likelythat once they start to go out the depletion will accellerate. If at 70k they're down 5% at 100k they may be down 50% or something like that.

 

I would like to know the engine replacement cost before the battery replacing.
Does anyone know?

 

I asked that question too at 70k miles. The dealer mechanic estimated $1,700 for a HCH IMA battery pack. It's probably a little more expensive on 2nd generation models like Prius II and HCH 2006 since they have more batteries in the array. But it's certainly NOT the $10,000 the anit-hybrid blowhards always spout.

 

Chanti,
When these cars show up in junk yards, the yard owners would probably assume these packs are worth a fortune. I'd bet if you presented them with a Honda estimate for new replacement they could be bickered to at least half the cost of new part, with a generous warranty.

One thing to remember is that the HCH IMA Hybrid System is not primarily to increase MPG, but to help bring an otherwise slower car back to acceptable levels.

I hope to drive my HCH in excess of 300K miles, likely closer to 350K.
I'll probably do a battery pack replacement after my 150K warranty runs out, but then I might not.

I assume you know with a flat battery pack you can still drive it as a regular plain-old car but with a little lowered performance.

ken1784,
I assume your post is a serious one and also assume the engine cost would be about the same as any other Civic. (What ever that is I'm not sure.)

 

I heard a Honda dealer quote an insight owner between $2000 and $2500. The guy was claiming his pack was "weak" at 75k miles, 5k before his battery warranty ran out. Sounded like the guy was trying for a free battery replacement to me.

Hopefully the civic pack costs less, being a higher volume car.



FYI NiMh batteries almost never die, they just lose charge capacity very gradually, even at 50% capacity you would still get a lot of benefit from the IMA, and I wouldn't worry at all if they were at 70% or better, so I am betting that short of a failure, we will get a lot of life out of our batteries.

How did you test your battery pack's charge anyway? Is there an easy way an owner can do it? It would be nice if you could dump the computer's calibration measurements of the battery, dump them when it is new, and do it again every 10k miles.