Please address all concerns of power loss and surging due to faulty CVT transmission parts and the EGR valve in the civic hybrid to the national highway safety agency at http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/ . The following has been copied and pasted from the link.
By Phone

Call the DOT Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 and a NHTSA representative will record your complaint information.

General Information
Your complaint information will be entered into NHTSA's vehicle owner's complaint database and used with other complaints to determine if a safety-related defect trend exists.

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I have had minor issues with the CVT and replaced my EGR. There were no problems with saftey because of my problems.

 

That is nice to know. What were the issues with the cvt? When you do experience hesitation, surging and power loss, you know where to go after getting the run around from honda.

 

The hsitation and surging was when I had light throttle and then tried to accelerate. The surging was right after the hesitation. I have never had power loss. I think that was a toyota thing. My cvt problem was during acceleration the car would rumble.

If you have the symptoms I had any mechanic can fix them. The egr cost me about $120 and I changed it myself in about 15 minutes. You could just buy one and have any mechanic change it for you.

The CVT problem just required them to flush my transmission twice. (note flush, not change). The dealer did this for me free of charge out of warranty.

 

I just received the April 2007 Consumer Reports.

On page 83 they explain their reliabilty ratings:
"Because problem rates in some trouble spots are very low, we do not assign a (black circle) or (half black circle) unless the model's problem rate exceeds 3 percent. If a problem rate is below 2 percent, it will be assigned a (half red circle). If a problem rate is below 1 percent, it will be assigned a (red circle)."

The Civic Hybrid reliability information is listed on page 87. Under transmission, the '03 model has a (half black circle), the '04 - '05 models have (half red circle) and the '06 model has a (red circle). So, at least 3% of '03 HCH owners have had a problem with their transmission. Did Honda make a transmission change between '03 and '04?

Interestingly, the regular '03 Honda Civic sedan rates higher in some areas than the Hybrid. I thought they were virtually identical.

Of course, compared to other manufacturers, you won't find very many "black marks" in the Honda line up. On page 25 they list the predicted liability by make. Toyota and Honda are tied at the top, followed by Scion, Acura and Lexus (all brand mates!).

I hope that when Consumer Reports subscribers complete their upcoming reliability questionnaire that the transmission trouble spot does not slide to a (black circle).

I have an '03 HCH and have had the fluid change/burnishing procedure done as a "courtesy warrantee". My brother also has an '03 HCH and has had the same procedure, too. So far, so good. I'm glad I got an 80K Honda extended warrantee.

I really think Honda owes all of us 1st generation owners a free repair when they find a permanent solution to this problem.

 

I have had the same service done.

I think the difference is that in 04 and later they had changed the type of transmission fluid they use. So it may be possible that having had the service they may have also put in the new type of transmission fluid and hopefully we won't end up with a problem in the future.

At any rate, If my car makes 100K I will gladly pay for both a new transmission and a new battery, because I believe this car will pay me back in 2 years or less.

 

I have had problems with my '04 transmission-- hesitating and surging. I'm getting the run around from dealer mechanics who either think nothing is wrong, want to change the fluid (again?? and that's never under warranty for me!!), or want to replace either the clutch (? it's automatic) or the whole transmission. I'm TRYING to figure out what to do, because it's getting bad.

What's an EGR?

I do? Where do I go?
Help!

 

I was having weird behavior with my 2004, looked into buying the best HondaCare warranty available with 35,000 miles (would take it to 96,000), which would cost an additional $78 a month for one year (charged monthly to my credit card). That added to my car payment, which had 2 years to go, made it a no-brainer to consider getting a new one. For $50 a month more, I got a new one with a 120,000 mile warranty. They gave me $15,600 trade-in against a new one with no dealer added markup, the NAVI car, BTW, with the 120k warranty. Plus, no new tires needed soon like on the old one, and got to skip a months car payment, as the old one was just about due.

What a deal