I have a 06 Civic with frequent recals and the software update has not fixed the problem and has made the acceleration less predictable. The response from two visits to the Honda dealer is the car is working fine.

I am desperate to improve its performance and I filled it up with 89 octane gasoline a few days ago. The engine seems to have more zip and the IMA assist seems to work better. I can't tell if it will help on the frequent discharging but I wonder if a higher revving engine will increase the charge to the battery? Still, I'm not happy.

 

Hi Im thinking of purchasing a 06 civic hybrid but Im really not sure after reading everything about the ima battery issues? How can I tell if the car has had the update and that the battery is good. The car has 62k miles on it. under a extended warranty till 75k miles. Any advice about purchasing this car? what to look for ? If I get another warranty will it be worth buying even with the issues? any help would be nice. thanks

 

I don't recommend it. The only way you could tell if the IMA battery was good would be to drive it for several days to see how it performs. I wouldn't trust Honda to vouch for the IMA battery because you've seen all the posts of owners complaining to Honda about their IMA battery frequently discharging with Honda saying it is working normally.

Even if you believe the IMA battery is fine, you should factor in your decision that it could start deteriorating and Honda would be unwilling to replace it until the IMA light goes on. If you do buy it, be prepared to face the risk of paying for new or repair of the IMA batteries or engaged in a long battle with Honda.

Another factor is you should consider that Honda will be issuing new software upgrades for the Civic which could change the performance and operation of the car. (You should be able to figure out if the car had had the recent upgrade since Honda should have it as part of its maintenance record.)

 

Thanks. What do you think about a 05-07 prius? I'm gonna check to see if they have issues!

 

I would check them out. I've heard that Pruises are reliable and there are many that have gone +100K miles and are still going strong.

 

The Priuses has a very good reliability recordsand has made lists lik http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...-used-cars.htm and http://www.time.com/time/photogaller...xid=yahoo-feat.

The Prius had the highest owner satisfaction rating of any car in Consumer Reports surveys 5 years in a row but was recently dethroned by the Dodge Challenger. It did well at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...view/index.htm though.

Although these are very small sample sizes, http://avt.inl.gov/hev.shtml has taken numerous hybrids to 160K miles and listed their maintenance and repair histories.

Personally, I'd recommend an 06 or beyond. See https://priuschat.com/forums/knowled...countries.html for the significant improvements made that year.

If you get an 04 or 05 Prius, beware of the potential for MFD failures. See http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-p...-05-prius.html and the analysis at http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/mfd/. If someone can't repair it, usually one can find a refurb MFD for ~$500. New ones are crazy expensive.

Priuschat.com is your best bet for Prius info, although it's admittedly biased in favor of Priuses (not surprisingly).

Cayenne81, I don't know what state you're in but on 04 Priuses and beyond along w/a certain model year of Honda hybrids and beyond, the HV battery warranty should be for 10 year/150K miles in CARB emission states. Otherwise, it's 8 years/100K miles.

The first gen Prius at http://john1701a.com/prius/owners/jesse4.htm made it to 349K miles on its original battery until the car's life was cut short. http://www.autospies.com/news/Prius-...no-time-17638/ hit 400K km. (~248K miles)

 

Well it's been a month after the update and it's definitely increased the recals from once a week to now just about every other day. I'm still over 50mpg on the tank so the recals are shallower but having to deal with the changing driving dynamics during one more often is starting to get annoying. I'm really curious how it will perform in the winter.

 

I'm at 10 weeks now and about 2K miles since the update. No recals. Better performance and battery management, especially on hills. And a significant improvement in fuel economy, averaging about 46 MPG by manual calculations (although some increase would be attributable to switch to synthetic oil).

 

Steve I believe Honda 0-20 is also synthetic oil, so probably no change because of oil change? Good to here you are having good luck since up-grades. H:

 

Hi, Harold – thanks.

Honda's factory-installed oil is not synthetic, and 0W-20 oil changes are not synthetic unless requested (at extra cost).