Andy,

I'm going to go look at my Trip-Computer and see what it says. Be-Right-Back, Don't Run-Off

Okay I'm back. 26.5 MPG with 1,648 Miles on 2007 Accord Hybrid as it sits in my Garage.

The reason I went and looked is this. I have just been doing the go to work thing and errands in it. My commute is Approx. 10 Miles each way. Each day I drive to the Mall and eat at the Food-Court with a buddy of mine I use to work with. That is like 3.5 Miles each way. My speeds are from like 40 MPH on 2-Ln. road to 75-80 MPH on the interestate. So don't be to hard on your New Accord Hybrid. They can get really Great MPG when driven on the Interstate for long distances. Here is a Pic of my Last-Tank with combination driving. Most was on the interestate though. Give yourself sometime and the Hybrid some time to get some miles on it. City driving does not deliver very good FE (Fuel-Economy). This is a copy of 1 of my Threads here on GH BELOW:


Man this Accord Hybrid just keeps getting "Better & Better". I just cannot stand it.

Just did a very-very long days drive to visit Family in Frankfort, Ky. and that trip was driven from speeds of 65-75 miles per hour on the interstate. We went through Wendy's drive up and then sat in the car and ate lunch with the motor idling. I know if you were one of the Hypermilers you would be going "Crazy-about-Now". But then we drove all over the place and let my Brother which has never seen or been in a Accord Hybrid before today drive it. He did not even notice that when he was coming to the stops that the engine was not running. I said hey look at the Tach. !!! He said it says "ZERO", I said yeah the engine is not running until you take your foot off the brake pedal. He said this is high tech, isn't it ??? I said yeah and if you look to the bottom left it says in "Flashing-Green" Auto-Stop. He said I like this car, you cannot even tell when it starts and quits running. Love that Brother.

Well that is the story on todays travels with the Accord Hybrid and here are some Pics of the days events from the Trip Computer.

 

Tsienville - Geez, I hope all of us Honda owners having this problem don't have this to look forward to. However, early indications are the that the modus operandi is the same. The technician test driving my car said the clunk sounded like just "running over something, or something rolling around in the trunk." I'd anticipated the latter question, and removed items in the trunk.

Plz keep us apprised.

HAH owners - Anyone a have this problem, and then successfully get Honda to fix it?

 

I think we all will be treated this way Honda, My 2006 Accord Hybrid is still doing this and Honda has been no help, it like they don't care that the Accord Hybrid has a defect and unless they are ordered by the government they are refusing to fix the issue of the backfiring through the intake and the multi cylinder misfire code that sets off the CEL.

 

Took the HAH back to the Palo Alto dealer and service, and basically got the "not a problem" runaround, even though the clunk noise was acknowledged during a test drive. Interesting that the service manager was quite defensive about my note taking (as he was busily typing in notes in his machine).

BTW, it looks like one person was successful in getting lemon law protection from Honda:
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/car..._hybrid_r.html

 

I bought my 2006 Honda Accord Hybrid on 3/5/06. I bought it because of Honda's reliability. Eventhough the Hybrid Accord was new, they had been making the Civic Hybrid for sometime & I trusted Honda not to put a car out that would have problems.

I liked the feel of the Accord in general, but paid extra for the Hybrid version because I thought I could get better gas mileage. When I only got 23mph, I returned to the salesman who told me it took some time for the engine to break in to get the estimated mpg. He told me it would be about 8,000 miles. I patiently waited for the 8,000 mile mark, but it never got much better. I realized that people drive differently & I may not get the estimated miles per hour, but I've always gotten it in previous cars. I grew to understand that the low miles per hour wasn't the problem, but a symptom of the car not working properly.

I thought the car felt "odd" from the beginning, but thought I just had to get used to the Hybrid feel. By the time I reached 6,500 miles, I knew I should be used to the Hybrid by then. I took it to the dealer & told them of my concerns. The car seemed to lag & lose power when accelerating, especially when cornering in a residental district. I was unable to make the car do it for them, it was very inconsistant.

The Honda dealership was very accomodating to me during my 8 visits. They attempted to make the car do it by driving it for their personal car for a week. They put in on the computer & never came up with any problems or "codes". Because they were very nice & never made me feel like a "stupid female", I continued to bring it in, in hopes something could be done.

As the problem worsened I had 3 very dangerous situations occur:

#1 I was pulling out onto a highway, turning left. The car hesitated, made a popping sound, lagged & just sat there in the lane of oncoming traffic. I was almost T-boned, when the car finally decided to move & get out of the way just in time! I'm not one to pull out without plenty of time, but what is plenty of time when you can't depend on acceleration?

#2 I was passing a semi, the car hesitated, lagged & popped when I was beside the truck. The car wouldn't accelerate & I had to drop back behind the truck to avoid a head on collision. I've not passed any vehicle since.

#3 I was merging on the freeway, the car hesitated, popped, lagged & I had to pull off the shoulder of the road to keep from getting run over by a semi. This happened to me a total of 3 times, I can't avoid getting on the freeway!

Eventhough the dealership was unable to find anything wrong with my car, they replaced the main computer system. I find it hard to believe they would make such an expensive repair if they didn't find anything wrong. But, they took me seriously & involved the district management.

I decided I had a real LEMON! I called the Better Business Bureau & filed my complaint. We went to arbitration & the arbitrator had some great questions for the Honda representative. But, he had no answers for them. The arbitrator ordered a professional inspection & asked Honda for answers to his 7 questions:

#1 Additional information regarding specific repair order
Answer: "The actual internal notes by Tech line ar proprietary & not available for distribution."
#2 Additional information regarding testing/inspection of the ECM removed
Answer: "These types of reports are not made available for distribution."
#3 Additional information regarding Technical Service Bulletin 06-045
Answer: "There is no additional documentation available for this request."
#4 Additional information related to implementation of TSB 06-045
Answer: "It is normal protocol for a delaer to implement the TSB in an effort to address/resolve this customer's concern."
#5 Addtional information related to American Honda's decision to withdraw the Accord Hybrid from the American market
Answer: "American Honda makes decisions to withdraw vehicles from the American market for various reasons. Generally these are sales related, but the reasons are not made available to the employees or for general distribution."
#6 Additional information related to decision to replace the ECM
Answer: "The testing led the dealer to suspect a possible internal issue in the ECM. In the interest of customer satisfaction, the dealership opted to replace the ECM in anticipation that it may resolve the customer's issue."
#7 Additonal information related to communications between the dealership & American Honda
Answer: "Any emails from American Honda & its employees are proprietary & not available for distribution." "The Honda DPSM may have notes related to converstaions with their dealers but those notes are also proprietary of AHM & not available."

Obviously, they know something is wrong with this car! My take of their "lack of response" to the arbitrator's questions is, "If you have nothing to hide, you hide nothing."

I ended up having two inspections, both times the car "acted up." Eventhough the reports stated that, for technical reasons, neither report was made available to the arbitrator for him to make his decision.

My suggestion to you is don't take if lying down. If you have had similar problems, look up your state's LEMON LAW on line. It will tell you the criteria needed for your state & you can see if your car qualifies for the Lemon law.

Needless to say: "I WON MY ARBITRATION!"

 

Karen,

What a interesting story. Not to mention the crazy way your Hybrid was doing.

Dangerous to say the least.

I'm personally glad you got rid of that car before it got rid of you from the way it was doing.

 

Yeah, no kidding. Glad you were able to get a positive decision on your arbitration. It definitely sounds like you went about dispute resolution the proper way, and it worked out in your favor!

That being said, not every car will operate flawlessly. There will always be a few out there with unduplicable problems. And no matter how many times you take it back to the dealer for troubleshooting, they're unable to ascertain the cause of the problem. However, from the safety issues you stated, Honda (or the dealership) should have bought back your car right away. It's too bad it takes a lawsuit to make them do such things. Take the Toyota Tacoma issue right now. If you're not aware, a few of their trucks have unexplained acceleration. Some of which have resulted in crashes. So far, no one has been injured. Toyota was made aware of the problems, but couldn't duplicate it. And even after the accidents happened, Toyota failed to make things right. And the last time I heard (things have probably changed since I last heard the report) Toyota only offered to look into the problem further ONLY if the NTSB asks them to.

 

Congrats HAH HeeHee for winning your arbitration. What I found SOOOO interesting is that Honda preferred risking losing the arbitration rather than answer the arbitrator's questions. They are most certainly hiding something and don't mind losing money apparently to keep hiding it.

 

Keith:
Karen was successful on her HAH using BBB Autoline. Mine is still in process.

Chuck

 

We have won our arbitration!!!!! Honda is directed to buy the car back. A very easy, albiet lengthy (several month) process. Next step is finalizing the price to be paid, which is basicly in the Lemon law statute so it should be easy. The process was temporarily shut down for Christmas but we're expecting a resolution in early January.

If anyone is having this issue and would like more information on the process call me at 817-602-2915.

Chuck