Nope, warranty claims cover nothing but the defective part. We've all had stuff replaced under warranty before and I've never heard of anyone getting anything extra in addition to the warranty work. Because the dealer is reimbursed directly from Honda, they generally only get paid at cost, and thus they don't make as much money doing warranty work as they would doing ordinary repair work, which means in a way, they are losing money, or at least losing the chance to make money whenever they do warranty work. Depending on the dealer, you may be lucky to even get them to repair things under warranty at all.

 

I just got off the phone with the Honda dealers “hybrid” expert, and here is the super abridged version:

Regarding the real time mpg gauge that randomly drops to zero and then comes back on: “I have seen previous model civic hybrids do this and I suspect this one might be doing the same thing.” When I asked what “this” is, he said it was “initializing.” Nice word choice in my opinion. Now it's not “calibrating” it's “initializing.” When I asked why it would need to do something like this he replied that it was to maintain accuracy in mpg readings. He also made an interesting remark that on the Honda service hybrid test he had to take a question asked if the readings fall to zero on this gauge is there anything wrong, and according to him the answer is “no.”

Regarding my wildly fluctuating trip A mpg:
“This is a common complaint, and the gauge is not the best way of keeping track of your mpg.” When I asked him why my mpg would still fluctuating 10 to 20 mpg even 300 miles into a tank he said, “I don’t know, but you should continue to drive the car and see if the problem persist.” I told him about some of the comments made on this website, and the fact that I have already driven over 1,500 miles, but he seemed less than impressed. He told me to call back in a month and see if Honda has released any updates or patches for the car.

That’s it. I feel less than satisfied or well taken care of. Any suggestions?

 

find a better service dept.

 

Hi Geophrey,
I'm not an expert on Honda technology, but I've been in the electronics engineering field for 25+ yrs etc with a lot of RF experience. Sounds like you got the brush off from honda. I'll bet that there is a loose or broken wire/connector behind the dash or a broken circuit board. The other reason the display jumps around may be stray RF from a cell phone??? or IPOD??? Cell phones will periodically radiate a strong signal even if you are not using it at the time. This UHF/microwave radiation is very difficult to shield against (HCH has a lot of sensitive electronics located just behind the dash). I get all kinds of cell phone noise on my HCH radio. I'll bet they skimped on the shielding. If you have a cell phone, try driving the car with the cell phone "off".

Also, here in Boston area, there is what I call the Bermuda Triangle of intense RF radiation. One major highway passes between multiple TV/Radio towers. Measurements of 100's of V/m have taken in various spots near the roadway. Cars have been known to just stall out and die under this area. Happens almost every day. I wonder why????

 

Anyone know of a good hybrid service department in So Cal? In addition, does anyone know if other Honda dealers will be as likely to service my hybrid as the one I purchased it from?

 

Any Honda dealer will service your car. I mostly always take mine to different dealer then where I bought it.

 

You could call Honda central customer service at (800) 999-1009

Or write to:
American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
Honda Automobile Customer Service
1919 Torrance Boulevard
Mail Stop: 500 - 2N - 7D
Torrance, CA 90501-2746

And maybe send a copy of the letter to:
President & CEO
Takeo Fukui
Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
2-1-1 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku Tokyo 107-8556, Japan

It's not that I would expect the CEO to respond to you personally, but corporate head offices usually have people on staff to respond to such correspondence, and if your letter is good enough to get their attention it may result in some positive action.

 

Attention all 06 Civic Hybrid owners!!!!!!

Thanks to ElanC, I called Honda central customer service and reported my 2 problems about two weeks ago. Since then I have spoke with my customer care representative (Jeff) numerous times. The last time I spoke with him (12/13/05) he admitted two things:

1) Honda hybrid engineers do not yet know the answer to my problem but are very interested.

2) I am not the only one!!!!! At least one other person has called in with similar problems. Therefore, Honda is looking at VIN numbers to see if these are isolated incidents or a larger problem.

Therefore, I am asking the 06 Civic hybrid community for help. Please call Honda central customer service @ (800) 999-1009 if you have experience either one of my gauge display problems, this way Honda can get an accurate assessment of the problem. Thanks again to everyone. I will keep you up dated as I find out more.

 

I wonder if this is realted to why honda is holding up delivery of new HCHs

 

I haven't heard of any holdups after the initial shipping delays. Have you?

I believe dealers are getting their regular shipments of a few vehicles every week or two.