Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | |||
| 12/26/2009 | 130000 | 1 | |
| Tl*the contact owns a 2003 honda civic hybrid. while driving 75 mph on the interstate when the accelerator pedal extended to the floor without the contact applying pressure to it, then the rpms increased. he then firmly pressed on the brake pedal and the vehicle started to slow down. the contact was able to continue driving. the failure has occurred approximately 7 to 8 times. honda was contacted and stated that they were not going to repair the vehicle since the failure was related to the cruise control. they also advised the contact to have the vehicle diagnosed by the dealer. no repairs were made to the vehicle. the failure mileage was 130,000. the current mileage was 207,496. the consumer also stated the brakes did not work well on a rough road when going down a hill. updated 05/13/10.*jb | |||
| 02/22/2009 | 52000 | 1 | |
| 2003 honda civic hybrid. original owner car has 52 k. recently i experienced a near death accident because the engine rapidly accelerated by itself as i exited a slight uphill driveway. as i approached the end of the driveway i stopped before turning onto the road, i heard a thud or clunk and then the car lurched and sped rapidly into the road which was wet from rain. the car skidded and fishtailed l tried to apply the brakes but they were unresponsive. i tried the emergency brake which did not respond either. the car did a 360 turn and had gone almost 200 yards from where it exited the driveway. the engine sounded like it was going to blow up. i could smell smoke. all of this happened in under 30 seconds. by some merciful force, the car hit the mud embankment on the side of the road and thankfully no other cars were on the road. i jumped out of the car because the engine was still racing and i could not turn it off, i ran across the road because i wasn't sure if the car would blow up or keep going. after a few seconds i ran over again and could turn it off but the emergency lights did not work . the car was towed to the oakland, ca honda dealer where i purchased it. they performed a basic diagnostic test and told me the car is ok to drive and nothing is visibly wrong with it except for the dent on the front bumper. they have closed the case. in the past this car has been serviced several times for a recall due to a problem with the cvt (continuously variable transmission) because it judders after coming to a stop. i do not believe that honda has adequately researched my case. a car should not accelerate as mine did and i believe that the fact this model has already had a recall on the transmission warrants a more than cursory evaluation. honda is risking the safety of hundreds and thousands of peoples safety by not trying to determine why my vehicle sped out of control by itself. i plan to investigate further in thanks that i am alive. *tr | |||
| 04/10/2008 | 65000 | 1 | |
| 2003 civic hybrid- 80k miles. bought in 2006 with 60k miles. the vehicle hesitates when accelerating from a stop. there is about a 5-8 second delay in pressing the gas and the car going, which has caused me to almost be rear ended a few times. the vehicle also slows down extremely rapidly when the foot is removed from the gas pedal. even with no pressure applied to the break pedal. to ordinary (not hybrid) cars, it seems like i am pressing my brake, they just see me slowing down, but there are no lights to warn them, i have almost been in two really bad car accidents that were avoided by mere inches when: on the highway i have taken my foot off the accelerator to slow my vehicle, but i did not need the breaks since the car slowed down so fast on it's own. i threw on my emergency lights and tapped the brake to signal to cars behind me who were moving much faster still. i think that honda should put in smaller lights or a different safety light when you remove your foot from the accelerator on the civic hybrids, to avoid rear-ending accidents due to rapid decrease in speed with no usage of the braking system. history of problem: during test drive vehicle made slight shudder noise and hesitation before starting to accelerate. the dealer told me that it was a normal noise for hybrids. i foolishly believed him. a few months later the shuddering was worse and i knew that it wasn't a normal noise for any transmission to be making at 60,000 miles! over the last 2 years i have taken the car to the dealership many times to fix this problem, which is only patched up and the shuddering comes back a few thousand miles later. honda knows about this problem and has a service bulletin for it, yet their dealerships try to put off fixing the problem until someone's warranty is almost over, or over. honda needs to be held responsible for this faulty vehicle. a recall should be done at the very least, to fix the cars driving around with bad transmissions. *tr | |||
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL - CRUISE CONTROL | |||
| 04/04/2007 | 78000 | 3 | 12/31/2003 |
| While driving my 2003 civic hybrid using cruise control, the accel/decel feature on the steering wheel malfunctions. i am driving on the highway, engage the cruise control, using the steering wheel buttons, and then press the accel button and the cars begins to decelerate. i have paid extra careful attention to be sure that i am not pressing the incorrect button in error, and i am in fact pressing the accel button, yet the car continues to decelerate. at three different times, i have tested this failure and it is an intermittent problem. this could be a serious safety hazard as the first time i discovered this malfunction, i was getting onto the highway attempting to accelerate to merge into traffic and the car began decelerating. any help would be greatly appreciated. *tr | |||
| 05/02/2006 | 44000 | 1 | 08/10/2003 |
| When disengaging the cruise control it disengaged on the panel but kept going. repeated attempts to disengage met with failure. the speed accelerated up to 70+ mph. shifted into neutral, it red lined out to 7,000 rpm, shut it down. restarted, cruise control locked in. shut down, restarted and it finally disengaged. have not used since that date. *jb | |||