2022 Honda civic hybrid

[Pugmanone1]

Just over a year ago I purchased an ex demo Honda civic hybrid. This car has a 2lt petrol engine and two electric motors. Rated all together at 181 bhp.  I owned the car for a few weeks over a year and covered 13400 miles in it. The good and the bad of Honda ownership. Well at around 5000 miles I had an oil check light come on. This happened at night in the middle of nowhere somewhere near Lincoln. After crawling along to find a place with some light, I found that the oil level was ok. The warning light I was told was just a nod to the fact that the Honda 1.5 engine had oil problems, well more like over fuelling problems leading to oil levels to rise as fuel found its way into the sump. After that all was ok. I found that the drivers seat was to my mind starting to flatten and was not so comfortable a few miles before. Resetting the electric handbrake and turning of the various line assisted system each time was a bit of a pain on short journeys ( the lane assist could pull the car into parked cars at times, great on motorways but not much else) . Now the civic did have a reasonable turn of speed and being light was easy to drive. The Led headlights not so good has the BMW system, but ok. The sat-nav was ok, but not great and I used apple car play most of the time. Come the civics first service and I found the 0 to 20 oil cost £90 a gallon. But the service was less then expected at under £300. Then it all went pair shape. I had to make a journey of a 100 miles from my home in Somerset to wantage. Driving along the 303, just got half way and the steering became harder to turn from the 12 0 clock position. Then it would go back to normal, then hard again. I stopped, checked all I could, could see nothing and carried on abet slower. On returning home, I contacted my local dealer, who did not want to know, I contacted Honda U.K.. who put it down to being left hand drive. I found out that this model of civic comes complete with a steering problem at just over 11,000 miles and at speeds above 55mpg. In fact two drivers in American have been killed due to this fault. An on going legal action is going on about this issue. However I found out that Honda as not issued a recall on this and until they do, their dealers can just refuse to do anything. What a position to be in. We all know that it’s illegal to sale a damaged car in the U.K. unless it’s listed as damaged or faulty. But I would lose most of my money. In the end I asked an old employer of mine to step in and being a legal expert I was able to get Honda to take the car back. So much for Honda being a safe bet for reliability. 

[J.R.]

7 minutes ago, Pugmanone1 said:

Now the civic did have a reasonable turn of speed and being light was easy to drive.

 

I suppose 1443kg is considered as light these days 4 door 5 seat family cars of my parents era weighed half of that.

 

Sorry to hear of your experience and shocked to hear that the legendary Honda reliability and customer service has dropped to that level, I really wonder whether manufacturers have been pushed into the current direction of vehicle development because of Government regulations and climate change targets and would they have made the choice themselves at the cost of their previous reputation?

[skomaz]

In my experience Honda's started to go downhill with the mk 8 Civic.  Great engine and futuristic design but it was let down by poor bodywork and plastics...   Leading to leaks, door handles falling off, trim coming loose etc.  and over complicated infotainment and dashboards. The Jazz is a bit better screwed together and the mk 10 is a bit better but they still aren't quite what they once were.

Edited 26 December, 2023 by skomaz

[Pugmanone1]

27 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

I suppose 1443kg is considered as light these days 4 door 5 seat family cars of my parents era weighed half of that.

 

Sorry to hear of your experience and shocked to hear that the legendary Honda reliability and customer service has dropped to that level, I really wonder whether manufacturers have been pushed into the current direction of vehicle development because of Government regulations and climate change targets and would they have made the choice themselves at the cost of their previous reputation?

It’s a pity but yes I think all car manufacturers have been forced to not only invest in very untested in real life situations by governments pushing unrealistic green targets on them, but also costing for profit. One only needs to see the amount of plastic used for major engine components in today’s BMW,s to witness that fact. Before I purchase the Honda I did look at Toyota with their 10 year warranty. That was until I was informed that it’s up to the dealership is they will honour the extended warranty or not. And most will not, and that goes for Kia also.  I know that Honda had massive problems with their 1.5 turbo direct injection engines. However this was mainly in colder country’s. But being an engineer I have never been impressed with butting small turbo engines into cars. Over pressure direct fuel injection may give extra bhp, but at the cost of reliability. 
it’s a sad reflection on the car industry and customer rights that manufacturers can produce products that only hold out until a week after the warranty runs out.