Honda being sued over hybrid mileage claims -- in small claims court

[thewayne]

The Slashdot summary: "Eric Peters makes the case that hybrids have been over-hyped. His argument is that in order to sell people on hybrid cars, automakers have emphasized the energy efficiency of hybrids in ideal conditions and failed to tell people that in most ordinary driving conditions they will not come close to meeting the numbers given. He refers to a recent case where an individual has chosen to forego membership in a class action law suit and has instead chosen to go to small claims court. He suggests that there is a significant chance that she will win there and that this will open up all of the manufacturers of hybrid vehicles to similar lawsuits. The article was on a rather partisan website, so I am curious what factors he has chosen to overemphasize to make his case. (Or what factors he has chosen to ignore to the same end.) I know that Slashdot has a large contingent of hybrid and EV supporters who are well educated on the subject (as well as a large contingent of those who are not so well educated)."

The key to this is the small claims court (SCC) angle. This particular state limits damages to $10,000 in SCC, but SCC also has a much lower burden of proof and the judge can be a more active participant rather than just the arbiter role that they perform in superior court. The issue is that Honda states that the car is capable of 50 MPG and that the owner is not getting more than 30. So the issue is manufacturer/EPA estimated mileage, which is tricky on a hybrid. The standard assumes level driving and extremely conservative acceleration and speed, speeds that would get you killed on an interstate.

Here's the thing that should scare the beejeezus out of car manufacturers: if this case succeeds, they could end up fighting dozens, if not hundreds, of such cases in SCC rather than monster large class action cases where the attorneys get all the money and the participants get a check for $15. Plus you can represent yourself in SCC, making the cost to enter very low.

Interesting times.

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/06/honda-civic-lesson

http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/01/07/1730240/another-stab-at-sorting-hybrid-hype-from-reality

Comments

[silveradept]

So once again we have standards that are divorced from reality? At some point, we should probably fix those and make people claim something that others will actually see in their day-to-day lives.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Estimated mileage is a very tricky thing. I track my/our mileage very closely, and oddly enough, both my car and my wife's get about the same mileage. My automatic 2005 AWD Toyota Matrix has averaged over about 415 fill-ups 28.9 MPG overall, my normal mileage varying between about 24 and 33. My wife's six-speed manual 2010 Subaru Outback over about 120 tanks is averaging 28.7 varying between 23 and 33. I'd like to trade cars for two months and see how the numbers change, but that's not going to happen. I don't track who is driving where when, so the information is strictly observational rather than authoritative.

As I said to Hafoc, I think they need three numbers: steady highway, start and stop city, and a hill course. But you're always going to have drivers with different characteristics, and I don't see how you could control for external temperature and weather, so you're always going to have a wide variance.