I currently am the lessee of a 2009 Honda Civic hybrid starting this January, the hybrid battery charge level goes from almost full (8-10 out of 10 bars) to virtually zero (1 bar) every other week (the technical term for this is a "recall" or recalibrating). This summer, it started happening every 3-4 days, and whenever I had the A/C on. Then, it started to happen every 100 miles (which made it very predictable). The problem is that when in the 'recall' state, the car is almost unresponsive and does not accelerate much, if at all. This poses a safety hazard especially when making left turns when the oncoming traffic has a blind spot, or is coming around a corner. It also impacts fuel efficiency substantially. I have seen about a 7 mile-per-gallon drop in fuel economy. I took the car to the dealer who told me that there were no codes in the system but there were 3 software updates, so they installed those and that if I still had the problem, to come back. I still have the problem so I schedule the appointment and I take the mechanic for a test drive and he sees the charge drop rapidly and states that it's completely normal. I argue that is happens too often and he still says "it's fine." About 3 weeks later the ima light and 'check engine' light come on. Turns out, it was a blown fuse (for the A/C electric drive, fuse #22) so they replace it, and tell me that they checked the current draw on the A/C just to be safe and claimed everything was fine. Now, about 2 weeks later, every time I start the car it does a recall. This is beyond annoying and now I'm starting to see drops of about 10 mpg because of this problem, as opposed to the previous 6 or 7. I'm thinking that Honda knows that their nimh battery cells are prone to premature failure and will not do anything to fix the issue.

- Oakhurst, NJ, USA

I bought a brand new 2009 Honda Civic LX in December of 2008. In March 2009, only 3 months after owning the vehicle and only 3,000km total on the vehicle, I've been experiencing an inconsistent and disconcerting problem after driving this car off the lot. The vehicle seems to have an intermittent starting issue where on random occasions the vehicle will not start. Once trying to start it, it cranks, like it is trying to turn over to start for a range of 5-15 seconds. It eventually starts on the 2nd or 3rd attempt. I have consulted in the dealership on numerous occasions. After 2 months of taking the car in, the dealership and Honda Canada wanted to install a computer recorder on my car to try to get the problem recorded, since they were not able to reproduce the noise. After have the recorder installed for just over a month, the problem finally reproduced. I called the dealership in which they took out the monitor to have it send for an analysis. I had mentioned that this was the worst one, because not only did it crank for about 8 seconds, it just died - did not catch or keep cranking. I called 2 weeks after to get an update in which I did not get a response after leaving a message for george (head of service). I called again 2 weeks later in which george stated he had heard back a few days prior but was too "busy" to call me. He stated that the recorder said it was 8 seconds and started, and 2 times where is was 5 seconds and started. He then told me if I was not happy to deal with head office and we would contact tech support. I still have not heard back from george, 2 business days later, after trying to contact him. I spoke with head office who told me the dealer said it was normal for my car not to start. I am still in the dark as to what the issue could be, and I'm tired of speculating. For all I know it could be the oem battery with the insufficient cold-cranking amp ratings, the main fuel relay or a faulty cam/crank sensor.

- Newmarket, 00, USA

Sudden acceleration surge, to the point of having to completely hold the brake with both feet. At one point, after putting car into neutral, the engine revved to 7000 RPM before owner could turn car off. The initial surging resulted in the owner's wife hitting her passenger mirror against another vehicle when the engine surged while in reverse. There was no category for the vehicle ECU, which is quite suspect at this point.

- Golden, CO, USA