Woman Wins $10K in Spat with Honda over Civic Hybrid's Fuel Economy, Carmaker Says it will Appeal

Lately, fuel economy figures are becoming something of a hot issue in the U.S. After the Consumer Watchdog-Hyundai Elantra debacle we told you about earlier today, we have another case of a car manufacturer accused of misleading customers about one of its model’s fuel economy claims.
Heather Peters, a former lawyer who lives in Southern California, took Honda to a small-claims court. She accused the carmaker of lying about her 2006 Civic Hybrid's fuel efficiency as she never managed to reach the estimates advertised by Honda.
And guess what? Peters won the case and the court awarded her US$9,867. LA Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan wrote a 26-page decision, which included a long list of misleading statements made by Honda and identified by Peters, such as “amazingly little fuel” and “save plenty of money of fuel with up to 50 mpg during city driving.”
“At a bare minimum Honda was aware… that by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised mileage," Carnahan wrote in the ruling.
Peters, who was naturally delighted with the decision, said she did not file a class-action lawsuit because in small-claims courts, there are no attorney’s fees and cases are decided upon quickly.
She also launched a website at DontSettleWithHonda.org with the intent to inspire other Civic Hybrid owners to dismiss Honda’s class-action settlement that offered owners US$100-200 each and a $1,000 credit on purchasing a new car and choose the small courts option.
Peters said that legal fees in the class action could give lawyers around $8.5 million adding that if the 200,000 people who are covered by the proposed settlement were to sue the Japanese carmaker in a small court, it could cost Honda as much as US$2 billion!