Thought you might be interested in this follow-up if you hadn’t seen it already.
From the article:
“...But Peters’ car was never tested by an independent party to see how much her driving habits played a role in her fuel economy. As it is, Honda’s IMA system never runs in a pure electric mode; an aggressive driver could get unhybrid-like fuel economy if the engine is always being pushed.
Before the appeals case started, we said that the only true way to see if her car was defective would be to properly test it according to EPA standards. That didn’t happen...
...Brisbois also brought up her former cars as a comparison to what she might be comparing her Civic—two BMW Z3 roadsters, a BMW X5 crossover, and a Mazda RX-8 sports car...
MPG depends on driving conditions and the drivers ability to use conservative methods of driving. Generally no person on the highway can reach the posted MPG they state. Poor drivers will almost always get very poor mileage. For instance just idling at intersections will lower MPG.
Push a little engine hard and the mileage will drop, same for sitting in traffic.
Sounds like this Peters wants to become the Erin Brocoliwitch of autos.
A regular citizen, even one with some law training is hardly a match for High powered high paid ,attorneys who do this for a living.
Coming up against people with almost unlimited funds it isn’t surprising that she lost.
This case demonstrates some of the biggest problems when businesses get sued in small claims court. Because there is no pre-trial discovery allowed, it is mostly trial-by-ambush. The plaintiff knows what he or she is going to present, and the defendant can only react on the spot. Preparation is mostly limited to what little information was revealed in the plaintiff’s written claim, and what was known from prior contact with the plaintiff. Plus businesses are not allowed to use an attorney to represent them in small claims court. Add the liberal personal politics and prejudices of the “judge”, and you often get a kangaroo court. No one should ever take results from a small claims court as a clear indication of anything.
I have a 2012 Nissan Versa that consistently gets 39 MPG, though it has been as high as 42 MPG. When I compared the upfront cost of a hybrid to the upfront cost of my no frills $12000 Versa (manual transmission), I had to go with the Versa. The low cost meant I was able to pay cash, so no out of pocket dollars going to interest. I would have had to drive the hybrid for years & years before I could hope to begin saving what I saved by buying the Versa, just looking at sticker price alone. In addition, it has been my experience that Nissans are good for 300K + miles if taken care of. Maybe one day the hybrid will be the most economical choice but I don’t think we are there yet.
I think her biggest complaint came when she took her car in for service and they reprogrammed the computer. Supposedly, they did this to conserve the life of the battery, which I assume maybe they were worried about having to replace some of these batteries wearing out during the warranty period. She was not too happy with the mileage she was getting to begin with, and when they reprogrammed the battery the mileage dropped considerably - to the point that it was not much better than the non-hybrid version, and certainly not worth the extra cost.
Interesting article:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-truth-about-epa-city-highway-mpg-estimates