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!
Unsurprisingly, Honda issued a statement concerning the court’s decision today, which it intends to appeal:
“We regret that Ms. Peters is unhappy with the reported mileage for her particular driving experience. However, it is clearly pointed out on the federally required window label that accompanied her car that mileage will vary depending upon a number of factors including options, driving conditions, driving habits and vehicle condition. Those factors affect gas mileage for every car on the road today, hybrid or not. American Honda's advertising regarding fuel economy of Civic Hybrids was accurate when the vehicles were sold and remains accurate today.
There are a number of points of disagreement with the ruling, but the court stated in error that advertising EPA fuel economy estimates is misleading unless the advertising also explains the effects of stop-and-go driving and the use of air conditioning. In fact, federal law does not permit states or state courts to impose additional requirements of this kind. Thus, a Honda advertisement that accurately referenced EPA mileage estimates, truthfully stated that a driver can get "up to 50 mpg" and carefully noted that mileage will vary is not misleading as a matter of law.
American Honda is proud of the fuel saving capability of the Honda Civic Hybrid and is grateful to the many hybrid owners who have written to let us know how pleased they have been in achieving 50 mpg or more in real world driving conditions. In fact, Honda presented evidence of those customer letters in court to help demonstrate the real world capability of the vehicle. Our customers should rest assured that Honda will continue to pursue cutting-edge technologies and strategies to enhance their ability to achieve high levels of fuel efficiency in all of our products.
In conclusion and with all due respect to the court, American Honda believes that the judgment in this case is a radical and unprecedented departure from California and federal law, and, as stated above, we intend to vigorously appeal this decision."
Ads often make impressive claims in bold letters, while adding certain clauses in the small print – which, surely, almost no one pays much attention. We suspect that this case may start a new storm of lawsuits against manufacturers.
Not to give any ideas […] but some may be inspired to question manufacture claims on things like 0-60 acceleration, braking distance and top speed - well scratch the last one for apparent reasons.
Story References: Detnews & Honda
10 Comments:
out of a job and looking for troubles, typical lawyer. by the way, why just Honda, buy anther brand and start suing lady.
Stupid Honda, the appeal will cost so much more than that 10grand returned
I agree with DaJuddgt. I'm in favor of standing up for oneself and not being hoodwinked or ripped off, but this person's claim is specious. What kind of fuel economy was she achieving by the way? I couldn't find details on this after searching online other than the plaintiff stating that the car 'fell far short' of the advertised fuel economy. Did she get 43mpg? 46mpg? 35mpg? Did an independent third party audit the claimed fuel efficiency data she provided? I used to drive a 1979 Caprice Classic and I remember the fuel economy rating was roughly 20 mpg (combined city/highway). I could achieve this and better if I drove the speed limit and accelerated and braked gradually. If I didn't do this I usually got 17 or 18 mpg on average. I bring up this ancient example to highlight that fuel efficiency data from manufacturers has always been geared to show the best possible results, without cheating/lying. This occurs today as well. I admit I don't have all the details here and know there is a chance that Honda / car manufacturers in general push the envelope in their marketing of claimed mpg figures, but with the information I have it seems the plaintiff is being deliberately obtuse (i.e. a trouble-maker) and/or playing devil's advocate to the extreme, in order to financially gain from this scenario.
I agree, this was a stupid lawsuit and shows what's wrong with things here and with portions of our legal system. I hope Honda's appeal cuts it back bunches and is publicized.
congratulations to Ms. Peters
Honda is just another corp. They only exist to make money.
Honda will appeal because this case could set a precedent in which they, or all other automakers could continue to be sued for alleged false mileage statements. The appeal will be worthwhile for them compared to the potential billions (as stated in the article) that they might have to pay if class action suits, etc, become popular. Besides, the automakers are only advertising what the government approved mileage rating are on the sticker. Plus, they always have those fine print, legal disclaimers stating that "your mileage may vary, blah, blah, blah." The outcome from all of this will be interesting. Keeep us posted, Carscoop.
I won a legitimate lemon law suit against Honda in 2007 and only got $1700.
I think you's agree that every company needs to make money, to employ their workers, to pay their overhead, to invest in the company's future? As mentioned above, they can only cite the numbers given by the EPA and mileage will vary. Now, if there's something wrong with her car then that's another matter. She obviously was playing to the numbers and wanted to get exactly those numbers. Again, unless there's something wrong with her car this suit should have been tossed.
Well, MPG-O--Matic got 46.2 mpg combined... I thought that was pretty good: http://goo.gl/VgHWD
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