10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 6 / 1
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 1 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 25,592 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
« Read the previous 20 complaints
The contact owns a 2008 Honda Civic. When approaching a complete stop the vehicle would lurch forward. The vehicle was taken to the dealership for inspection. The technician concluded that since the failure could not be duplicated a failure could not be provided. The current and failure mileages were 6864.
- Newrochelle, NY, USA
Like in complaint #10225955, my 2008 Civic 4-dr ex-L sporadically refuses to stop. It has happened three times so far, at different speeds, in different weather, with and without the cruise control on. I will lightly push the brake to slow down, and then push slightly harder once I've reached the crosswalk/intersection to come to a complete stop. Instead of stopping, the car will lunge forward once or twice. It's like the brake is on but the engine is still trying to accelerate, and is absolutely terrifying. I've brought it into the dealer once and was told that it was normal downshifting of gears while coming to a stop--but that should not cause the car to actually jolt forward, stop, and then jolt forward again, with my foot squarely on the brake the entire time. (I looked down at my feet the third time it happened because I wondered if I was pressing the gas by mistake. I wasn't.) I'm bringing it into the dealer again, but am not hopeful that they will figure out the problem.
- Verona, NJ, USA
1. I attempted to turn left on a busy 6 lane farm to market road. When there was an opening in traffic I pressed the accelerator and the car moved out into the traffic lanes, but with greatly reduced acceleration. My hybrid had lost the electric motor assist needed to accelerate normally. I was almost broadsided by a speeding SUV because I could not accelerate out of the way quickly. 2. this loss of electric motor assist or integrated motor assist (ima) started off happening once or twice a month. Now it is happening a couple of times a week. There is no audible or visual warning light that this loss has occurred. The only evidence is the loss of acceleration and the battery charge level will drop from "normal" (6 or 7 bars) to one or two "bars" on the battery charge display. This unexpected loss of normal acceleration can be very dangerous when merging into busy traffic. It is only after the driver commits that they discover they cannot accelerate "normally" 3. I have taken the vehicle to the Honda dealership five times and opened a case at american Honda. Their position is that since they can't replicate the failure, they can't fix the problem. After doing my own research, I discovered that this loss of acceleration is due to a programmed function in their ima system. The system is designed to periodically reset the state of charge for the battery pack to a minimal value to eliminate accumulated errors. When this happens, the electric motor assist is disabled and the system uses the electric motor to recharge the battery pack. The problem is that this "reset" occurs at the worst possible time; when the vehicle is stopped and the driver needs the high torque/low RPM electric motor to provide adequate acceleration. In my opinion, this unannounced reset function at a stop is a design flaw and makes this vehicle dangerous to operate.
- Jersey Village, TX, USA
My 2008 Honda Civic si drive-by-wire throttle keeps the accelerator pedal depressed for a couple of seconds after the accelerator pedal was released. This has caused two near crashes in the first week that I owned the vehicle. I now keep the car parked in the garage due to safety concerns. Honda has refused to address this issue for the thousands of Civic si owners. The Honda Civic si's should be recalled as soon as possible.
- Madison, CT, USA
- Englewood, FL, USA