Sally W

driving. Is this a common problem? When it dies, I have to have it towed to Honda and have the battery reprogrammed. Honda told me that these cars aren't made to be drivin in cities only. I thought I bought a car to help save the planet and now I have to spend 30 minutes a week wasting gas driving it on the highway at 45 mph to charge the battery. Have any buyers of Honda hybrids been informed of this before buying a hybrid? Has anyone found a different solution to the one Honda has told me I need to do to keep the battery charged?

Pcjyc

Sound like full of , keep in mind hybrid is new animal for all of techicians. Battery gets charge as you brake(fricition from brakes recharges your battery) Sounds like your Honda dealer do't know whats going on with your problem. Talk to Honda directly to see if they will buy the car back under lemon law. Each states lemon law is different..

84&86capri

honda's are reliable they dont break remember

mahout

As has been said, your dealer sounds like he's spouting crap but with a hybrid it is possible to drive on the battery a lot and not enough on the engine so that the battery discharges. That appears to be your case because you drive lots of short trips of a few miles, and none long enough to engage the engine.
If you drive such short trips that the engine doesn't have enough time running to charge the battery you will discharge the battery.
If that's the case you need to investigate using an aftermarket plug-in battery charger INTENDED FOR YOUR HYBRID, not just any charger. Your dealer or Honda may be best reference to begin.
Or you can just drive one trip a week of at least enough miles to show your battery is fully charged. That may be 25 miles - perhaps more - but that's what I'd do. Hybrids are band-aids, not solutions. My wife's 04 Civic HX (not hybrid) averages 41 mpg, about same as the hybrids we service. Hybrids get such good EPA mileage because they start the test with battery fully charged and they should start it with battery only partially charged. And do city test then rural immediately after. Now you know why Toyota and Honda are working frantically to get plug-in hybrids to market. Trading energy from gasoline for energy from coal is a good thing. cheers.