2003 Honda Civic Hybrid problems
NHTSA has received 67 complaints about the 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid, and 36% of them involve drivetrain & axles. Next are air bags (13%) and engine (13%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 67 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Drivetrain & axles 36% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 6 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 2 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 126,000 miles 57 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 5 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 3 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 3 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 4 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 6 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 7 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 15 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 6 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 5 |
| 200k+ miles | 3 |
What the data shows
Of the 57 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 126,000 miles. For drivetrain & axles specifically, the median reported mileage is about 130,000 miles (21 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 6 complaints mention a crash; 2 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2003 ranks 5th most-complained-about out of 7 model years of the Honda Civic Hybrid with enough data (11 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 6 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
I was involved in a nearly head on crash in which the airbags deployed. Both of my hands were on the steering wheel at the time. As the airbags inflated, I was burned on my right forearm. I was wearing a fleece jacket and a sweatshirt. They were burned through and I sustained a significant burn on my arm which required medical attention.
My teen aged child was driving on the interstate 5 freeway going 65 MPH and traffic came to a sudden stop and he immediatly stepped on his brake pedal to try to avoid hitting the car in front of him but the car in front of him hit the car ahead and then my child hit the second car in a chain reaction. When the police arrive he noted that the air bags did not deploy despite the impact. The officer siad that it should have.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda civic hybrid. The contact stated that the vehicle would violently jerk when accelerating from a stop and also when driving at various speeds. The failure recurred on an intermittent basis. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer numerous times where various transmission and engine repairs were performed, but the failure continued. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 5. The VIN was unavailable.
I drove my car to honda of san angelo dealership for a recall, a software update campaign was done, I picked up the car and upon driving off the dealership lot, I noticed immediately that the electric part of the hybrid was not working, at all, it was working when I dropped it off and getting 47 mpg. Upon returning to the dealership, the service manager told me not to blame them for having a 9 year old car with 100,000 miles on it.
The SRS (supplemental restraint system) warning light came on my dashboard. This is a known design/quality defect. Honda provided extended warranty coverage for this item for 150,000 miles/10 years. I took the car in for service on 7/16/2013, 3 months and 5 days beyond 10 years. Given the mileage of the vehicle and the fact that the car was just beyond warranty, I expected that it would be fixed as a warranty item. Instead I was billed $65.14 for reading a code from the diagnostic log.