2008 Honda Civic Hybrid problems
NHTSA has received 88 complaints about the 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid, and 22% of them involve electrical system. Next are fuel system (22%) and engine (15%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 88 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 22% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 9 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 7 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 65,000 miles 66 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 | 1 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 13 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 14 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 14 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 8 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 5 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 10 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 66 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 64,000 miles. For electrical system specifically, the median reported mileage is about 60,000 miles (16 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 9 complaints mention a crash; 7 injuries reported; 1 death reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2008 ranks 2nd most-complained-about out of 7 model years of the Honda Civic Hybrid with enough data (49 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 4 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.
Tl* the contact owned a 2008 honda civic hybrid. The contact stated that his mother-in-law was involved in a front end collision after losing control of the vehicle on the freeway. The contact stated that all the air bags deployed except the driver side air bag. The vehicle was towed to a collision shop, but it had not been determined if the vehicle was destroyed. A police report was filed. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. There was one fatality due to the crash.
I was stopped with my foot on the brake, about to make a left turn. The engine shut off as the hybrids do. I was rear-ended by a chevy suburban going 30 MPH. The vehicle's back crumpled accordingly, and that structure did well. However the driver's seat broke so where the back could not be set upright without it falling over after the crash. I wonder if my back would have been as hurt if it would not have broken.
After years of poor performance with this hybrid, I discovered that my ima battery was going bad. Honda had some recalls where they installed a new software update, but it did nothing. As a honda hybrid owner, I bought a hybrid because I felt like it was the patriotic thing to do and hoped that the benefit would be greater gas mileage. As it turns out, it costs more initially than a regular civic, is no better than a regular civic on gas mileage and the ima replacement runs around $3500.
I'm the second owner of this vehicle, having bought it less than three years from its original purchase date. Every time I fill up the gas tank (I don't top-off), and for up to a day later, my garage will wreak of gasoline when the car is parked in the garage. I've parked other cars in garages following fill-ups and this has never occurred. The garage is adequately ventilated.