2009 Honda Civic Hybrid problems
NHTSA has received 41 complaints about the 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid, and 27% of them involve electrical system. Next are drivetrain & axles (15%) and air bags (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 41 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 27% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 0 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 1 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 52,000 miles 29 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 | 6 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 5 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 5 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 7 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 0 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 5 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 29 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 52,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 1 injury reported. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 91% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2009 ranks 4th most-complained-about out of 7 model years of the Honda Civic Hybrid with enough data (29 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 5 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.
Ima battery is defective, wears out earlier than designed, causes dangerously slow episodes of being able to accelerate from a stand still and accelerate to merge with highway speed traffic. Gets horrible fuel mileage, no where as advertised, especially in very hot weather. **03/01/2012 updated bf the consumer stated the ima battery light illuminated. The dealer suggested a software upgrade update. When the consumer turned the vehicle off, and back on again, the light did not illuminate. Updated 03/16/12
1) visors cracked - driver's side does not stay up. 2) hybrid battery light showed it failed - dealership reprogrammed the car fall 2011 and since then the car does not accelerate as well. I have noticed lessened ability to accelerate when merging. 3) two of the doors fail to lock when the car reaches locking speed. One of these is a back seat passenger door where a child sits.
Car died at 50MPH on a straight flat road for no reason. Dashboard display went blank and power steering lost. Put car into neutral, restarted the car in neutral and recovered power steering and electrical systems. This is the second similar incident but the first at high speed. Mechanics said there was a corroded battery cable, then later indicated that it just needed to be tightened, however, the battery is brand new and the cable was checked and the connection was secure and entirely free of corrosion just days…