Heather Peters wins hybrid mileage suit against Honda

Honda lost a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court Wednesday filed by Heather Peters, an American woman who said her hybrid did not get the fuel efficiency stated in its advertisements. The plaintiff, Heather Peters, said in the suit that while Honda claimed in advertisements that her car could achieve 21 km per liter, it managed less than 13 once the battery deteriorated. The Los Angeles Superior Court ordered Honda to pay $9,867 (about ¥750,000) in damages to Heather Peters, who sued for $10,000.The Los Angeles Superior Court verdict may have much larger implications for Honda as other Civic Hybrid owners may follow her example and sue Honda directly instead of opting to join a pending class-action lawsuit based on the same complaints.


Honda eventually could be liable for up to $2 billion in judgments, if the owners of the 200,000 Civic Hybrids sold each won $10,000 in small claims court. Peters, 46, a Los Angeles resident who formerly lived in Redondo Beach, has been aggressively promoting her case through the website DontSettleWithHonda.org, as well as a Twitter feed, Youtube page and media interviews. Honda argued that its calculation of gas mileage was appropriate under the law and will appeal against the ruling.