Honda aren’t having the best of times as far as their automotive developments are concerned, but they’ve just caught a break.
It’s come from the United States, particularly the legal department.
I’m sure Honda would have loved to get a break in terms of market share but they’ll have to settle with this settling of an older argument.
A while back, Honda lost 10.000 USD to a lawyer who’d purchased a Civic Hybrid and wasn’t satisfied with the fuel economy figures she’d been getting.
She took the matter to a small claims court and won. This didn’t go down with Honda’s image and even opened up the situation for a class action suit.
Honda took things back to court in an attempt to have their say in the situation and the Japanese company has now emerged victorious.
It was Judge Dudley Gray II of the state Superior Court in Torrence, California that reversed the lower court’s ruling and gave Honda the break.
As a result, Honda will no longer have to pay the plaintiff her money and aren’t really subjected to any real risk of a class action lawsuit.
Honda is still somewhat apologetic about a previous class action regarding the Civic Hybrid. The settlement won by the customers there is decent however.
Customers are to be paid out between 100 and 200 USD depending on version purchased or they should be given up to $1500 discount on a new purchase.
Naturally, that car would also be a Honda, regardless of class or fuel economy levels.
