Yesterday I test-drove a 2007 Accord Hybrid. 138K miles. Looks and drives very nice for its age and miles. Though I've owned a 2006 Accord for over a year (recently rear-ended and totaled), this was my first time driving an Accord hybrid. I made the following observations which I think indicate something is wrong with the hybrid system. Can anyone please comment who might have some insight into what the problem is and what might need to be done to fix it?

The "Asst" (Assist) lights hardly ever came on. I did a variety of driving, slow stop & go, steady ~30mph, highway. When the Asst lights did come on, they seemed random and intermittent. For example, driving steadily along with no Asst lights, then suddenly they flash on almost all the way to the end, then just as suddenly turn back off.

The Charge lights went on far more often than the Asst lights. The hybrid battery charge indicator went from 3 of 6 bars when I started, to 4 of 6 about halfway through the test drive.

Now, here's another thing I'm concerned about. I noticed that the trip odometer was reading about 12mpg. That is not a typo. I cycled through the mpg readings--I think there were three? And all were around 10-12mpg. This was about halfway through the test drive. I held down the trip odometer reset button until Trip B went to "---". Then pretty soon it jumped to 8mpg, then slowly inched up to about 11mpg.

Then we got on the highway and it started increasing faster. By the time we got off of the highway, it was at 16mpg.

Nothing about the way the car drove suggested such poor mpg. It drove great, just as well as our old one before I was rear-ended while stopped at a stoplight. It did not feel like brakes were dragging. I made sure the parking brake was not on.

Another issue was that the passenger side of the trunk lid was slightly raised. I tested closing it on a piece of paper and then pulling it out--almost no resistance. On the other side of the trunk which was not raised, plenty of resistance. I lived with a car for many years that had a trunk lid that didn't make a good seal. Over time the results were not pretty.

I doubt the trunk lid will be expensive for an auto mechanic or body shop to fix. But I'm concerned about the other issues I described here. What do you think? Are these known issues? Easy fixes or expensive?

Oh--one other small thing I noticed. My least favorite thing about our crashed 2006 Accord EX-L (before the crash) was the very hard seats. I expected the seats to be the same in this 2007 hybrid (both are leather), but instead they were noticeably softer. Was that random, or did that change from 2006 to 2007? Or maybe a difference between the EX-L and the Hybrid of those model years?

 

I'm not sure on the changes with the seats. You may want to have the code(s) scanned to see if there is an issue with the hybrid electrical system.

From your description, if you are considering buying this vehicle, spend the money to have a shop that specializes in hondas/foreign cars do a buyers inspection. The hybrid battery is an expensive part, so you want to avoid large expenses. Alternatively, you can use known expensive repairs to lower the seller's price of the car..