Customer complaint on Honda IMA battery

Customer complaint on Honda IMA battery

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It all started last July, a woman by the name of Latifah Emir had emailed us and many other members of the Malaysian media highlighting the failure of the IMA battery in her Honda Civic Hybrid after slightly more than two years of ownership, having clocked 112,296km.

According to Latifah, problems in her Civic began in October 2010, about one and a half years after buying the car, when the IMA warning sign on her dashboard began flashing erratically. Repeated complaints were made in subsequent services until permanent failure was diagnosed in May 2011.

In her first correspondence with Honda Malaysia, Latifah claimed that she was misled by her sales adviser into believing that the Civic Hybrid would be problem free because: one – it is a Honda, and two – the battery’s lifespan can go up to 20 years. It was also stated in her letter that the Civic Hybrid in question has been serviced only in Honda’s authorized service centres. She backed her claims up in a subsequent letter with a self-written service record.

At that point, Latifah has decided that she does not want to continue maintaining the vehicle, and demanded that Honda Malaysia buy the car back at its second hand market value of that moment. Honda Malaysia’s response was to counter with an offer to replace Latifah’s battery free of charge, which was in turn rejected.

With neither party willing to budge at that juncture, the dispute went to the tribunals, and that was when Latifah began keeping the media in the loop. First sitting of the tribunal took place on 28 July 2011 in Putrajaya, and a verdict was announced on 13 September 2011 awarding RM21,521.19 worth of damages to Latifah.

Honda Malaysia appealed for a judicial review of the verdict at the High Court. On 28 March 2012, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled in favour of both Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Kah Motor Co Sdn Bhd (the dealer who sold Latifah her car), overruling the decision of the consumer tribunal. In her final email to the media, Latifah has declared that she shall put the matter to rest following the High Court’s verdict.

Editor’s Note: Due to the sensitive nature of this issue, we at Autoworld wish to make it very clear that we take sides with neither Honda Malaysia nor Latifah in this matter. In this article, we describe the case using points presented by both Latifah and Honda Malaysia. We will not form any opinion on this matter and we leave it to you, the reader to draw your own conclusions.

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