A California appeals court has agreed to hear a lawsuit accusing Honda of false advertising related to its Civic Hybrid. The suit claims Honda reports unrealistic mileage figures, which the company says can be achieved under normal driving conditions. Honda has received a number of complaints about the Civic Hybrid’s mileage, prompting it to ask the EPA to revise the rating down.

Under U.S. federal law, carmakers are protected from lawsuits over disclosure of fuel economy standards. But this latest lawsuit, brought forward by Civic owner Gaetano Paduano, is based on an interesting loophole. The crux of Paduano’s complaint is the claim in Honda’s ads that EPA mileage can be achieved by diving the vehicle like a regular car.

Paduano “presented evidence that directly disputes Honda’s claim that a driver need not do anything special in order to achieve gas mileage close to the EPA estimate,” the Fourth District Court of Appeal acknowledged in its 2-1 opinion, according to Reuters.

Paduano says a customer service representative admitted to him the company had received “a high number of complaints about customers not receiving the posted and advertised mileage.” However, Honda will not officially go on record about the concerns.

The lawsuit suffered a setback in 2006 when a trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Honda on all claims. It’s not known when the appeals court will hear the case.

How is this is possible when the Insight is smaller (compact vs. the midsize Civic), lighter (2800 lbs vs. 2900 lbs) and, most significantly, uses more advanced fifth generation Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) technology?

I posed the question to Hideharu Takemoto, Assistant Chief Engineer for Honda, and one of the fathers of the original Insight and the IMA system.

"The main reason is that we didn't set the target of "label" fuel economy," says Takemoto-san. Which means the Insight team's primary goal was not merely a high mileage number or as he is fond of calling it -- a label

"The main concept of this vehicle is 'Next Era Transportation' which is based on four key pillars: Clean and Green, Usable, Fun and Affordable. The highest priority during development was balancing of all four of these key pillars at a high level -- not get one and lose the others," he says.

"For example, we didn't apply [a] dish type alloy wheel. The decision was made because there have been [a] certain number of customers who didn't like dish wheels and replaced them when they bought Civic Hybrid. We didn't want to see this situation with the Insight."

"Tires are another example," Takemoto-san continues. "Civic Hybrid has very low rolling resistance with good stopping distance but ride/handling feeling is not great. We wanted fun drive feel even if we lose a little on the fuel economy label."

Honda Insight

Also [the] newly developed hybrid technologies are mostly utilized [to make the Insight] affordable because [the] current Civic Hybrid already has quite high efficiency hybrid system. People who expect this hybrid to be a hypermiler's vehicle may be disappointed by the label number, however those who want to buy [a normal] vehicle, I believe Insight is one of the best choices."

"Finally, we have tested [Insight] in actual traffic [conditions] and compared [it] with Civic Hybrid over and over again. We found Insight mileage was always better than current Civic Hybrid thanks mainly to lighter weight, which cannot be reflected appropriately in the EPA modes. I'm confident that our direction was correct for customer's actual benefit," Takemoto-san concludes.

Get all that? Essentially, Takemoto-san states that the Insight team had priorities beyond simply shooting for the highest mpg. They wanted the Insight to be clean and green, but not at the cost of utility, affordability, or fun.

It stands to reason too -- the first gen Insight posted nosebleed mpg numbers (61 city, 68 highway mpg on the old EPA cycle) -- but was roundly criticized for returning a loud and flimsy feeling drive. Look at their next big hybrid launch -- the Civic -- and you see then that the Insight's IMA technology was applied to a far more livable package. This time around, Honda has addressed a few more of the concerns and smoothed out leftover rough spots -- at the expense of one combined EPA mpg. Although if you believe Takemoto's assessment, the Insight may actually record better mileage in real world driving scenarios.

Will it work? Tough to say. Toyota and GM spent lots of money during our long crazy summer of $4/gal gasoline on ad campaigns touting mpg ("I want my mpg..." anyone?) Just as horsepower and 0-60 have become ingrained in the minds of the motoring public as the figures that define sports cars, mpg is now on the tip of everyone's tongue when it comes to new vehicle purchases - even with gas prices below $2 across the country.

Who knows? Maybe lower gas prices will work in Honda's favor, helping to focus attention off the Insight's "label" and more towards the four key marketing strategies. Only time and monthly sales reports will tell.