Good News: You’re Stupid!

Autoblog, that site best known for the loving regurgitation of automaker press releases (sorry, Justice Lieberman), is reporting that Honda has chosen to settle the class-action suit filed by owners of the Civic Hybrid over supposedly inflated EPA fuel economy claims. Just how badly were the numbers fudged? The cars sold with stickers advertising 49mpg city and 51mpg highway, and plaintiffs claim to have only achieved 34.6mpg. Those poor souls thought they were going to save money/carbon by buying a hybrid, and look what happened!

Of course, the best part of this story is in the fine print. As with any class action suit, the late-comers to the class got screwed. How bad? Well, Honda graciously awarded class members a $1,000 voucher toward the purchase of a new Honda (but not an Insight, Civic Hybrid or Fit - the most fuel efficient models).  If managed to keep a copy of your indignant letter to Soichiro, then you get a check for $100. Awesome! The class leaders did a bit better, getting checks for $12,000 and $10,500.

The lawyers? They made fees of roughly $3,000,000 - then drove home in their BMW 760Li's.