If you’re bringing a lawsuit to small claims court, the ideal is to sway national opinion to your side. Because when public opinion mounts against you, ya’ messed up, ya’ greedy b*stard.
No chance of that in Torrance, California, where hybrid Honda Civic owners are rushing to support Heather Peters.
Heather’s got inside information on the law, ya’ see, because she practices it. Being that California state law prohibits high-priced defense teams in small claims court, Peters is opting to challenge Honda head-on to try and recover $10k in damages due to alleged false miles-per-gallon advertising from Honda. The automaker said her 2006 hybrid Civic could get 50 mpg; Heather says she topped out at 42, with gas mileage dropping below 30 mpg after a Honda-led software update to the Civic’s battery.
A class-action suit for the same mileage issue awards a whopping $100 dollar award and a rebate towards a new Honda (queue the twirling fingers and sarcastic “whoa! thanks Honda”). That shrewd Heather Peters may be responsible for an overwhelming amount of California-court time devoted to disgruntled Civic owners, as 10k is way better than the class-action alternative.
Coincidentally and ironically, GM is about to launch Ecologic labels for the 2012 Chevy Sonic, then all Chevy-labeled cars in 2013. The Ecologic labels go a step farther from mere advertising (ahem, HONDA). Two Tomorrows, an international corporate sustainability agency, has validated GMs environmental claims. The stickers go on the rear-side driver window and are 7 by 14 inches, or about the size of an iPad. Plus, the font-size is huge. Check out how huge:
