Honda Civic Hybrid Owners Get Software Fix for Battery Pack

Honda Civic Hybrid owners are starting to be notified that their hybrid battery pack could fail sooner than warranted by Honda. Model years 2006, 2007 and 2008 are affected by a software flaw that causes the battery to drain sooner than it should.

Honda did not issue a recall since the flaw does not cause any danger to people's safety, but instead issued a technical service bulletin.

But I'm betting owners aren't too happy to hear they've been driving around with something like this for a while. I would wonder if the software glitch had shortened battery life, even after it's fixed. And will it affect resale values? People are wary enough over how long the battery pack will last when buying a used hybrid.

16,000 units were being fixed in Japan, while around 90,000 units are affected in the US. 2009-2010 hybrid civic models are not affected.