Several months ago, we got wind of a somewhat unusual lawsuit between American Honda Motor Co and irate 2006 Civic Hybrid owner Heather Peters.

Peters, a former LA attorney, believed that Honda negligently misled Civic Hybrid owners with fuel economy claims of 50 miles per gallon (the best mileage she claims she ever achieved was 42 mpg and following a software update, this dropped to around 30 mpg). When she got wind, that, in terms of a settlement for the issue, Honda was prepared to pay around $100 in rebate coupons towards the purchase of a new vehicle for Civic Hybrid customers, while it’s trial lawyers earned some $8.5 million, she filed suit.

Given her background, Peters chose to take the case to Small Claims Court, knowing full well that under California law, Honda would be unable to bring in a team of highly paid lawyers to defend its position.

Now, we’ve heard that Peters successfully won her court case and has been awarded damages of $9,867.19 (the maximum amount allowed in small claims court is $10,000). The outcome of this case could have a major impact on class action suits and cases handled through Small Claims Court, since it illustrates that well-informed plaintiffs have every chance of being vindicated in their disputes against large corporations.

However, despite winning her case, there are those who believe Peters might have a hard time collecting the money; Honda says it disagrees with the ruling that it negligently misled Peters over fuel economy claims and is now taking the case to the LA County Superior Court, where its highly paid legal team are permitted to challenge the Small Claims verdict.

Nonetheless, Peters says she isn’t done and wants other Civic Hybrid owners to file similar claims to her own, believing that, by facing multiple Small Claims suits in the state of California, Honda will have a multi-front legal battle on its hands, rendering it difficult if not impossible to mount a successful counter attack. Peters also says she’ll reactivate her state law license so she can represent other Civic Hybrid owners in court.

[Source: LA Times]

Coming to grips with the taxing nature EVs can have on a residential power grid is causing some car companies to explore products more akin to the housing market than the auto industry.

BMW is the latest company to announce special plans and research designed to counteract that burden by rethinking how homes use electricity. The German automaker expects to have a demo home as part of their Mountain View, Calif. technology office, completed by the end of March.

The home is designed to efficiently charge their EV, the ActiveE, which is a variation on their 1-Series while maintaining flexible power consumption to compensate for increased consumption during charging times.

Toyota introduced something similar in October, 2010 called the Toyota Smart Center, which they said would be commercially available in 2015… Do you love your Camry enough to let the same person style both your car and home? In Japan, Nissan built a demo house called Kan-kan-kyo for the same purpose.

As for BMW, they’ve paired up with Tendril, an energy management company that is helping provide data to fully examine how an EV changes household power consumption.

“We’re keen to understand how utilities will gain benefit from a program like this,” Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck said to the New York Times. “The car guys don’t want to have 3,000 relationships with all the different utilities.”

Tuck also said that even a small number of EVs charging at once could actually create demand peaks. While we’re still a long way off from having electric vehicles in every driveway, or even more than a handful per city, it could feasibly create a problem.

The auto industry is not known for sharing ideas between competitors, in fact that behavior routinely rips contracts between car companies to shreds, but keep your eye out for some serious copy cat strategy down the road.

Chevrolet is offering Volt owners a service via their OnStar system and a smartphone app that will show sources of renewable energy. That sort of power is at its peak availability during otherwise off-peak hours, encouraging Volt owners to charge off-peak.

Perhaps a similar service will be available in the future from other companies as well. For now, there are only 700 BMW ActiveEs available by lease, so it seems unlikely that they will actually market streamlined home services any time soon.

GALLERY: BMW ActiveE

[Source: New York Times]

Audi knows a thing or two about thumbing their nose at the world. The question is if people generally take it in stride or take offense.

Their latest advertising escapade (shown above) is probably one of the more unabashed examples of their cocksure style. A Chicago area Audi dealership sold an R8 GT and decided that moving a single unit was justification to rent a billboard warning other motorists of the possible predator in their rear view mirrors.

Car ads in general have a tendency to play up stereotypes and pander to particular crowds, but what does it say about Audi customers if that rule holds true? Consider this: Volkswagen, their parent company, recently had to pull a TV ad in Canada for their Passat because of complaints that the spot portrayed women in a bad light. Decide for yourself, but realize at the same time that the company, and in some senses the message may be similar.

Truth is, nobody gets hurt when a smug billboard goes up, and Audi does this a lot. Another R8 billboard sported the slogan “stay in school.” Another, perhaps more clever example was an Audi A4 ad in California that read “your move, BMW.” To the right of the Audi poster, BMW ran a response, saying “checkmate.”

One way or another, we’re happy to sit back and watch car companies one-up each other like kids playing chicken at recess.

[Source: Fourtitude]

Insurance.com has published a report on DUI citations in the nation’s largest US cities with California playing home to three of the top five. San Diego and Los Angeles topped the list at first and second respectively, while Indianapolis, Jacksonville (Florida) and San Francisco rounded off the top five.

It’s worth mentioning though that these cities with a high-percentage of DUI citations doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more drinking and driving occurring. It could also mean that there’s less public transportation or a police force that’s good at doing their job – or really the more densely populated a city is, the more people there are to do stupid things.

Nationwide in 2010, there were 1.4 million DUI arrests according to the FBI. This is also the second year in a row that San Diego has topped the list in the study.

Despite the study supposedly listing the top 20 cities, the website only publishes 19 – see it after the break.

[Source: Insurance.com]

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It’s sales are but a drop in the bucket for Honda, but the Civic GX, recently renamed the NG, might have a chance to grow its market share thanks to efforts by Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to expand U.S. infrastructure for natural gas vehicles.

The fact is, there is so much natural gas available in the U.S. that it’s actually being sold off as an export. Part of the reason is because currently Americans account for 112,000 or less than 1 percent of the world total of natural gas burning vehicles. Most of those are 18-wheel big rigs or fleet vehicles, but the Civic GX accounts for 13,000 since appearing on the American market 13 years ago.

It isn’t hard to understand why there are so few sold: of the roughly 180,000 gas stations across the U.S., there are roughly 1000 that offer natural gas. That means no road trips, no fooling around with the refuel light and little forgiveness if you happen to run the tank dry.

Despite all that, the compressed natural gas (CNG) Civic won the 2012 Green Car of the Year Award, beating out a host of cars including the Mitsubishi i, Ford Focus Electric and Prius V. It also snagged a guaranteed spot until 2015 in California’s coveted HOV lane sticker club, meaning owners may drive solo and skip through ridiculous Californian highway congestion – something that’s sure to make it a popular choice in SoCal.

The Honda won these accolades despite having comparatively poor milage with 27-mpg city, 38-mpg highway and a 31-mpg average, probably because it costs about 30 percent less to fuel them according to Honda. Natural gas costs about $1 to $2 less per gallon-equivalent.

Truthfully, the Civic has nothing to do with Clean Energy Fuels Corp.’s plans for expansion. They’re more more motivated by the crazy fuel volume transport vehicles consumer every year. Rich Kolodziej, president of the trade association NGV America, broke the numbers down in an interview with the Detroit News. If a driver gets an average of 25 mpg and drives 12,000 miles a year, that driver needs about 480 gallons per year. An average truck driver can travel 120,000 miles in a year getting only six miles-per-gallon needs 20,000 gallons of fuel, or as much as almost 42 normal drivers.

Given that there is a surplus of natural gas in the U.S. and that it’s significantly cheaper, installing that infrastructure makes sense. The special few who drive the Civic GX or NG will likely enjoy the benefit of having access to many more fueling  stations.

[Source: Detroit News]

Rifling through boxes at an estate sale paid off for Bobby Goins after he recently found a 1952  Ferrari 212 Inter Ghia Cabriolet tucked away and forgotten.

The car, which was barely visible except the emblem, had been sitting in a garage for 40 years. Pickers find forgotten cars frequently, but unless it’s really notable they don’t make it to the media. Last September we brought you a story about a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing being found in California, but this latest find beats the Benz.

According to information from FerrariChat.com, Goins only knew it was a Ferrari, but had no idea what model it was or its value. He soon found out exactly what he had, but there was one catch: it had a Corvette engine. The could have compromised the value from a restoration perspective, but against all odds, the original engine was located in Wisconsin.

Though the amount he paid for the car wasn’t disclosed, Goins sold the car for $150,000 to someone who plans to fully restore it and set it on display at the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

[Source: FerrariChat]

How often do you change the oil in your car? Every 3,000 miles? 5,000? 7,000? You may be changing your oil more than you need to, and California is setting out to change that.

It’s a common misconception that you should change your oil every 3,000 miles, which wastes millions of gallons of oil every year. That’s why California is launching the “Check Your Number” campaign that urges drivers to hold off changing their oil so often.

About 50 percent of California drivers change their oil at the 3,000 mile mark. The truth is, with all the improvements in oils, friction proofing and car engines, you should be changing your oil at about every 7,500 to 10,000 miles. California officials say that by waiting longer between oil changes, the state will be able to save about 10 million gallons of oil a year. As well as being good for the environment, you won’t hurt the longevity or reliability of your vehicle by holding off a bit longer and you’ll save some extra cash.

If you’re a resident of California, you can check the suggested motor-oil change interval number at checkyournumber.org.

[Source: Los Angeles Times]

When Scion‘s FR-S debuted out in Los Angeles, a modified black variant by GReddy was also present but wasn’t exactly center stage. This isn’t a huge surprise as GReddy has been a long time partner with Scion, but this might also be revealing a few more projects that are underway through the collaboration.

Scion decided to bring the modified version out to a Cars and Coffee event in Irvine, California, where visitors were treated to hearing the FR-S’s new exhaust note courtesy of GReddy. Given GReddy’s track record with other vehicles and products, a turbo kit is definitely in development right now along with a bolt-on intake and exhaust.

But what’s even more interesting is the possibility that GReddy will be building a drifter for Ken Gushi for the 2012 Formula DRIFT season since RS*R has decided to take a backseat to everything going on. Clearly the FR-S will be a popular tuning platform, let’s see if GReddy can put itself back on the map with it.

Check out the video after the break.

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There are tuner shops, and then there are tuner manufacturers. What’s the difference? While a Tuner shop will bolt on spoilers and body kits, and some good tuner shops can even enhance your engines performance; a tuner manufacturer takes a bare shell and makes the entire car themselves to meet their customer’s requirements.

That is exactly what Ruf does. For 34 years, Alois Ruf has been working on Porsches. His process is so thorough, Porsche sends him bare shells of their cars, and everything is then put in place by Ruf technicians. Each car is thus tailor made for its new owner.

While most of Ruf’s creations look like slightly modded versions of the Stuttgart original, in 2007 they unveiled a car that took the tuning game on a whole new level. It was called the CTR3 and it was built using a chassis that had bits of the 911 married to some Cayman structure, wrapped in a Kevlar-carbon composite body-shell. The end result looked like a car Porsche enthusiasts could only dream about, until now.

It’s not all about looks either. Under the rear clamshell you’ll find a 3.8-liter, flat-six engine with two turbo-chargers. Twin-turbo Porsche motors are not that uncommon, but ones that produce 750-hp and 708 lb/ft of torque certainly are. All this power is fed to only the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox. Launch it correctly and you’ll cover the sprint from 0-60 mph in just 3.2 seconds, and onto a top speed of 236 mph. That makes the CTR3 a lot faster than the Carrera GT, the fastest production car Porsche ever made.

If all this sounds irresistible to you (if you’re reading about cars on the internet, it should), you’d be happy to learn that a CTR3 is currently being offered for sale in California by R3 Motorsports. Since their advert was missing some information, we called the owner of the company; Ryan Negry, for some more information on this rare beast. According to Negry, this 2010 example has covered just 300-miles and that it can be yours for just $540,000.

[Source: duPont Registry]