I bought this used '05 model in 2009. I can't recall how many miles it had, but probably somewhere in the 50-60k range. Within a year or so, I started noticing the "judder," thought it was minor and I had no idea what to call it at that time. I kept trying to pin down the conditions in which it happened – it seemed to be only when pulling out from a stop on an incline (even if only slight) and perhaps more often in wet weather, though that could have been confirmation bias rather than actual correlation.

I think it was around 2012 when I had all my research together and went to get something done about it. The dealership said they could "burnish the transmission" (I still have no idea what that actually means) free of charge, and that would take care of it. The judder stopped – for a few months. Then it slowly started coming back, and has only worsened.

Now, it's late 2015 and I literally change my driving routes to avoid the worst of the judder. And when I say worst, I mean "this car feels like it's going to shake apart and drop the engine out right in the middle of this intersection." It's HORRIBLE. I have not had a smooth, normal acceleration from a stop in probably 2 years. I'm basically waiting for the car to seize up and die in what will probably be a catastrophic way, because I don't have the cash it would likely take to replace the transmission. Nor would it really be worth it to me at 135k miles. Which is a damn shame, because if this problem didn't exist, I fully believe this car would be a champ through 200k at least.

The best case scenario is easing gently onto the accelerator like I'm trying to step on a butterfly without actually killing it, and getting about 3 seconds of shuddering before it gets into second gear, or whatever the CVT does in terms of gear, I don't know.

The worst case is an intersection on my normal commute (or, what used to be normal before I started taking other roads just to avoid it) that involves stopping on about a 30-degree incline. Navigating it is a pure nightmare. The traffic backs up, so I'm stuck stopping and starting in car-length bursts up the hill to the stop sign. I can feel the transmission slipping the entire time. Sometimes, if I time it exceptionally poorly, I press the gas and the engine revs up without the gear actually engaging, and I roll backwards for a terrifying second toward the car behind me, before it catches and JERKS forward violently. God help me when I actually get to the intersection and need to take my turn through it. It's about six solid seconds of horrific shaking, jerking, and stuttering until the road levels out.

Lately, another fun dimension has been added to the problem: Once it's more-or-less in gear, the first few seconds of non-juddering acceleration are accompanied by a fluttering grinding sound/feeling if I try to accelerate above a cautious grandmotherly pace. Does this count as a separate complaint? Possibly. Is it related to the juddering transmission? Definitely.

It's infuriating that this is a known problem with this car, and Honda will not do anything permanent about it.

Honda is well aware of the issue and hundreds of customers have complained this should be repaired in or out of warranty since the judder and slip could lead to death or serious injury when pulling into traffic and not being able to accelerate. I attempted to have this fixed several times, and at no time did they change any part that was meaningful. The issue would always reappear. After the warranty ran out they now are taking a more serious look, big surprise. Below are some sites with complaining customers. You could literally type civic hybrid judder and find thousands.

http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/f50/start-clutch-gone-out-20179/index2.html

http://www.hybridcars.com/forums/starter-clutch-issue.html