Well, I can only speak from my experience having owned one for 5 years. The proof is in the mileage owners report on fueleconomy.gov. Real use data. My driving breakdown was 70/30 highway/city and I averaged 41- which was based on setting cruise control at 70 to and from the office. I have never met a conventional Civic owner who did that and got 39. Again, I can only speak as an owner who followed Honda's models for several years for this very reason.
As to 2&2's point, I wouldn't call it "duped." In my case, the car performed exactly as I expected. Given your political bent, your skepticism is hardly surprising; I'm surprised you're not advocating all vehicles have non-catalytic #2 diesels with oil-leaking turbos. What a lot of HCH owners grew pissed about was Honda's penchant for changing software after the car was on the road. The requirements in the warranties on the hybrid systems were going to force them into some expensive repairs before the warranties expired. Of course, there isn't a single car manufacturer who doesn't use this same strategy. But when you're talking about a large, expensive battery, Honda decided to "patch" things with a software update. Especially since it was new technology. Unfortunately, as the vast majority of owners discovered, Honda's patch directly eliminated or decreased a lot of the MPG-saving measures the car originally had.