I have a Civic 2008, barely done 40,000 KM and I noticed a huge dip in fuel efficiency. I'm generally quick to push the pedal and so my civic's fuel efficiency is low, but recently it touched 8 KM/liter. Thats just shocking!
Also, in second gear, when I have the accelerator lightly pressed, the car jerks every now and then.
I believe I have a bad Catalytic Converter, and a quick googling lead me to this great site:
What Causes a Bad Catalytic Converter? | eHow.com
I have another civic 1.8 (2007 model), which had its catalytic converter problem and we recently got it taken out. The sad thing is there were eight other civics at the repair shop getting the same thing done!
In the US, the catalytic converters have a life of over 100K miles, thats 160,000 KM!! And yet, reading through different posts, it seems in Pakistan the life is around 40,000 KM.
If its a fuel issue, we, the consumers should be fuming. We pay excessively for fuel (no subsidization, in fact huge profit making by the refinery's), and yet the quality of fuel we're getting is crap. Bad fuel is another form of tax, that we pay through regular engine maintenance, health bills due to excessive air pollution of using low fuel, and bad fuel economy!