diff --git a/heatclient/common/http.py b/heatclient/common/http.py
index bf05e5c8..449deb65 100644
--- a/heatclient/common/http.py
+++ b/heatclient/common/http.py
@@ -163,9 +163,7 @@ class HTTPClient(object):
             self.log_http_response(resp)
 
         if 400 <= resp.status < 600:
-            if resp.status != 404:
-                LOG.warn("Request returned failure status %s" % resp.status)
-            raise exc.from_response(resp)
+            raise exc.from_response(resp, body_iter)
         elif resp.status in (301, 302, 305):
             # Redirected. Reissue the request to the new location.
             location = resp.getheader('location', None)
@@ -180,7 +178,7 @@ class HTTPClient(object):
                 raise exc.InvalidEndpoint(message=message)
             return self._http_request(location, method, **kwargs)
         elif resp.status == 300:
-            raise exc.from_response(resp)
+            raise exc.from_response(resp, body_iter)
 
         return resp, body_iter
 
diff --git a/heatclient/exc.py b/heatclient/exc.py
index d768fbf8..7d32bc10 100644
--- a/heatclient/exc.py
+++ b/heatclient/exc.py
@@ -34,20 +34,10 @@ class CommunicationError(BaseException):
     """Unable to communicate with server."""
 
 
-class ClientException(Exception):
-    """DEPRECATED"""
-
-
-class HTTPException(ClientException):
+class HTTPException(BaseException):
     """Base exception for all HTTP-derived exceptions"""
     code = 'N/A'
 
-    def __init__(self, details=None):
-        self.details = details
-
-    def __str__(self):
-        return "%s (HTTP %s)" % (self.__class__.__name__, self.code)
-
 
 class HTTPMultipleChoices(HTTPException):
     code = 300
@@ -147,10 +137,11 @@ for obj_name in dir(sys.modules[__name__]):
         _code_map[obj.code] = obj
 
 
-def from_response(response):
+def from_response(response, body_iter):
     """Return an instance of an HTTPException based on httplib response."""
     cls = _code_map.get(response.status, HTTPException)
-    return cls()
+    body_str = ''.join([chunk for chunk in body_iter])
+    return cls(body_str)
 
 
 class NoTokenLookupException(Exception):