Car Problems, Alas

So we find ourselves dealing with a problem car. Which, ironically is a Honda Civic, which according to almost every single car ratings publisher of any kind, is the most reliable car you could ever possibly buy. However, it is a 2016, which was the first year of the current model redesign, and now in hindsight, you should never buy the first year of a model redesign. 

From the get go, it has had problems with the air conditioner, which in this climate, is very bad. There was a recall for one part, but then the one part causes another part to go bad, which isn't under recall, and then you have to get that one fixed too, and its all just a big mess. For the last two summers my husband has just put coolant in at the beginning of hot weather and just crossed his fingers that it would make it through the summer. Which is barely has. 

And now for over a month we have taken it to the mechanic about five times, and now we are at a point where we are being told that it needs a "new" engine (really an engine with 32,000 miles on it) which will cost about $9,000. Well hell, the car is worth about $12,000. Well, maybe not with a terrible AC. It's got only 130,000 miles on it, and it it needs a new engine? Something something valve exhaust system which may not be a total fix so we may as well plop a new engine in. 

Yikes. 

And we have put in at least a thousand dollars into it in the past month trying to figure out what keeps going wrong, as the engine lights kept coming on. It also has almost brand new tires. 

So now we are trying to figure out what the hell to do.

Luckily, I am not working right now, so we don't have the urgency we had last time where we literally felt the need to run out and purchase a new car because we both had to get to work the next week. 

We have a few choices:

Don't fix the car and donate it for the tax write off and get a new one.

Get the "new" engine and pay the $9,000 basically cash for a 10 year old car but have no payments and no increase on insurance. 

Get the valve replacement at a cost of about $2,000-$3,000 and then take it almost immediately to a dealer for a trade in on a new car to get the full value. 

To me, none of them sound great. Boo. 


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