Hey Reddit,
I am a 20 year old college student and I have had a horrible experience with my used 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid I purchased in fall 2015. It ran great for the better part of a year until the dog days of summer when it began shutting off seemingly randomly while I was driving it. The problem was intermittent and some days the car would drive with no issues, particularly on cool days. It took 3 tries of taking the car in for service before the local Honda dealership was finally able, or willing, to tell me what the exact problem was: PCM failure and IMA battery cooling fan failure. Cost for repair: $4-5000, which I do not have nor would I want to spend on a car that was financed, which I still owe $4500 on.
Some research throughout the months of on-and-off car issues has revealed that many early Civic Hybrid owners have experienced issues with the IMA battery (it seems to have been designed poorly from what I have read), and there was even a class action lawsuit, which was settled with a software update and an extended warranty on the IMA battery. Great, except when I called Honda customer service in an attempt to get them to help me with this situation, namely having a $10k car with less than 80k miles on it go completely bad, I was sent on a wild goose chase throughout several phone departments over the course of a couple weeks, each time being told I would receive a return phone call from them within 24-48 with more information, and each time having to call them on the third day because they neglected to get back to me. Finally they told me that since the issue was with the IMA fan and not the battery itself that it was, in fact, NOT a part of their extended IMA warranty and that this was just a risk I had taken by buying a used car, but there was nothing they could do to help me.
Next I took the car back to the dealership from which I originally purchased it, another local non-Honda dealership, hoping they might be able to help me resolve this situation which is making commuting to work and school not only time-consuming but stressful and dangerous. It died on the highway on the way to the dealership, and after waiting for 90 minutes on the shoulder of the highway in pouring down rain, I finally was able to get the car moving again and got it back to the dealership. The manager took a look at the car, attempted to move it, and it died in the middle of his parking lot. He told me he was "scared of the car" and told me the best he could do was buy the car from me for $2000 (I put $3000 down on it) or put it towards financing another car.
I'm just looking for some advice here on what steps I should take next... I still owe on the car so if I do take the $2000 I would just apply it to what I owe on the car which still leaves me owing $2500 on it, which I would have to come up with in order to transfer the title over from the bank. I have $1800 saved and would like to buy a beater car just to get me around in the meantime, but I have no idea what to do about the other $2500. Does anyone know of a way I could refinance or somehow navigate this situation in a way that doesn't leave me in a significant amount of debt? My credit is not very good, and I really can't afford to take another huge hit like this when I'm trying to focus on school.
If I do end up buying a beater car, what are some good options that I could get for under $2000? I'm looking for something that's cheap to insure and repair and hopefully won't have a bunch of issues. I really could care less about any details of the car as long as it gets me from one place to another safely and reliably.
TL;DR: Financed a used car that basically ended up being a lemon. Dealership, car manufacturer, and other dealership all unable to help resolve situation without major costs. How can I get rid of this car that I still owe money on, and replace it, without incurring tons more debt? I really can't afford to keep the car anymore either because it's costing me an arm and a leg in insurance costs monthly. I need to get rid of it. Possible solutions please?