Moral Dilemma

I promise to post more interesting things this week-- we had a great trip to Columbus and I need to post some pics of that.

But today, friends, we have a case of the What Shall We Do's. We need your wisdom and input.

It all began when we purchase the Honda in February. In March the engine light came on for the first time, and since then it has been all downhill, culminating in a diagnosis of "needs a new engine." (!!!) The car is an '01 Accord with 46,000 miles on it-- clean and barely broken in for a Honda. It was my dream car, but now it has been a huge disappointment and stressor for us.

So we went back to Frank, the guy who owns the lot where we bought it. Frank said he'd buy it back for about $1000 less than what we owe on it, or he would trade it in and find us something else. Well, that was three weeks ago, and every few days when we call him he has 15 minutes of excuses as to why he hasn't had a chance to find us an alternative. He mainly leases cars so he has contacts at dealerships all over. But the few cars on his lot are either Toyota Solaras or Lexuses or Corvettes. No dice.

This past week the engine light went on yet again (after Brad replaced the spark plugs and distributor rotor and cap). We decided it was time to put on the full-court press, as my dad would say, to find another car. So we went to the big Toyota used car lot, the Honda dealer, etc., etc., etc. Nothing looked good in our price range-- our requirements are reliability, light color, affordable price (minus the $1000 we'll have to tack on to finish paying off the stupid Honda.)

After a frustrating morning, we ended up at the Acura place where we bought Brad's Volkswagen. We know the salesguy there and he's good at what he does. He also for some reason really likes us and calls us up to go out to dinner with him and his girlfriend. I keep thinking that maybe God has us in contact with him for a ministry reason. Who knows.

At the Acura place the guy had a '03 Altima in great, great shape. Sticker price was $17,900 and somehow after finagling and pulling strings for our charity case, he got it in the $11,000 range and made it fit our budget. It was a hopeful moment, and I actually cried. Now, we told him everything about the Honda-- didn't hold back anything, and he said they would wholesale/auction the car and not sell it to anyone on the lot. But when he came back from negotiating, he said the business owner wanted to sell it on the lot, but don't worry about it. And don't mention to anyone else the issues with the car.

So herein lies the moral dilemma.

We know this car is a lemon. We have a case open with Honda of America and they finally said they would pay for the new engine if we would pay for labor. That's option #1. Costs about $1500 for us, but who knows what will happen down the road with it...

We are happy with the Altima-- it's more than we thought we'd drive home with. (Sorry for the dangling preposition.) Keeping it is Option #2. But the fact that they're going to sell it on the lot makes us uneasy-- what if another person gets this car and has the headaches we've had? (And they WILL.) Then the dealer is responsible for the issues, and that's like biting the hand that feeds you. I'm grateful to them and don't want to knowingly stick them with a liability like that. But we were up front with our salesguy... how far does our responsibility go?

Frank was going to sell it wholesale, which sort of anonymous-izes the situation. I don't feel so bad about that situation since I'm not hiding anything from anyone. But Frank won't get off his kiester to actually find us a car. Waiting for Frank to actually do something is Option #3.

After we left the dealership last night in the nice new car, I felt badly. I was also hungry. And after dinner I felt better about it. But then Brad woke up this morning really early feeling uneasy...

So, dear friends and wise ones, what is your perspective? What should we do?