Lemons, or Why We Will Never Buy Another Honda

We got Dale's car back from the dealership yesterday. It only took 1.5 hours. And two days. Which really, in terms of past history, isn't so bad. But it just underscored the fact that we probably should've repainted Dale's car Lemon Yellow instead of red.
Let's talk about the history of Dale's car. In April 2004 he bought it. Brand new, right off the lot. It was a good investment, as he was about to start commuting 3 hours a day, from Alexandria to outer Baltimore. It did pretty well for the first year. We were pleased. And then, almost a year after he bought it, he got the oil changed at the dealership (all oil changes were always at the dealership) and drove down to Raleigh to visit friends. On the way back, Sunday morning, all hell broke loose with the car and it died, stranding Dale in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday morning. Not good. He finally managed to get it towed to a Honda dealership, but of course, no one there knew anything about hybrids. So they put Dale in a loaner car and sent him home. After a few days, he had to drive back to NC to reclaim his "fixed" car.
A short time later, after another oil change, we were driving home from an evening event and the car died again. Just died. We got it towed to the Honda dealership in Alexandria and Dale got another loaner car. After a week or two, they told us the car was fixed and we went to pick it up. As Dale drove it through the parking lot, the check engine light came back on. So he handed the keys back and got back into the loaner car. After almost a month, they assured us the car was fixed. They had flown in the Honda engineers from headquarters to work on the car. And, in fact, it was fixed. Two months later, a recall was issued. For this problem. We were Car Zero on their recall.
We moved to Raleigh. A month after the car warranty expired, the CD player stopped working. We ignored it. We dutifully continued our oil changes at the dealership, because no lube joint carries that weight of oil. After a while, the car developed a "judder." Whenever Dale accelerated from a stop, the whole car vibrated. We took it to the dealership. Where they told us that it was the starter clutch in the transmission. They also told us that they couldn't replace the clutch until they did 3 consecutive transmission flushes, at our expense. $200 later, we had a fix for the judder. It lasted 2 months. At that point, we threw up our hands. I confidently said there would be a recall. And this summer, there was.
So, this week we took the car in to get the starter clutch replaced, on Honda's dime. We also had the 60,000 mile maintenance done. We dropped off the car Wednesday. We picked it up Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, as Dale drove home, the electric engine stopped working. Completely. The car was no longer hybrid. So back to the dealership! They charged us $100 to replug something, saying that the malfunction had nothing to do with their rebuild of the transmission. Just a happy coincidence. As we drove off Friday in the car, we heard a new, violent rattle in the hood. Dale went back and took the mechanic for a drive. He fixed it, saying it was just the dampening pads in the hood. Today the rattle is back.
I know we took a "risk" buying a hybrid car. I mean, gee, hybrid technology has only been around for over a decade in Japan. And for what, at least 3 years in America by the time we bought ours. So sure, part of the blame is ours for buying a "new" technology. But you know what? Part of the blame goes to Honda for making a terrible terrible car. And fool us once, shame on you, fool us twice, well, you know....