Kia's Kia
Thursday, May 01, 2008
So, my 15-year-old Saturn SC2 has finally been put out to pasture. Well, not quite. A friend is taking it off my hands (one much better at handling minor repairs) and will probably drive it another 100,000 miles. So, Kari and I took off shopping for another vehicle.
Let me start by saying that, following Dave Ramsay guidance, we don't really like buying new cars. Too much depreciation taken on by the first-time owner. Not only that, a new car would like mean taking one of our four children out of private school. (Trust me, we've considered that!)
Anyway, we went looking for a not-too-old and not-too-expensive car that would serve us well for a good period of time. I'm not very brand sensitive, but have typically trended American. We test drove a bunch of cars in our price range and finally settled on a Kia Optima from Fox Kia. (All the Fox dealerships here in West Michigan are owned by Dan DeVos, one of Rich's kids. Trivia: "Vos" in dutch means Fox.)
So far, aside from the pin stripe I want to remove, I'm very happy with the car. It drives beautifully, looks classy (again, look past the pin stripe), and is very roomy. I have three sons and they all fit in the back.
So, although my blogging name of "Kia" had nothing to do with the car by the same name, I'm smiling a little bit on the inside that I ended up buying one. Not only is it a Kia, but it's an "Optima." Maybe I should have a blogger surname ... Kia Optima. Sounds kind of like a character's name right out of Transformers. Mmmm ... somehow the conversation keeps coming back to Transformation.