{"id":28567,"date":"2011-03-24T21:15:37","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T01:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=28567"},"modified":"2020-06-25T21:15:50","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T01:15:50","slug":"this-road-to-recovery-was-built-in-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=28567","title":{"rendered":"This road to recovery was built in Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

This is my new car.\u00a0 A Kia Forte 5-Door.<\/span><\/p>\n

At my absolute wit\u2019s end, I finally decided to cut my losses, and ditch the lemon.\u00a0 I had an elaborate plan with a minimal window of time to accomplish it, and in a perfect world it would have gone completely as planned, but since we don\u2019t live in a perfect world, this would have to do.\u00a0 The bottom line is that I have successfully unloaded the fucking lemon, I don\u2019t drive it anymore, and no longer will it give me stress about how much it mechanically sucks, or what no-longer produced parts need to be replaced.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m ecstatic that I have a brand new car, that theoretically, I will not really have to worry about (knock on wood) for a little bit, but I\u2019m actually simply more relieved that I just don\u2019t have the lemon anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After discovering that one of the catalytic converters on the lemon was going bad, and required at least $1,500 in order to repair, I boldly fumed that I wanted a new car.\u00a0 Most of the time, most people chalk such reactions as moments of rage, or spontaneous choices, but I legitimately had had enough with the constant problems and deteriorating state of the lemon. \u00a0\u00a0I still owed close to $4,400 on my loan for the piece of shit, but no part of me wanted to make it almost $6,000, with the cost of repair, not to mention the 20 other problems that would likely arise in remaining length of the loan.\u00a0 Regardless of the negative equity, it became crystal apparent that I had to get rid of the lemon, ASAP.<\/span><\/p>\n

Time, was not on my side in this endeavor.\u00a0 Not only did I not want to pay the $1,500 to repair the catalytic converter, I didn\u2019t want to pay the renewal of the tag for the lemon, renewal of the insurance policy for the lemon, and frankly, I didn\u2019t want to pay another month\u2019s payment on my car loan on the fucking lemon.\u00a0 Quickly, I realized the situation I was in, and that I did not have a lot of cash fluidity to be really picky with what I needed in a new car, since there was the possibility that I wouldn\u2019t be able to unload the lemon for at least what was left to pay on it.\u00a0 Fortunately, I\u2019m a fairly simple person, and not really that into extravagant luxury or the necessity for a $60,000 piece of shit BMW, so regardless, my options were still limited to fairly small, entry-level vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n

I spent last week researching vehicles, and came up with five options. \u00a0I spent the last Saturday, bouncing around several car dealerships, actually test driving\u00a0all\u00a0<\/em>options, which was a mistake I made the last time I was car shopping, not testing all options, and ended up with the fucking lemon.\u00a0 The choice became very clear after weighing cost, bang for buck, included options, quality, and overall gut feeling of each of the cars.\u00a0 Since I knew what I wanted, I went straight to work playing the numbers game, getting estimates from dealerships from all around the Metro Atlanta area, as well as one on the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina, that happened to have one at an extremely attractive price.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a few days of getting various dealerships to fight and bid for my business, I got to a number that I found adequate enough to pursue, and then I fought just a little bit extra to make it even a little lower.\u00a0 With the purchase price established, there were still two remaining variables in the equation – unloading the lemon, and hoping that my credit score was good enough to get into the neighborhood of monthly payments that I could feasibly afford.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelley Blue Book gave me the rough estimate that my car would be able to probably net $5,300 if traded in, but the general consensus from various dealerships were very contrary to those figures.\u00a0 Regardless, I stated that if my car could genuinely net $5,000 at all, that I would shit my pants.\u00a0 I saw a golden opportunity for myself to actually\u00a0profit<\/em>\u00a0from unloading the lemon, and with the profit that I could theoretically make, could easily then pay off the remaining balance on my credit card, and put myself in an absolutely\u00a0awesome<\/em>\u00a0position, with a new car, and zeroed out credit card.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing I didn\u2019t hold my breath, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

I did a good job of tricking the car into resetting the check engine light, which put the lemon in a better position to appraise higher, since the most obvious of mechanical flaws would suddenly be undetectable without the sophisticated procedure of air and flow testing, which is beyond what CarMaxes do to appraise their vehicles.\u00a0 Long story short, the lemon appraised for $4,000 flat, roughly $400 less than what I needed it to appraise to.\u00a0 In other words, if I took the offer, I\u2019d have to pay the remaining balance right there and then.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought about it very hard, and frankly, I simply didn\u2019t feel like exerting any more effort on the fucking lemon, and having to fight yet one more battle, trying to get any dealer to take it off my hands before buying their car, so needless to say, I took the offer, and paid the remaining balance out of my own pocket.\u00a0 To this point, $400 seems like a fair cost to free myself from that piece of shit, but it still kind of sucks that it kind of got the last laugh in our tumultuous relationship.\u00a0 So not only did it not pay itself off, I still have a balance on my credit card,\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0lost a little bit of my own money in the process.\u00a0 But whatever, I look back at yesterday, and feel simply relieved that I\u2019m now finally free from that piece of shit lemon.<\/span><\/p>\n

It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I purchased the car that I had decided on.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I was at first extremely skeptical about purchasing a Kia, considering the once diminutive Korean company has more or less been considered the dregs of the automotive world for a little while.\u00a0\u00a0 But much has changed throughout the years, with the rapidly-improving and growing Hyundai corporation engulfing them, and subsequently improving their product in the process.\u00a0 Reputation and perception aside, the most important thing was the test drive, and quite frankly, Kia blew the competitors out of the water.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t feel that I have to justify myself to anyone for my purchase, but this part bears repeating:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nMSRP<\/em><\/span><\/td>\nHP\/Torque<\/em><\/span><\/td>\nMPG<\/em><\/span><\/td>\nFelt Cheap<\/em><\/span><\/td>\nBang for Buck<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kia Forte<\/span><\/td>\n$22,200*<\/span><\/td>\n174\/168<\/span><\/td>\n22\/32<\/span><\/td>\nNo<\/span><\/td>\nImmense<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Honda Civic<\/span><\/td>\n$21,500<\/span><\/td>\n140\/128<\/span><\/td>\n26\/34<\/span><\/td>\n50\/50<\/span><\/td>\nGrotesque<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ford Fiesta<\/span><\/td>\n$20,000<\/span><\/td>\n120\/112<\/span><\/td>\n28\/37<\/span><\/td>\nImmensely<\/span><\/td>\nHideous<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hyundai Elantra<\/span><\/td>\n$18,500<\/span><\/td>\n148\/131<\/span><\/td>\n29\/40<\/span><\/td>\nA little bit<\/span><\/td>\nIt’s okay<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

*NOT what I actually paid<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of the important gas mileage, it loses out some.\u00a0 But considering the lemon regularly got 24-26 mpg highway, I know I\u2019m going to be fine.\u00a0 In terms of sanity (power), the Forte is a perfect transition from the 225hp V6 of the lemon, since it most certainly still does scoot in its own right.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing I can\u2019t stress enough is the simple sheer amount of cool shit that the Kia has included that none of the other.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really describe the feeling of suddenly having all this extraneous shit that I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d really care\/need\/want in a car that my little new Kia has.\u00a0 Bluetooth for my phone, built-in aux\/USB jacks, and a Sirius-ready stereo.\u00a0 The Civic doesn\u2019t include such, at least not without taking the cost up exponentially.\u00a0 The Ford had it in there, but driving a car with so little power would have made me slit my wrists, and I\u2019d probably bleed out faster than it could redline. \u00a0The in-dash technology now has shit like fuel economy, estimate mileage left per tank, and other oddly efficient meters that none of my prior cars have ever had.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the biggest dynamic change for me in this car would be the fact that this car has\u00a0six gears<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Seriously, one of the criteria I had last year when I was looking for a new car was that I wanted more power, and if possible, six gears.\u00a0 I hated cruising on the highway at 80 mph, with the tach glued to 3,500 rpm, and preferred it if were up another gear, and maybe down to 3,000 or below.\u00a0 In my pursuit, I eventually forfeited the sixth gear, and ended up getting saddled with the lemon, because it had power.\u00a0 I look back at last January when I was looking for new cars, and wonder why I didn\u2019t buy this last year?\u00a0 In hindsight this decision really fucking sucks, because then right now, I wouldn\u2019t have endured the lemon, and I\u2019d be 15 months into paying off\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0car instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to the six gears though, it\u2019s going to take a little adaptation on my part to get used to.\u00a0 Downshifting to fifth isn\u2019t really purposeful, but it\u2019s shaking the feeling that I\u2019m going 4th<\/sup>-3rd<\/sup>, because I\u2019m pushing the stick upward is a little odd of a sensation, and hopefully I won\u2019t get into a catastrophic wreck when downshifting 6th<\/sup>-4th<\/sup>\u00a0instead in the future.\u00a0 Also, the clutch on the Kia (and the Ford) requires about as much force as squeezing a marshmallow to depress it.\u00a0 Seriously, after test-driving cars last weekend, and then getting back into the lemon, which required the strength to squat-press Mark Henry to depress the clutch, I honestly thought the lemon was (even more) broken.<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, I\u2019m really fucking glad to be rid of the lemon.\u00a0 I\u2019m also excited about the idea of my new car.\u00a0 I will gladly be one of the risk takers of the time to dive head-first into a Kia ownership, and hope that someday, I\u2019ll be one of the pioneers for when Kias aren\u2019t the bottom of the automotive world, but instead are more respected, and slightly more expensive, and maybe some haji company is the laughing stock instead.\u00a0 And I\u2019m really really hoping, that my car woes will be just a little less frequent over the course of the next year, than they\u2019ve been for me throughout the last 15 months.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my new car.\u00a0 A Kia Forte 5-Door. At my absolute wit\u2019s end, I finally decided to cut my losses, and ditch the lemon.\u00a0 I had an elaborate plan with a minimal window of time to accomplish it, and in a perfect world it would have gone completely as planned, but since we don\u2019t … Continue reading This road to recovery was built in Korea<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,103,15,52,91],"class_list":["post-28567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-cars","tag-motherland","tag-og","tag-owned","tag-pf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28569,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28567\/revisions\/28569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}