Absence and Disappointment, Part 1

In case you have been wondering what has happened to me, automotively speaking, since I posted here last (which turns out to be August of 2017), here is a bit of a comfortable read to bring you back up to speed.

Although I wrote things up very briefly at the time, there were a few details I left out, so let fill you in on those....

Last year, I put in a lot of effort to break my perpetual habit of buying older vehicles. I had always approached those deals with grandiose plans to fix all of the known problems, be crushed when new ones popped up and discourage myself in spending what little time I didn't have to complete a repair task and inevitably, get rid of it. I decided to get into the newer vehicle market and purchase those from a dealer, since I was in the mindset they wouldn't sell me something that would jeopardize their reputation and future vehicle sales due to the speed at which negative press can spread on social media.

After selling off anything that could be labeled as junk, I started my "studies," spending a fair amount of time researching different makes, models and sifting through amateur and professional reviews on everything that interested me. I arrived at the conclusion that the Kia Soul would be my ideal vehicle.

Browsing through local online classifieds, I found a 2013 model at the local Chrysler dealer and proceeded in person to lay my own eyes on it and perhaps, a test drive. The sales person came out and after the procedural "small talk" was out of the way, he collected the keys and we jumped into the black beauty. The test drive was around half and hour, but with the air conditioning blowing, the smooth ride and comfortable leather interior, it felt like an eternity in Heaven.

Needless to say, I was pleased with the Soul SX 2.0 Turbo, the color, the features and above all the, the price seemed to be a near perfect deal. The financing portion of the visit began and the first disappointment came right out of nowhere. "Yeah, seems we can't finance that Soul for you," the sales person informed me. In a crushed tone of voice, my response was "Oh and why not?"

The reason I was given, truth or not, was because the Soul had sustained $10,000 in repaired damages, no finance company would touch it. However, that couldn't stop me for buying it at the sticker price of $11,990 with cash. Yeah, I wasn't interested in that.

Low and behold, the sales person redirected my attention to an option to consider....