The Wilds Of Winter Driving

As I mentioned last time, I was going to switch out from driving my 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier to my 2017 Kia Sportage for this next "to and from work" trip. However, there were a few neglected issues that needed to be addressed first....

....and those were going to have to be looked after at my Kia dealer.

The list was pretty short, or so I thought, which consisted of an overdue oil change and a wheel alignment. Turns out I needed something called a Service 1, on top of the already listed.

While the service technicans were taking care of my vehicle, I wandered around the lot and took a look at what was there. Finding a new Sportage, Seltos and Soul parked beside each other was definatly a good comparision photo opportunity.

Based on what I have been reading recently, the 2021 model year Sportage will be the last of this generation. As a "send off," Kia gave it a refresh on both the front and back ends.

Here's my 2017 to compare with.

Not one of mybetter pictures, but you should be able to see the sticker price of a new Sportage SX Turbo through my refection and bright background lighting.

After three hours of wandering and waiting, the Kia dealer was finished with my Sportage. I paid the bill and went home to take a much closer look at what had been done. As you can see in the above picture, my wheel alignment was out, badly. However, I am puzzled to why the "fixed" numbers turned out like they did.

So, the expected things such as the wheel alignment and the overdue oil change, done. That brings me to the unexpected items, like the sparkplug replacement (part of the Service 1), a ECU update (everything digital was reset to miles and fahrenheit, annoying but quickly corrected, by me) and the installation of a block heater with a decent length of cord (my wife's idea, since I was taking the Sportage into a very cold environment).

I am sure it was $745.49 CND well spent....

....it was going to have to be....

....the wilds of winter driving were awaiting me.