Car

I hate car shopping. While sedans are practical and often the most fuel efficient, I find them incredibly boring. SUVs are not fuel efficient at all. I like hatchbacks. Many these days are ugly. I like the look of VWs best but my last one felt like it was constantly being fixed.Not fun.

I still do not have my Kia in my possession. It’s been seven weeks. Today was am feeling pretty blue about it. Pretty hopeless. The Kia Service place that has it has tried a few things with no luck. They consulted over the phone or via email with “tech support” which, despite its name, is actually about getting mechanic’s advice for Kia specifically. No one know’s why my car makes it’s terrifying honking noise while also bucking.

Last week I got a call from Kia Services with “good news and bad news”. A tech specialist will be coming in person to fix my car…but not till JANUARY.

January. I am making payments on a car and paying for insurance on a car that will be out of my possession for something like four months once all is said and done. I had been patient up to now (probably why it hasn’t been fixed in a more timely manner), but not this time. I told them this was unacceptable. They needed to provide some kind of compensation. A loaner, or rental reimbursement. My contact at Kia Service said there’s no loaner and he didn’t know how rentals worked (maybe you should learn about that?), so I’d have to call Kia Consumer Affairs.

Both of these places are in my phone contacts at this point, that’s how long I’ve been dealing with this garbage. Kia Consumer Affairs assured me that they would “escalate” my case and provide me with a new case manager. They would happily reimburse for a rental, they told me in a tone that implied this was always an option had I only requested it. I asked if this offer was documented online or something, because with my luck, I’d get screwed and end up paying for my rental.

I was assured it’s legit and I’d get reimbursed. I went online and reserved myself a car to pick up in the afternoon this past Monday.

Monday morning I got up, showered, dressed and hopped into Mom’s car to go pick up some muffins for myself. After taking a left hand turn during my route, a police car with its sirens on pulled up behind me. I was being pulled over. I couldn’t think of why. I rolled my window down.

“Are you aware that you’re driving a car that’s been revoked?” the officer told me, eyebrow raised.

“I’m borrowing this car. It’s my mom’s car. I literally don’t know what that means. What does revoked mean?”

“It means the car is illegal to be on the road. It’s either that the registration is expired, or the insurance hasn’t been paid, or there’s been an accident that hasn’t been taken care of”

I handed him the current registration and my license and told him I don’t think any of that is the case but I just don’t know. That I’m borrowing the car while mine’s in the shop and know nothing about any issues with the car.

“Unfortunately it’s a criminal offense. It’ll have to be towed, and you’ll have to go to court”. He was nice enough about it, and when he went back to his car to run my license and the registration, fat tears ran down my face. I got on my AAA app and learned that a tow wouldn’t be there for 90 minutes. I hadn’t let the dog out and I hadn’t eaten. It was 8:30am.

I collected myself because I refuse to be one of those women who cries at the cops. The officer returned and apologized. No, he couldn’t give me a ride home, but he could take me back to the gas station behind us. It was very cold that morning. He asked what I wanted to do, and then informed me that a tow was already there and I didn’t need to wait.

He also generously informed me that he wasn’t going to arrest me, he wouldn’t take the license plates (he’s supposed to apparently). “You don’t have any kind of record” he said to me, “There’s no doubt in my mind that this will be thrown out when you go to court. Have your parents figure out what’s going on in the meantime.” he hands me the citation, pointing at the court house name “If you don’t hear from them about a summons in the next few weeks, start calling them. They aren’t very organized over there and you don’t want to miss your court date because they didn’t send you it”

I paid $150 for the tow to take the car to my parents house. (At least it didn’t have to go to the impound because that would have been a real mess, I think). And the officer went on and on about how nice I was being about all this “You’re being so polite”

“That’s probably why my car hasn’t been fixed. I’ve been too nice about it” I told him. Early in the interaction I had laughed and said “Wanna know why this is so funny?” then gave him a two-sentence story about my fucking Kia.

“I am so sorry’ he kept saying over and over, and telling me that once it’s in the system he can’t take it out. And “You’re being so polite about this” and I thought My dude, it’s not like I’m gonna talk you out of this!

Meanwhile, I’m thinking about the chocolate chip muffin which I absolutely deserve to be getting this morning, and wondering how I can make that happen. I also thank my stars about the timing considering I was going to get the rental that afternoon. It really could have been worse. I wasn’t headed to a doctor’s appointment that I’d made six months ago and wouldn’t be able to reschedule. I didn’t need to be on campus since it was a work from home day.

The cop took me back to the gas station and I called myself an Uber. I seriously wondered if I was pushing my luck. Should really have him take me straight home rather than risk my luck and get in a wreck on my way to get breakfast?

But I wanted a muffin. I earned that muffin.

So I had the Uber detour. When I went into the shop I knew I wanted to be quick and not make the Uber wait very long. The guy ahead of me in line says, I’m not kidding, “I’ll have four boxes of six and they’re gonna be assorted” followed by him very slowly makes his choices, “I’ll have a chocolate chip…..and what’s this one with the frosting?….and that one with the sugar one top? OK, I’ll have one of those….” All at the speed of a sloth (no not really, it just felt that way).

The other employee was in the back and it was all I could do to not holler for help. I restrained myself and she did emerge. I got my muffins and went home.

Over the next few days, Dad figured out that in late summer, he realized their car insurance had not auto-renewed. He went online and rectified that issue. What he didn’t know, was that in the two months between the insurance coverage stopping and him realizing it and starting it up again, the DMV just cancelled thier registration. No warning, no heads-up. Just cancelled. On both cars.

All is fixed now.

After that I talked with the Kia Consumer Affairs case manager I had been assigned. She told me she was given my case because it’s been “accelerated”. Great, can the “specialist” come sooner to fix my car? I asked her.

“Unfortunately, we can’t have them come sooner because the specialist’s come in from around the world”

So basically the “acceleration” status of my situation has changed nothing. I’m actually wondering now if they are delaying in this way because it’s cheaper for THEM if I just lemon law my car. They wouldn’t have to pay for someone to come all this way, they wouldn’t have to pay for a potentially very expensive repair on a car that’s still under warranty.

I am a deer in headlights at this point and do not know what to do. Lemon Law states you have to return a car for the same repair three times, but if a car is at a shop for too long, that counts too.

I saw seven weeks with no resolution counts as a lemon law qualifying.

So today I went to my car at the Kia Service place to get my shit out of it. I meant to also get the mileage, and paperwork from them telling me what they’ve tried so far but I completely forgot.

I called them and asked them to get my mileage. I’m fairly certain 1k miles have been put on my car which is…cute. How did that happen? You guys taking road trips or something? When I asked if they could email me with a list of the things that have been done, they told me they couldn’t do that because the issue is “not finalized”.

“You can’t just go into the system and read off to me what’s been done?”

No, they told me. I’d have to call Kia Consumer Affairs who have all this on record. Why I have (to wait until Monday) to call them when the service guys can simply look it up I do not know, but today’s hopelessness is definitely connected to feeling like people are now actively trying to NOT be helpful.

And I think that’s what’s hard. I’m getting no help from these people. And it’s awful because I just want a functioning car. And now I have resentment towards this specific car. And in addition, I can’t think of a car I’d rather have.

Meanwhile, I finished writing a book that I wrote about my family history and copies of it arrived on Thursday night, and there’s a cloud over that accomplishment for me. I’ve been choosing photos for a gallery showing of my and my colleague’s work (an actually gallery showing!) that’s happening at BU in the fall, and there’s a cloud over that as well.

And my herbs won’t grow and a few gifts I ordered in the mail arrive broken and the boots I bought don’t fit right.

Hurrumph.

PS. (a day later and) My plan now is to contact Attorney General’s Consumer Advocacy Division on Monday and ask them some questions. Not about the herbs. About the car. Obviously.

Next Kia Chapter