JTOK Chatter > House & Home > Automotive > Page 2

Category Archives: Automotive

Wanna guess where I am?

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Nope.

Hyundai’s service department waiting for a loaner because they screwed something up when putting on the locking lugnuts Saturday and after being here 1.5 hours already today they have “narrowed it down” to one of the tires and it might take another 1-2 hours. This is not an auspicious start to our Hyundai relationship.

That said, of course we cannot be 100% sure it was the lugnuts…but all we know is that the drive home was NOT smooth so something definitely happened between the time we test drove it and the time we left with it. The only thing we could think of was the “bonus” they gave us of the locking lugnuts.

I AM MINIVAN FREE!!!

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

So we did a thing today. Pretty much unplanned, which is how we roll. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

Monday I innocently checked our Sienna loan for some reason I can’t remember and saw it was almost paid off. The mistake was telling Tom but I was excited. He knows I don’t want a minivan so he always has some cars he’s thinking of so he/we started watching hours of YouTube reviews…

Then we decided to just check them out since December is the best month to get a great deal. (Well…except for the two we were looking at since they’re both new and well rated and hard to find. 😂) So we test drove the Kia Telluride last night and it was okay, but figured we should at least see what our car was worth so we started the day by just getting a CarMax appraisal…and it was really really good (holy crap Toyotas hold their value!) so then it was off to Hyundai to at least test drive the Palisade to compare…

And the dealer agreed to price match the Carmax appraisal and then had two small incentives, plus we got a lower interest rate (2.9 to 1.9) so we said what the hell. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Our payment did go up by $25 (we had wanted it to stay exactly the same) but considering everything it wasn’t that bad. Of course I always forget insurance also goes up… 🤦🏻‍♀️ And I still hated the entire process (“let me go talk to my manager”)…but in the end, I AM MINIVAN FREE!!!!!

These are sad faces because even though I never wanted a minivan we have lots of good memories in this car…plus I’m an emotional sap. It was sad, though, to have to put everything into garbage bags—I wanted to at least go home and empty it out.

HAPPY FACES! This mama is soooo happy to be back in an SUV you don’t even know. And there are so many safety features on the Palisade I can’t even remember them all. Now to register the car in Michigan when we go home for Christmas…

 

I have questions.

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

I couldn’t get a good enough look. My best guess is they just kept getting new themed stickers and added them. Or they did their entire extended family? I really want to say the dad is military (I think I see a cover on one the figures) and there are three sets of 6. So a family of six? I queried on Facebook and a grandma gave me a good idea:

I think they are grandparents and it starts with them and their kids and their kids grown up with their own children….etc. That’s my theory now that I am in that grandmother kingdom.

It’s time to go get the kids.

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Maggie was READY to go. Once she got outside while I was loading the car, she did NOT want to go back in and she just stood there waiting.

Unfortunately Tom didn’t get out of work as early as he’d hoped so we didn’t get on the road until 4…and with an 8-hour drive (well, 7 actual hours but 8 with the time change) plus construction and rush hour traffic…we didn’t pull in until almost 1:30am. Yuck.

But, because we could, we picked an awesome-sounding BBQ place on Yelp as we drove down the highway, called in an order, and picked it up within 15 minutes…eating in the car as we continued down the highway. Easy peasy. And then we took about seven minutes and stopped for ice cream along the way as well. We even got Maggie a dog ice cream which she wanted no part of. Kids! 🙂

Family outing to the Volo Auto Museum

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

We decided to play tourists today and go to this apparently famous auto museum that is literally 20 minutes down the road. (I say apparently because I’d never even heard of it, but everyone we talk to knows about it—and they get like 125,000 visitors a year!) Both kids have been (strangely) getting into cars lately so Tom thought it would be cool. Well…let’s just say it was totally not my thing and it’s three hours of my life I can’t get back so Tom owes me one. But the kids did have fun and I did get to see a few cars from my youth (you’ll know them when you see them…they aren’t these first cars below).

Chicago-bound: Pit stop #1. 

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Pit stop #1. I had to take Advil since Bella has been crying since we left at 7am. (Come to find out, her crate had tipped over, so…oopsie! I guess her crying was warranted.)

I also learned that Tom’s car is NOT comfy for me to drive long-distance. The armrests don’t fit me!! So for the second leg, I pulled out some pillows and all was well!

Katie loves these little seats. She doesn’t need to use them, of course, but she always has to sit in it.

Nail + Screw = New tires

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

So, this happened:

Of course, it was the exact tire that had the last nail… And apparently since it was close to the edge, the guy said there was a chance the repair might not hold and it would split. GRRRRRREAT. How am I supposed to feel comfortable driving on that?!?!?! The tires are original and they are 2-3 years old…so we talked about getting new tires. And then as fate would have it, Costco was having a sale on Bridgestone tires, so off we went and $800+ later I feel safe driving again.

Another reason why I say I hate people. 

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

It just pisses me off that people only think about themselves.

Pre-k drop-off has changed to the front of the building. There is a parking lot (off to the right in the photo) but for the literally two minutes it takes to drop her off (where the buses are in the photo), it’s nice (and much closer) to park in the fire lane. Other people do it, too, but these two asshats always take up the entire lane (where there is room for four cars) with their two cars. I technically fit at the end but it ends up to be pretty close to the driveway (still safe but encroaching just a bit). If only they would pull up to the beginning of the lane instead of just stopping in the middle this would be a non-issue.

Why can’t we all just be decent scofflaws together?! 😆

I just can’t even. Kiss & Ride is NOT hard.

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Front lady is wasting like THREE spaces by not pulling forward. WHY?!?! I eventually pulled in front of her (directly behind that car to the very left that you can barely see). If you’re going to be stupid and waste that much space, you deserve to have someone pull in front of you. (Sidenote: she did the same damn thing the next day and I didn’t waste ANY time parking in front of her immediately upon arriving.)