Trading In

Five years ago Hardy bought a 2002 Isuzu Axiom. It was a very nice car, leather seats...6 disc CD changer, the works. About two years after he had it it started giving us transmission trouble (and after doing extensive research we discovered ALL Axiom's were doomed with transmission issues) we paid $2500 to have it repaired. Even though it was 'fixed' he never fully trusted the car and of course was pissed we had to put nearly $3k on a credit card just to get it running again. At the end of July 2007 he decided to trade it in for a 07' Kia Sportage - about a week later I decided I wanted one and traded in my 2001 Honda CR-V for a Sportage as well (just a different color). We have been fairly happy with the cars, they have great space, drove nicely and had tinted windows (big plus). Earlier this year it occured to me it was dumb that I went to get the same car after Hardy, we have NO NEED for two SUV's. We don't have a family and it's not like we go camping/backpacking all the time and need all that space. In February I was taking my car in for maintenance and decided I'd eyeball some of the new vehicles in the lot. I fell in love with the Forte, Kia's new sedan...so we went inside talked with a sales guy and started crunching numbers.

I ended up getting the Forte and I don't regret it one bit. While I did add on a few more years in terms of 'owing' and my payment increased $12/mo I save on gas mileage so it balances itself out. The Sportage at best on a long distance trip would get 300mi to a tank of gas, the Forte gets around 340 and that's in the city...every day driving.

About a week ago Hardy received a letter from KIA stating the dealership we buy from (KIA Mall of GA) was under new management and holding a trade in event 7/22-7/24 to build up their used inventory + offering more to the customer in trade in value. We thought - "What the heck, let's give it a try". Hardy owed more on his Sportage than I did because the Isuzu had more negative equity than my Honda did. Long story short....he got a black Kia SOUL, it's sooooo cute. It's supposed to be a little better than my car is on gas too.
 

All in all, you're always going to need a car so why not have a car you enjoy driving, save on gas and...the best part of it all. Kia's standard 10yr/100,000mi warranty. You can't beat any of those factors.