Tag: Kia

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 4

March 5, 2024 / DB

I said in my last car post that despite deciding to get a Tesla Model Y, I would continue to research EVs until I actually pulled the trigger to make certain of my final decision. It doesn’t take much to send me down research rabbit holes, and I spent a decent chunk of the weekend re-evaluating my choice and diving back into review videos and posts.

It started Friday when my brother-in-law in Boston, Uncle Maaaahk, mentioned that if I had time for more test drives, he has a friend who owns a Volkswagen ID.4 and loves it. The ID.4 had, in fact, been on my initial list of EVs. But I was underwhelmed with its specs and while reviews were generally positive, they also pointed out serious software flaws in the vehicle.

I checked prices Friday and was floored to see the ID.4s at our local dealer were all marked down anywhere from $10–12,000. They support Apple CarPlay, SiriusXM, and have HomeLink modules, all things missing from Tesla. Reviewers and owners raved about how nice they rode. Maybe I owed them another look!

Here’s where things got weird. Last week Volkswagen showed off the updated ID.4s to the public for the first time. These updates make the car more powerful, solve a lot of the software flaws, and smooth out some other issues. If these fixes worked, might the ID.4 be on equal footing with the Model Y? And if VW was cutting prices, maybe I should run over and test drive one on Saturday?

Then I realized the cars on the lot are all 2023s, while the ones that had hit YouTube are all 2024 model years. It looked like VW was marking down the ’23s at dealers to clear them out for the ’24s which should start rolling out of the Chattanooga plant soon. Some of the software updates might hit the existing models, but VW generally gets poor grades on their software strategy and there has been no clear guidance on how much, if any, of the improvements will be available for the pre–24 models.

Still, a seed was planted and I spent several hours Friday night and Saturday morning reading up on the ID.4, making lists, and comparing specs.

In the end it came down to the ’23 ID.4 having too many quirks and software issues to match the Model Y, especially when priced the same. Had VW cut prices further, so they were cheaper than the Model Y, then I would have been more interested.

My Saturday research then pivoted and landed on a car I really like but had also cut from my list because of price and charging network, the Polestar 2.

I think these look incredible. They get positive reviews. Like the VW, they also support Apple CarPlay and SiriusXM. They are more car than SUV but I just love their looks.

The hook for me was that the used Polestar market, as with so many EVs, has crashed over the past year. I found several that were under 20,000 miles and could he had for half their original price. I smelled blood in the water.

Again, I dove into videos and spec comparison lists.

Then S pointed out something very important that I had not thought of: since there is no Polestar dealer in Indy, what would I do if I needed service? I can have the tires rotated anywhere. But if it won’t start one day or I get a display full of warning lights, who would I call?

The nearest Polestar dealer and service center is in Columbus, OH. Polestar will pay to have your vehicle transported up to 150 miles if needed for service. Columbus is 180 miles away.

Plus it uses the wrong charging network (for now).

Fortunately I only spent about an hour diving into Polestar info.

That wasn’t the end of my hemming-and-hawing, though.

Tesla recently refreshed their Model 3s, the sports car sibling of the Model Y. The new ones look incredible! I’m not usually a red car guy, but I love the new red available on the Model 3.

The newest Model 3 also comes with several other interesting upgrades and improvements, ones that the Model Y will likely receive in 2025. Even better, the low-end Model 3 is the cheapest car in the Tesla lineup, checking in below forty-grand.

Alas, there is almost no backseat space in the Model 3, that low-end model is rear wheel drive, and I recalled from when I drove the Audi A5 for a week last year that I did not like being low to the ground, or at least the getting in-and-out of the low car.

So it’s back to the Model Y. Which isn’t a bad place to be. I’m just making sure.

One other thing about non-Teslas I’ve considered. There was a series of videos about the Kia EV6 I watched at the beginning of this process that got me really juiced about that car. The guy who made them just released a podcast discussing his two year experience with the car. He had the dreaded 12 volt battery issue that scared me away, although he said a simple jump start brought his car back to life. He said other EV6 owners he knows have almost all had a separate, major electrical issue right around 30,000 miles, a milestone he is about to hit. He assumes his car will have the same issue. He confirmed what I had read, that Kia corporate doesn’t seem nimble enough to deal with these issues and the dealerships in his area are clueless when it comes to fixing them.

He loves his EV6 and has been mostly happy with it. He and his wife own three cars between then, so one going out of commission is more of a bummer than a life-altering incident. He confirmed most of my fears about Kia, though. I felt validated.

That’s your update for this week. There’s still plenty in my notebook, so look for more posts about 1) why I’m ditching Audi, 2) my on-going sales experience with Kia, 3) how New Car 2024 fits into my long-term plans, and more.

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 3

February 27, 2024 / DB

When I realized that the Kia EV6 likely wasn’t the car for me, I started thinking about the areas where it failed to be sure about what I was looking for. Kia is fairly new to EVs, so their products are not mature. They don’t seem to have a strong organizational commitment, on either the corporate or dealer side, to EVs at the moment. With the electric market softening over the past year, I wonder about how serious they will continue to be about their models going forward. If they are already having difficulty identifying and fixing wide-spread electrical issues now, what happens if their EV sales tank? Kias currently rely on the less common and reliable charging network, although with the Tesla network opening to other brands in the next 18 months, that will change. If I want an EV, I need one that addresses all these shortcomings.

There was an easy answer to most of these questions.

Oh, God.

Fuck.

Tuesday I test drove a Tesla Model Y.

As usual, we back up before we go forward.

One year to the day before my Tesla test drive, M and I rode down to Cincinnati for a campus visit with her buddy A and her dad T in his Model Y.[1] He is a true convert, ditching a BMW for his Tesla, and extolled the car’s virtues during our roughly four hours in it. This was my first long-term ride in a Tesla, and I liked it, quizzing T about his perspective along the way. As soon as we got home M said, “You’re going to get a Tesla now, aren’t you?”

I said no but, dammit, the girl might have been right.

OK, back to last Tuesday.

I arrived at the dealership, signed a waiver, and an associate led me to a Model Y. She showed me how to get the steering wheel and mirrors to comfortable positions. Being a Tesla, this is not as straightforward as in most cars. Then she guided me on how to find pretty much everything I would need during the drive on the car’s touchscreen.

The dealership sits right in the middle of a huge construction area, so I asked her for a suggestion on the best route to get to the highway. Knowing I had never driven a Tesla before, she recommended taking a couple laps around the next door mall’s parking lot to get used to the acceleration and braking before I drove on the actual street.

Good advice! Kia dude just had me jump on the street and go.

Then she plotted me a route, saying it would take me through neighborhoods and on four-lane streets so I could get a feel of how the car reacted to those scenarios. From there I knew how to get to the nearest interstate on my own.

Then she said, “OK, take it wherever you want, just be back in half an hour or so,” and walked away. No yappy sales person sitting next to me. I was on my own!

The full regenerative braking on the Tesla is trippy. I got the hang of it pretty quickly, although it was weird to have the car slow in proportion to how little pressure I put on the accelerator. I never had an “Oh shit!” moment of panic or confusion. Rather, sometimes I would forget to hit the accelerator when a light turned green since my foot wasn’t putting pressure on anything. Kind of a weird mental block.

I took her advised route, which led me through a rough section of pavement that confirmed that the Model Y has a relatively stiff suspension. Not sure I love that, but it’s not a deal breaker either. I would prefer a more cushioned ride, but also want sporty responsiveness. Those often don’t go together in the budget range I’m currently in. The Tesla definitely leans to the sporty side of that equation.

Once I got to the interstate I zipped around between traffic but, without any big openings, didn’t get a chance to properly punch it. I exited and prepared to turn back towards the dealership. I was the first car at a red light with a long entrance ramp ahead. This was my moment. And then a big ass tractor trailer truck pulled onto the ramp just before I got a green light. Ass.

No worries. Once he got onto the interstate, he quickly moved to the left and I blew by him in the right lane. The dealer had set a speed limit of 85 MPH. I hit that pretty quickly and started laughing. Going from 50-to–85 might be more impressive than 0-to–60. It felt instantaneous. There wasn’t much traffic around me this direction so I let my speed drop and floored it several times just to feel that sensation again.

The big knock about the Tesla driving experience is that so many things are accomplished via the touchscreen.

Like 98% of car functions are controlled through the giant, iPad-like screen. It is a little odd, especially the lack of a center display in the dashboard, but I found it to be very intuitive. You can set shortcuts for most-used settings at the bottom of the screen. I think once you get those dialed in to your preferences, it’s pretty easy to interact with for someone who is fairly tech savvy. The screen is incredibly responsive, very Apple-like, in fact. I didn’t detect any lags in my brief time playing with it.

I much prefer physical knobs and switches. I think it is super annoying that everyday controls are a layer deep on a display. But Tesla’s screen seems to work good enough that this can be overcome. I think their system would be annoying for a casual driver. S and I rarely swap cars. That will likely happen even less often if I get a Tesla because these controls would drive her crazy.

Which brings up one big negative: Tesla does not support Apple CarPlay in any way. You can connect your phone via Bluetooth, but unlike a CarPlay-equipped vehicle, you don’t get access to the entire screen for your media, just small controls at the bottom of the screen. If you want to change playlists in Spotify, or switch between audio apps, that must be done on your phone’s screen. Which isn’t super safe at 75 MPH. But even my buddy who works at Apple and owned a Tesla admitted that their systems are good enough that he didn’t mind having to use them over CarPlay. That said, he now drives a Lucid which does support CarPlay.

There are some third party adapters that allow you to add a CarPlay screen, but they seem pretty janky. For their cost you might as well pay for Tesla’s Premium Connectivity to run Spotify or Apple Music natively.

Another bummer is that Model Ys do not support SiriusXM. I’ve been an SXM subscriber for ten years and it is a huge part of my music life. I could still stream it via the app and Bluetooth, but I’m not sure that’s worth the annual cost given the lack of on-screen controls.

The car’s interior is very spare. There is a ton of storage room, like amazing amounts. I think that can lead to having too much crap in your car. But I also find my Audi has like 20% too little space, making it difficult to store necessities within reach of the driver. Other than all that storage, the Tesla is pretty spartan inside. I would describe it as nice but not luxurious by any measure.

I’ve also learned that Tesla has moved from a combination of ultrasonic sensors and cameras similar to my Audi, to exclusively using cameras for proximity alerts. While their cameras are of amazing quality, they are far less accurate and users complain that the car will often scream at them that they are about to hit a wall, parked car, etc when they are actually several feet away. Not sure how cool that is when the charging port is in the rear of the vehicle, normally requiring the driver to back into a charging station. The lack of sensors can also make some of the assistive driving functions a little wonky, especially in poor lighting conditions. I guess these are all things that you get used to, and may be adjusted with future software refreshes. It seems like a misguided cost-cutting move, though, to ditch the sensors.

In summary, the Tesla felt far more competent than the Kia. Teslas aren’t without their issues; a lot of owners complain about fit and finish issues inside and out. The driving software can be temperamental. Apparently the automatic windshield wipers are infuriating in their lack of consistency. But Tesla is also famous for a constant flow of software updates that both fix reported issues and roll out new functionality. When mechanically possible, a Tesla that is several years old can have the exact same, updated functionality as a car straight off the production line. Teslas have been around for a decade and are backed by a company that is solely focused on EVs. Throw in their massive, easy-to-use Supercharger network, and the Model Y was a clear winner over the Kia EV6.

After I returned to the dealer the lady who had helped me get set up was out on a break so I talked to another associate. He was very chill. I asked him how come their website shows a bunch of cars on the lot that are exactly the same with incrementally different prices. Other than the type of motor (Rear wheel, all wheel Long Range, or all wheel Performance), about all you can select as options are exterior and interior colors, tire size, five versus seven seats, and if you want to add a towing hitch or not.

“Honestly I couldn’t tell you,” he said. His best guess was their pricing algorithm is based on how long a car has been on the lot and inserts discounts to move the oldest first for tax purposes. “They are all the same. My best advice is to find what you want and pick the cheapest one.”

I liked this process much more than Kia’s. Hell, if S was into EVs, she would 100% buy a Tesla just because of their laid-back, low-contact sales interactions. You can actually buy a car on your phone without ever talking to another human if you want!

Tesla’s current incentives aren’t quite as aggressive as Kia’s. Kia’s are generous enough at the moment that we were considering buying one even with two months left on my Audi lease. Tesla’s current price cuts are not as steep, meaning there’s no rush. They’ve been aggressive with price cuts over the past year, so I bet they’ll drop prices again between now and the day my lease expires.

So as of today, I think I will be replacing my Audi Q5 with a Tesla Model Y Long Range. I already got my buddy T’s referral code so we can both earn some goodies out of it.

I had one electrician out last week to get an estimate to run a line for a home charger, and have messages out to several others to take a look. Being able to charge your EV at home is a game changer, the step that truly makes owning an EV radically different from a traditional car. Superchargers are great for road trips, but charging at home for everyday travel is cheaper and far more convenient.

I’ll continue to do research over the next couple months to make sure this is the right choice. I’ve been reading about a few other cars, but nothing has jumped out at me as requiring a test drive.

To close this post, I want to make a very important point: Elon still fucking sucks. If I get a Tesla I might get a bumper sticker that says “Fuck Elon.” That’ll start some conversations!

I apologize for all the initials, I know it makes for awkward reading. ↩

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 2

February 22, 2024 / DB

Things are moving quickly compared to my last car buying adventure. As I shared yesterday, in the span of about 36 hours I went from casually looking at one set of cars with a planned acquisition date in early May to suddenly test driving a totally different car with the chance of bringing it home soon.

Part of that adjustment was adding electric vehicles to my list. I’ve been interested in EVs for some time. In fact, almost since I got my Audi, I’ve been keeping tabs on the latest developments in the EV world. Despite that attention, I kept saying that EVs would be right for me two cars down the road, not in my next car.

A lot went into this assertion. Mostly it was about cost. If my budget was going down with Car 2024, I would be getting further away from EVs rather than closer to them.

Two things changed that. The EV market has softened in the last year, and prices in general have decreased. Second, as I mentioned in my first post, several manufacturers are offering pretty big incentives to close out the current quarter.

Monday I test drove a Kia EV6.

(Not the car I drove, nor my house.)

I’ve been a passenger in a Tesla several times, and spent a fun weekend being ferried around in a friend’s Lucid. But I’ve never sat in the driver’s seat of an EV. Monday was fun for that alone.

I can’t say my test driving experience was the best, though. We have a rough history with Kia salespeople, specifically when we test drove a Telluride four years ago. We also have several friends who have had terrible encounters with Kia dealers. The only reason S has a Telluride is because she desperately wanted one and found a dealer who would do everything via email so she didn’t have to put up with their nonsense.

The sales guy who helped me Monday, Jason, wasn’t terrible, but he did check a lot of the Kia boxes. Very young. A little too enthusiastic. A little too agreeable. Just a little much in general, although he was a nice enough guy.

The real issue was him not being familiar with the car. Despite scheduling ahead to test drive a specific car, they still didn’t have an EV expert to help me. I got a kid who couldn’t even find the charging port when we were doing a walk-around. He knew lots of specs, but struggled to show off anything that was different from the standard Kia setup. Even when I asked whether the current promotions on EVs would expire next week, he nodded slowly and said “That sounds right,” without much confidence.

I think that is typical of a lot of traditional dealerships that are easing into the EV world. Their sales staff, service crew, and entire organizations are focused on the ICE vehicles that make up the bulk of their sales and services appointments. I had read about people having similar encounters, but it was still disappointing.

“What about the test drive, you dick?” I can hear you asking.

I enjoyed it. Everything everyone who owns an EV tells you is true. The instant power is incredible. It’s shocking even when you expect it. We were able to get on a stretch of state highway where I could punch it a couple times. When you punch it, it goes. I didn’t go zero-to–80 or anything, but closer to a realistic boost needed when passing or trying to merge onto a highway. No engine noise, no lag, no pauses as the transmission worked through the gears. It is an amazing experience.

The car rides lighter than I expected. I figured with the extra weight of the batteries it would feel heavy, akin to driving a Suburban or Tahoe. I wouldn’t say it drove like a nimble little sportster, but I was surprised a bit by the feel.

I also experienced regenerative braking for the first time. Kia uses paddles on the steering wheel to control the amount of regen, allowing the driver to dial in the feel they enjoy most. Luckily I knew that coming into the drive, because Jason never mentioned it to me. Being new to regen braking, I scaled it back so I was still using the brake pedal at full stops. It is weird to back off the throttle and feel the car immediately slow down, though.

I made this same observation three years ago, but it is annoying when you’re taking a test drive, trying to get a sense of how a car drives and reacts and feels, and your sales person talks the entire time. This is multiplied in an EV, which is a whole new kind of driving. I didn’t need total silence but if homie could have eased up on the Sales Guy schtick some it would have been helpful.

Because of that, I didn’t walk away from the drive with a ton of insight. I enjoyed it. It was comfortable. The tech mostly made sense. But as I think back on the drive, I hear more of Jason talking than distinct memories of the car.

One thing that did really stand out was that the model I drove, the Light Long Range AWD, was lacking a lot of features. No sun roof, although to be honest this doesn’t bother me as much as it looks weird. There were some switches and infotainment options that S has on her Telluride that were missing from the Light. And unless the Jason really failed me by not pointing them out, the car has a single, rear-facing camera. Almost all Kias have side cameras that kick in when you are changing lanes, displaying your blind spots. I find these a little distracting in the Telluride, but they are highly useful when parking. Especially when backing into a charging stall as visibility is poor out the small, back window of the EV6. I made sure to back the car up when we got back to the dealership and had to rely just on the single camera in the tail gate. Also no front camera to assist with pulling into garages, etc.

Speaking of charging, Jason didn’t demonstrate how to charge the vehicle, either. Or really talk about charging at all. That would seem like an important point.

There were a few other options that kick in when you jump to the Wind trim tier, but the cameras were the most significant absences.

We went inside so he could give me his card and call over the sales manager for the obligatory “Hey, how ya doin’?” before I left. I had told Jason that I had two months left on my lease, so I was in no hurry to buy. I had also mentioned at some point that I would have to talk to my wife before I made any decision. He told me three times he respected that. It is good to be respected. This led to the strangest part of my visit.

He went over to grab his sales manager and came back with a weird look on his face. “He’ll be over in a minute. But I have a question for you. Would you want to take the car home for the night, so you could show it to her?”

Wait, WHAT?!?!? He was seriously offering to let me take the car home??? I was, honestly, a little taken aback and didn’t know how to respond at first. Eventually I told him I wasn’t comfortable leaving my car there and thanked him for the offer, but declined. Very strange.

Later a Black friend of mine said this was like the Eddie Murphy “White Like Me” sketch. That made me laugh.

My takeaways from the test drive were also tempered a bit because of something my research had uncovered earlier in the day.

Kia/Hyundai have a rather serious issue with the 12 volt battery in some of their EVs. It causes the car to shut down completely, even if the main batteries are fully charged. Kia doesn’t seem to know how to handle it, despite being present for several years. They will often just replace the battery – if they have one – and send you home until it fails again. Some dealerships will hold your car for weeks, waiting for their “EV expert” to come in and diagnose the dead battery. Some dealers claim replacing it with a more expensive battery solves the problem. Others say you have to replace it with a battery that is an exact match. People who get bit by the bug once often get bit again. This does not affect most EV6 drivers, but I couldn’t find clear numbers on how many do have their cars crippled by it. It may be a very small percentage, but those people are extremely vocal on the various forums I popped into.

The more I read, the more I found about other flakey issues like this in the electrical system or in the software that manages vital systems. Corporate Kia can’t seem to get a handle on them. Local dealerships don’t seem educated in what to do when owners show up with their EV6 on a tow truck.

Even though the EV6 is one of the best rated cars in its class, if there is a persistent problem that could leave me stranded, and the company can’t find a fix, that is a major red flag.

Sunday night I could not have been more excited about the Kia EV6. The price was down to a very comfortable point. It seemed refined in a way Teslas are not and far more capable than a Volkswagen ID.4. Every major review praised its quality, putting it best in class in nearly every category. But Kia’s lack of quality control made me wonder how committed they are to EVs, and whether my time as an owner would be marred by bad experiences like the ones I read about.[1]

I test drove the EV6 on Monday. Tuesday I test drove another EV. We’ll talk about that next week.

To be fair anyone can get a lemon from any manufacturer. My Audi has had three major issues with the rear lift gate. But those didn’t keep me from driving the car. ↩

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 1

February 21, 2024 / DB

I mentioned Monday that I fell into a rabbit hole over the weekend. If you pay close attention to all my nonsense, you probably could have made a pretty solid guess as to what that rabbit hole was.

I am officially car shopping again!

Just like when I did this three years ago, there’s going to be some background bullshit before we get to the good stuff. I’ll try to be brief, but y’all know how I am. Feel free to skim or skip.

First we have to jump back for a moment. Three years ago I knew I had a little window in our family’s schedule in which I could get something Really Nice, as Cousin Eddie would say.

Not that I didn’t have nice cars before. But instead of a massive, expensive, domestic SUV that was purchased with hauling kids around, spring break road trips, and lake weekends in mind, my 2021 purchase was a chance to get something smaller, expensive, and foreign before we had to start paying college tuition. When we leased my Audi Q5, I did it knowing when the lease ran out, my next car budget would be significantly smaller. I would still get something nice. But it would be at least one step down from the Audi. Maybe two steps, depending where M went to school.[1]

(We’ll talk more about the Audi down the road in this series.)

For a few months I’ve been casually doing the early work, including coming up with a mental price range, thinking about what I had to have versus what I could give up, and casually reading reviews and rankings of the vehicles I was interested in.

Generally, I was looking for another small-ish SUV/crossover. I knew the big thing I would give up was power: when your budget drops by 30–40%, the engine is going to take the biggest hit. No more highly-tuned, German turbo fours. Or at least ones that pump out 260 horsepower.

I wanted a well-appointed, comfortable interior that was also nice on the outside. Heated seats are a must, ventilated would be nice. Wireless Apple CarPlay would be great, although that has been a disaster in my Audi and I mostly use a wired connection now. In addition to dropping down in budget, getting better mileage was high on the list. I’ve averaged 24.9 MPG in my Audi, which isn’t bad. But hybrids that get into the high 30s, low 40s were in play.

As tends to happen with any shopping experience, I would start reading, watching videos, etc. and next thing you know I’m suddenly looking at cars that are ballpark price of my Audi. Then I would realize I wasn’t being productive and would set the project aside for a few days.

A couple weeks ago I got a lot more serious about things. S gave me more definitive budget limits, which helped a lot. I figured I would spend the next month heavily on the research side of the project and start test driving after spring break.

I had things roughly narrowed down to three cars: the Honda CR-V Hybrid, Kia Sportage Hybrid, and the Volkswagen Tiguan. The Tiguan is basically a cheaper, slower version of my Q5 and looks the best of the three, but it also has a traditional gas engine and thus the worst mileage. It also has some quirks that could be deal-breakers. I know the Honda will run forever, is readily available in a ton of colors, and gets great reviews. It is also the most boring looking of the three, not interesting to drive, and is, by far, the most expensive of the three. The Sportage is the boldest looking of the bunch, has the most options, is the cheapest, the most powerful, and honestly the only major negative is that it is hard to find one that isn’t black or one of Kia’s three shades of gray. As a bonus, the sales guy who S bought her Telluride from would cut her a check if we bought another car from him.

Every few days another car or two would bounce in and out of the list, but those were the three that seemed to stick.

So that’s where I was at the end of last week.

Over the weekend I was running through my standard Hour(s) Of Wasting Time On Car Shit routine. I noticed on the Kia dealer sites promotions for their EVs. Like $5000–7500 off before the Federal tax credit, which put them from out-of-reach to firmly within reach. Discounts that big seemed kind of nutty. Especially since we know from our first attempt to buy a Telluride in 2020 that Kia is infamous for promising a discount then throwing markups that cancel them out at you when you hit the showroom.

Still, I was intrigued.

I read up on their EVs, specifically the EV6. It gets phenomenal ratings, generally ranked #1 or #2 in its class, swapping the top spots with its Hyundai cousin, the Ioniq 5. Most reviews said it was wonderfully built, very sporty, and loaded in that crazy way Kia can load up cars while remaining affordable.

I was super intrigued.

That’s when the rabbit hole presented itself.

I spent almost all day Sunday watching videos about the EV6. Some were proper reviews by auto experts. Others were user vids about their experience with the vehicle. I watched one 90 minute video (at 1.5x playback speed) by a guy who picked up his EV6 in Wisconsin and then drove it to his home in Dallas. That one was a little long, but I love those kind of videos since you get to see someone using the car in real life situations rather than in controlled ones typical to reviews.

By Sunday afternoon I had that buzzy feeling in my head and quickened pulse that comes when I get excited/obsessed about something.

I looked around and other manufacturers also had deals on their EVs. The only caveat was most of them are set to expire next week. Which doesn’t fit my timeline of getting a new car right before my lease expires in mid-May.

S and I chatted about my day’s work. We examined the various discounts and deals that are available, re-evaluated our budget, and she gave me the green light to at least go test drive.

Guess what I’ve been doing this week?

We’ll save that for part two.

Thankfully she went to an out-of-state, public university that offered her in-state tuition. Plus C heads to college in 18 months. ↩

Weekend Notes

October 23, 2023 / DB

It was a pretty good fall break/long weekend around our house. It included another trip to Cincinnati, a new family toy, and a variety of news on the high school sports front. Let’s dive into the details.

CHS Fall Break

C and L were off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for their fall break. L had basketball practice all three days and the weather was crappy, so we didn’t do much. Our pool guy was supposed to show up Thursday to close it for us, but it rained so much he didn’t make it. He’ll now be here Tuesday.

Aficionados of my fall break posts will not be surprised that we went up the block to Walgreens and got flu shots on Thursday, which is a bit of a tradition. The girls also ran around with their friends a little bit. L got to go the final Pacers preseason game of the year Friday, sitting in the front row behind the basket. She got pictures with Cavaliers Caris Levert and Donovan Mitchell after the game, which was pretty cool. One of her friends accidentally dumped a bottle of water on Levert when he slid into them during the game.

UC Family Weekend

We drove down to Cincinnati Saturday morning for Family Weekend. The Bearcats were taking on Baylor, but I doubted the girls would be interested in an entire game between two bad teams so we opted to let M do her greek life tailgating thing and picked her up right after kickoff.[1]

We headed to the Findlay Market area and ate some pretty solid barbecue. While we were eating I could see L whispering to her sisters and they were all laughing. When I asked what was so funny, so said, “This is way better than Oklahoma Joe’s.”

Then M lost it, “LOOK AT HIS FACE! HE IS SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!”

I mean, it was good barbecue, I won’t lie. But if she wasn’t just messing with me I may have to disown her.

While eating we ran into some Indy friends who sent kids to both St P’s and CHS. I’ve sat with the dad at multiple football games this year. Their oldest daughter is a senior at Xavier and it was her sorority’s parents weekend. Small world.

We went downtown to check into our hotel then walked down to the riverfront and visited the Underground Railroad Museum. It was fascinating. They suckered us into getting a membership since that is cheaper than five individual day passes. That’s cool because I definitely want to go back and spend more time there. Not going to name names,[2] but some folks in my family tend to breeze through museums where I like to take them in slowly and get into the details.

Back to the hotel for some down time. I watched football while all three girls took naps. Then we headed back to the dorm so M could change and grab her high school bud who was joining us for dinner. A’s parents couldn’t make it for the weekend so we made her an honorary B girl for the night. We went to Sacred Beast in the Over-The-Rhine district. It was quirky and good. And we sat in a booth next to another group of folks we know from St P’s and CHS. Twice in one day! So odd.

We dropped M, her friend, and C back at the dorm and returned to the hotel for the night. C was going to spend the night with M since her roommate was gone and get a taste of college life. Seems like that went ok, although C’s back was bothering her and M dropped C off after a couple parties, locked her in the room, and went back out. This might be the moment to point out that despite being sick for 87 consecutive weeks, M apparently doesn’t miss a chance to go out.

Sunday morning we got the girls then headed back downtown for breakfast at the tremendous Maplewood Kitchen. One of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. And we got there just before the rush hit and were able to get a table without too long of a wait. By the time we left the line was out the door.

After eating it was back to campus so M could show us around. We got to see her sorority house and meet her pledge mom, J, who is awesome. M had told us a lot about her but meeting her made it all click. They are VERY similar, but in a good way where it works. We made a stop at a bookstore so both C and L could get some UC gear, ran into Target to get M a few things, then headed home. We were back in our house in time to see the second half of the Colts game.

Cincinnati is cool. I’ve been to one Reds game in my 20 years in Indy, and that was a quick in-and-out for a day game. I forget where but I had heard plenty over the years about the geography of the city, but until you see it, it doesn’t really make sense. It is a river town, like Kansas City and St. Louis, so all the roads are kind of fucked up based on that alone. Then it is built into some serious bluffs that rise straight up out of the Ohio. Parts of it look kind of California-like just because of the rapid increase in elevation. It is definitely more St. Louis than KC, as it feels a lot older than my hometown. Even then Cincy has a very distinct feel from the Lou. I imagine I’ll get to know the city even better over the next few years.

New Toy

We made the trip in S’s new vehicle, a Kia Telluride. It is very, very nice. Her lease doesn’t end on her Grand Cherokee for a few weeks, so we kept the Telluride in the garage for the first few days we owned it. She got it early specifically for this trip, so M could bring a friend (or two) if needed since we again have a seven-passenger vehicle. I drove the entire weekend and loved it. Between having a kid in college and another joining her in less than two years, when my Audi lease is up I’m going to have to do some serious financial downsizing. I dig the Telluride enough that a smaller Kia SUV will likely be in the running.

High School Hoops

I mentioned above that L had basketball practice last week. To answer the obvious question, yes, she seems to have recovered from her concussion.

Monday was the first official day of practice in Indiana, and she was cleared to return that day after taking a week off. Her coach did keep her out of scrimmages, though, just to avoid contact for a little longer. L said that made practice boring but I reminded her she didn’t need to get hurt again and then miss weeks of the season.

Wednesday was roster day, when the girls learned what team they would be on. We kind of knew what to expect, but it was still a little nerve-racking to drop her off, run to the grocery store to grab a couple things, then wait for her to come out.

Options were freshman, JV, varsity, freshman-JV double roster, or the JV-varsity double.

Each player had a one-on-one with the coach where they learned their fate. She texted me about 45 minutes in asking if I was there. I said yes, but she didn’t come out for another 20 minutes, which concerned me. But when she came out she was with a few older girls who I knew would make varsity, and they were all laughing.

She got in the car, I asked how it went, and she just said, “Fine.”

“Well…what did you get?!?!” Jesus, this kid.

She made the JV team, one of only three freshmen to make it. When I asked her what the coach said to her she said that L had done a great job in preseason camp, was already a leader in the program, and she expected that she would get some varsity minutes this year. So not double-rostered but the window is open to play up. My expectation/assumption is that she will be the starting point guard for JV. The head coach had the girl who will start as PG for varsity guard the hell out of L all preseason to get her toughened up for high school ball.

Pretty cool! I was pumped and told her I was proud of her. She kind of blew me off, because this is what she expected, but I think she was pleased on the inside.

Thursday night she had four of her friends over, all of whom made varsity. She knows how to get in good with the older girls.

The first game is November 7. Practice goes up to 2.5 hours this week, plus they have JV and varsity scrimmages against another school Wednesday.

Other CHS Sports

The football state tournament began last week. Class 6A gets a week off before their tournament begins, so no game for CHS. The Irish open sectionals against an 0–9 team this Friday.

CHS had three other teams playing Saturday, two of which could affect how quickly L gets to at least sit the bench in a varsity game.

The girls soccer team was playing in semi-state, a week after knocking off the #1 team in Indiana. Two varsity basketball starters are on the soccer team, and if they won and made it to State, those girls would not be eligible for the first two basketball games of the year.[3] The volleyball team was playing in the regional round, and if they advanced to semi-state next week that would knock another varsity basketball starter out for two games.

Unfortunately – except for basketball, I guess – both teams lost. Soccer lost 1–0 to the #11 team (CHS was ranked #6), and #4 volleyball lost in five sets to the #6 team (they would have played #5 Saturday night if they won the morning match). So bummers there.

Boys soccer balanced that a bit, getting a 2–1 win to advance to State. But our girls don’t really know any of those kids so would have much rather one of the girls teams won.

Colts

LOL. That was an insane game, and I missed the entire first half which was apparently totally off the rails. If I was fully invested I would be pissed about the second pass interference call on the Browns’ final drive of the game. I wonder what that Twitter user I mentioned last week, who likes re-tread white quarterbacks more than first round draft picks who happen to be Black, thought of Gardner Minshew turning the ball over four more times this week.

(Speaking in a Troy Aikman voice) Folks, I gotta tell ya, the Bearcats might really stink. They may well be 2–9 when the Jayhawks roll into town Thanksgiving weekend. Which means I probably just jinxed KU into an L. Idiot. ↩
My wife. ↩
In Indiana you have to participate in ten practices before you can play in a high school game. Even if you are coming from another varsity sport, which is super dumb to me. Those kids are in shape. ↩