Sonata Stories

Love Shack Bay-bee!

With appologies to the B-52’s:
I got me a car, it’s as big as a whale
and we’re headin’ on down
To the Love Shack
I got me a Hyundai, it seats about 20
So hurry up and bring your jukebox money

The dealer is taking care of titling and registering the car, but I have to pay the Personal Property Tax on the car in South Carolina. I called the Tax Auditor this afternoon and asked how much the tax would be and after I gave him the VIN number he told me it would be $420. Which is about what I expected (the last record I have for the Emperor is $303 in 2006.) When we got down to the Auditor’s office after work the Clerk who entered my information and generated my bill, said it would be $330 and pointed me down the hall to the Treasurer’s office to pay it. Why the $90 discrepancy in my favor? I didn’t question it, but had it gone the other way…

After dinner we drove over to Augusta to drop off the tax receipt at the dealer so they can do what they need to get me a plate. When I got back in the car I noticed my zipper was down. Fortunately my un-tucked T-shirt hung low enough. Donna asked did I think anyone in the dealership noticed, she was worried that they might have thought we were fooling around in the car. Maybe I will call the Sonata, Love Shack instead of Purple Whale.

Wash Day

We did three loads of clothes and I did two cars. The Miata has needed a good washing since before pine pollen season, but I put it off until everything pollen-wise has dropped or drifted around. Then I washed the Sonata to get the north Georgia (where it is still spring) pine pollen off of it. Thankfully there is that shark fin satellite antenna in the middle of the roof so I could judge if needed longer arms or step stool to get the whole car clean.

And while that should have been today’s ?Holy Crap This Car Is Big? story, it was trumped by our filling up the gas tank tonight. We had filled it up Friday when it was still half full, but it was now getting down to under an 1/8 of a tank. It holds 17 gallons which is 1-1/2 Miata tanks, so this time it was the most we had ever spent of gas ever. The 14.77 gallons that went in there came to over $50.

I didn’t pay attention to the mileage at Friday’s fill up, but today I did. It took 10.1 gallons then and now it took 14.8, there were 753 miles on the car, and I’m going to assume that they topped the tank when they sold it to us at 29 miles, so the gas mileage was 29 MPG. Not bad for a car rated at 22/35 (26 combined) considering it spent quite a bit of time being slogged through curvy mountain passes.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1005

Already?

Today Donna had an appointment to see the dermatologist about having a wart removed off the back of her hand. Last night we practiced driving the big new car downtown, so she could find the place. And even though she was leery of a couple downtown streets with parking on both sides, leaving a narrow path through the middle, she was game to try driving to her appointment.

I felt bad about this because I know how much she a) doesn’t like to drive anyway, b) didn’t want to drive it until it got its first door ding or scratch and c) would be so afraid of hurting the new car she might actually hit something trying to be too careful. Because I had come to work the 1/2 hour early with her all week, I figured I had built up enough extra time that I would just drive her to the doctor’s and sit outside trying to familiarize myself with the 380 page owner’s manual.

When I got to the office building where the doctor’s office is, there were two spots in a row open (thank goodness, as I wouldn’t dare try and parallel park this beast) so I pulled in and eased into the second spot. Only thing is the Sonata is a tad bit wider than a Miata so I managed to hit the curb with the right front wheel. =8O To add insult to injury when Donna got out of the car she had to come back and tell me to pull up as the car’s butt was a foot or so in the parking spot behind me.

I did a nice job, the wheel is scarred for about 3 inches around the diameter, though the clear coat, through the paint and into the aluminum. I called our salesman this afternoon and asked a hypothetical question, “Who would they call, if say, a wheel on a car being delivered was scratched up coming off the truck or something?” He said, “Already?” “Yep,” I replied, “less than 24 hours in.” I told him I was thinking of suing the car dealership for mental anguish caused by their selling me a car I was obviously unable to handle.” He laughed and gave me the name of who they call when they need a wheel repaired.

The name of the Sonata’s color is Indigo Blue Pearl and it is an appropriate name. In the shade it looks like a dark blue, but when you look at it in the bright sunlight there is a definite purple cast. I was thinking of calling the car “Purple Whale” because of its size compared the the Emperor, but that is the name of a form of the drug ecstasy. I can’t see any references to that past 2009, so it might be OK. I can even get one of these cute bath buddies to tack to the dash.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1004