What’s the worst travel experience you’ve ever had?
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If you’ve been a reader of my blog for any length of time, I’m sure you have come across my not so subliminal message regarding my feelings about cars made by Kia. As in, DON’T BUY A KIA! My previous car was a Kia Optima. Bless her heart. She is the reason for the worst travel experience I’ve ever had.
Two years ago, I drove to Syracuse, New York. Well, first I drove straight up I-95, through Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. White-knuckled my way across the George Washington Bridge in New York City during evening rush-hour. Spent the night in Connecticut, then picked up my friend in Boston. THEN drove all the way across the state of New York to Syracuse for the annual knitting “camp” my online knitting group puts on every year. All of that was fine, well, except the George Washinton Bridge. I think I have a whole post just about that experience. 0/10. Would not recommend that bridge at 5:00 pm on a weekday.
But it was the trip coming home that was awful. I went straight back home. Not going across New York to drop my friend off in Boston. She got a ride with someone else. I went straight from Syracuse, down through Scranton, where I just had to drive around the city for a little bit to see if I could spot any of the landmarks from the opening sequence of The Office. Everything was fine until just outside of Richmond, Virginia. That’s where my car decided my engine had had enough and it simply was not going to drive a single mile further. It made that decision on the interstate. The busy interstate. I was able to limp it off at the nearest exit. Once I pulled off, I was able to let it rest. I got it cranked back up, and was able to drive it for maybe another 10 miles before I had to pull off on a very rural exit and take advantage of the roadside assistance with my cell phone plan.
That exit was in Ashland, Virginia. Google maps will tell you that it’s about a 4-hour drive from where I live. I got the car towed to the first auto repair shop that came up on Google. This was a Sunday evening, so the shop was closed. I got a hotel nearby and first thing the next morning, I called the shop to explain why a random car was in their parking lot.
Long story short, this mom-and-pop auto repair shop was the best possible place I could have brought my car. They tried everything to fix my car. Ultimately, they figured out it was an engine thing. As in, the engine was dead. But they told me to contact Kia because the engine might be under warranty. I scoffed at that idea, but I called my local dealership and sure enough, thanks to a lawsuit specifically about the engines in the exact same model year Kia I had, my engine was under an extended warranty. Kia lost the lawsuit, so the extended warranty was their penance.
The resolution was that I would have to have my Kia towed to the nearest dealership where they would put in a new engine. Except, they didn’t have space at the moment to accept my car. This was mid-July and I wouldn’t be able to tow my car over until mid-August. The auto repair shop was so kind and let me store my car at their place, completely free, until I could get it towed. Because of their generosity, when I got back home, I baked them a bunch of my famous chocolate chip cookies and crocheted a replica of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine on monster truck wheels they had in the front of their building.
I coordinated the towing of my car from home later in August. Once it got to the dealership and I got put on the list for a new engine, the real horror began. I was 27th in line for a new engine! Have I already mentioned that you shouldn’t buy a Kia? They also wouldn’t rent me a car. They would actually, but only for a week, and I’d have to pick it up from a rental place in Ashland…4 hours away. Thankfully Josh has a work truck and I only worked 3 tenths of a mile from home at the time. So I drove his car every day. I could walk if I had to. Which I did one day when the battery died in his car.
I became a thorn in that Kia dealership’s side for months. I texted the service guy who was unlucky enough to text me an update and give me his name. Kia Kevin probably has a picture of me in his office that he throws darts at. I didn’t get my car back until November. Four months and some change after it initially died.
Two years later, that new engine started acting up and hence why I now have a new Subaru.
So, in conclusion…my worst travel experience was coming home from a road trip 4 months before my car. Good times. Don’t buy a Kia.
(Also, here’s a picture of the Mystery Machine I made for the shop in Ashland, next to the actual Mystery Machine from their Facebook page:
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