Poof, a car

We started off our Saturday with an early morning run at the track.  Cindy actually joined me which was cool.  I think I am going to try to permanently move my weekend run to Saturday mornings instead of Sunday.  It’s nice to get it out of the way up front.  When I was at my running peak I was always doing my weekend run on Saturdays anyway.  The warm and muggy weather made it a tough slog but we made it.

So I told Cindy I had a lot of small chores I wanted to get done Saturday morning and she was more than willing to jump in and help.  She actually weed whacked the yard using the battery powered whacker.  One of the things I wanted to do was my every 3 month generator start up.  I take both generators out of their respective sheds and fire them up so when the time comes where I actually need them, they will start.   Of course the small Honda unit fired up very quickly, that thing is bullet proof.  The big 5000 watt unit I bought in 2005 was a different story.

After pulling on the starter cord until I got a blister it still would not fire up.  I pulled out some tools and carb cleaner and got busy.  I disconnected the fuel line and shot a ton of carb cleaner in there.  I also removed the air filter and shot another large amount of cleaner in through the butterfly valve. I pulled the spark plug to make sure it didn’t look fouled out, it didn’t.  Even after doing all of that, it would not start.

Although I knew it likely wouldn’t help, I decided to leave the generator out to bake in the sun.  I thought maybe, just maybe once it got good and warm it might start.  Believe it or not, when I came back around 4pm, it started.  Not only did it start but it ran for hours, something it normally won’t do anymore without intermittent shut offs.  I was quite happy I was able to resuscitate the generator.

So after doing the chores Cindy and I had planned to drive up to a Fort Myers Hyundai dealer to test drive a Hyundai Ioniq.  Like I mentioned previously, with the Prius on the cusp of 200,000 miles we were looking at options.  Although Cindy and I had seen an Ioniq a couple weeks prior we never drove one.  Not only did we want to drive one, we really wanted to drive one of the Limited models that has the sunroof since that is what Cindy really wants.  We wanted to see if the sunroof headroom penalty would have my head jammed against the roof.  The only problem was Fort Myers didn’t have a Limited on the lot.

Well as we were getting DD coffee Cindy just happened to browse the inventory of Tamiami Hyundai, our local dealer.  We did not approach them originally because they were not a TrueCar affiliated dealer.  Well according to their website they had TWO Limited’s on the lot.  She called and talked to a salesman named Matt to verify they were there, they were.  Even better news was one of them was the Ceramic White color that Cindy wanted.  We canceled the GPS navigation for the Fort Myers dealer and headed to the local dealer who was only 5 miles away. The only “negative” about this car was it had the tech package which of course is a positive to me.  The only bad thing is the additional cost.  This car basically had everything you could possibly get in the Ioniq line.

Our sales guy Matt was cool.  He has been selling cars pretty much his entire adult life but he has a baseball background like me so that gave us some common ground.  We wasted little time before doing the test drive.  Cindy and I were both happy to see that even with the addition of a power sunroof I still had plenty of room for my cranium.  I also immediately noticed that as a passenger I have more leg room than I do in the 2007 Prius.  When I later drove the car I had a lot more leg room as well.

The car drove great and Cindy loved pretty much everything about it.  We had already talked about keeping the Prius as a third vehicle instead of trading it in.  Ever since I got rid of the party van and the SSR, making us a two vehicle household (if you don’t count the electric unicycles), there have been multiple times when having a third option would have been convenient.  So without a paid off trade in we were going to see how the numbers worked out with a couple spiffs Cindy qualified for, as a veteran and an Uber driver as well as taking advantage of 60 month 0% financing that Hyundai was currently offering.  Cindy also brought her TrueCar pricing certificate which the dealer also honored.

It took a little bit of haggling but in the end we came up with a number that worked for Cindy and would fulfill her transportation needs for the foreseeable future. Even though we didn’t enter the weekend anticipating Cindy having a new car in the garage, that’s how it worked out, at least for one night.  More on that briefly. So I drove my Tacoma home escorting Cindy in her new wheels.  The report card she gave when we got home was A+, she just loved the car in pretty much every way.  She was extremely excited to take the vehicle to the movies Saturday night.  I was very happy for her as well.

So as we were ready to leave for the movies Cindy offered to back the car out of the driveway so it would be easier for me to get in.  I could tell something was going on as she was trying to back out as she paused.  She told me the car was making an odd noise and an error light was on the dash.  Surely I thought she had to be misinterpreting something so I asked her to let me start it.  I could hardly believe that the check engine light was on as well as a HEV system error.  Cindy was immediately very distraught but I tried to calm her down.  We did a little test drive up and down the street.  The car drove fine but the error lights were still there.  Not knowing what was going on we decided it would be better to park the car and just take the Tacoma to the movies.

Cindy called the salesman and let him know of the problem.  They were open Sunday’s so he said we could take the car there the next day.  I spent most of the drive to the movies trying to talk Cindy down as she had nightmare scenarios running through her head that she just bought a lemon.  I assured her I had confidence that the problem was likely minor and that the dealer would take care of it.  Of course I felt badly that Cindy’s new car euphoria was cut short by the problem.

Despite the Ioniq roller coaster we both really enjoyed the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie.  I would rate it as highly as the first, meaning it is in rare A+ levels.  Marvel just knows how to do it right.

So while we were driving the Tacoma I noticed that my headlights, which I had adjusted after the lift were still pointing too far downward, giving me very limited light distance on the road.  Despite it being late I wanted to get them adjusted when we got home.  Before doing so I also wanted to get some more clarity on the Ioniq error.  I hooked up code reader to the brand new car’s diagnostic port to see what it would tell me.  In a few seconds it told me that something in the circuit that controls the battery cooling fan was amiss. Getting this information was a bit of a relief as it would seem that would be a rather simple thing to fix.  It also made Cindy feel a bit better as well.

Sunday morning we did stuff around the house until mid-morning.  I followed Cindy in the Prius.  While I filled the car up with gas she headed to the dealership to get the loaner process started.  Ironically, the error lights had reset themselves during Cindy’s drive however when the salesman turned the car back on the HEV error once again reappeared, leaving no question of it’s existence.  They gave Cindy a nice Elantra Sport as a loaner and assured us they would get the problem addressed quickly.  They said if it requires a part to fix they will pull it from one of their Ioniqs on the lot if need be, which was reassuring to hear.  Below is my video documenting my initial Ioniq impressions as well as talking about the CEL issue.

We then met up with Katie and Daniel for some EUC riding, something we had not done as a group in awhile.  We had a fun time zipping around the Vanderbilt Beach area although it was ridiculously hot outside.  Daniel is ready to upgrade to a bigger/faster wheel.  I recommended he look at a Gotway ACM which has power, speed, and range to spare.  We actually cut the ride a little short because my old Ninebot One I gave to Daniel ran out of juice.

After the ride the four of us had lunch at Fuzzy Taco’s.  The experience was good once again although Katie ordered a margarita that she was not fond of at all.

When we got home we turned right around and headed back out, this time with the dogs in tow.  They had looked disappointed repeatedly over the weekend when we headed out without them.  We wanted to get one small Home Depot road trip in for them before Sadie went back to Ali’s place today.  Elsa and Sadie appeared to have fun.  Elsa is definitely acting better in public spaces.  Her freak outs are fewer and farther between.

We didn’t get back home till after 4pm.  I just chilled out for the rest of the day.  It’s funny how even with a very busy and eventful weekend, just a few consecutive hours of doing nothing makes me feel sort of lazy.