Back in 2008, we drove a rental Prius while on vacation up in the Pacific Northwest; a few years later we bought one. That car served us well until the end of 2018 when, without any credit card debt or car payment, things started looking peculiar regarding our credit rating and we quickly realized that we were being penalized for not carrying any debt, so we traded the Prius. We would have grabbed another Toyota hybrid but they were sold out. Looking for another car led us back to Kia. We’ve owned a few of them over the years along with a number of Hyundais, and we’ve always had good experiences with these Korean cars. Within 24 hours of encountering a dramatic change to an interest rate, we were driving a new 2019 Kia Niro that cost us $28,700 while the offending credit card was canceled.

Four years and 78,000 miles later, we were ready to trade in our Niro as we were approaching the end of making payments on it, and we didn’t want to fall afoul of the credit rating agencies. At the moment we decide to buy another car and are about to finalize the deal, we become horribly attached to the vehicle that is about to go away. You see, a car for us is not just a means to live in the city, it is a thing that has carried us to adventures, oceans, trails, museums, concerts, and into a good number of books because Caroline has been reading out loud the titles we’ve decided to share in the car. For us, the car becomes an experiential tool for uncovering adventures and so many memories are attached to it, but as we all know, change is the spice of life.

At first glance, it may not be obvious, but this is the same car we are leaving behind, another Kia Niro Touring model except this one is the 2023 version. While the deal was done yesterday, I didn’t pick it up until this afternoon because there were a few things that needed to be done on the car before it was ready for us. Our new Niro had just been delivered and was still covered in protective tape and because it was late in the day on Sunday afternoon before financing was complete, we’d have a slight delay in taking possession of our new car. Speaking of finance, this updated version now costs $34,900 or thereabout. The car is smoother and quieter, features updated smart cruise control and other driving conveniences in addition to some rudimentary self-drive functionality. We had to purchase a spare tire as we didn’t want to rely on the TMK or Tire Mobility Kit which is now standard equipment.

While we’ve only had the car some hours as I write this, it’s definitely an improvement and appears to get a few more miles per gallon compared to our other Niro so it feels like a win. In retiring the old car, we are also moving on from our old plate that read FIBER, which references Caroline’s love of the fiber arts. Our new plate is chosen and it’s available but I’ll wait on sharing it until we have it in our possession. Now the hard part of all this begins, where are we going for an inaugural road trip?