The last couple of weeks has been rather interesting for vehicles in the Dex household.
We've been using our 2016 Kia Cerrato (Forte in the US), since we bought it new. Been a great car, very reliable, good gas mileage, etc. Sometime last year, Mrs Dex was in an accident. Girl in the car behind her was on her phone and didn't see the light turned red. Smashed into the back of Mrs Dex and forced our car into the car in front, damaging both ends of the car (almost entirely cosmetic damage). Girl was un-insured, but our insurance took care of everything and would "recover" the costs from the girl. Car got fixed, been running like a champ since.
That is, until 2 weeks ago. Had a couple of really cold mornings so we would wake up to ice/frost on the windows. Start the car to warm it up but the heater wasn't working properly. Sometimes would heat up just fine, other times would just blow cold air. Wasn't a huge deal because we don't drive very much and was only really cold in the mornings. After a few days, the car throws a "overheating" code on our way to work. Sure enough, temp gage is pegged. Luckily we were just a few hundred feet away from the office, so we parked it and popped the hood. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Still had plenty of coolant, engine wasn't overly hot (not any more than usual), so we considered it confirmation that the thermostat was messed up and Mrs Dex would just drive the car to the dealership for them to have a look. She drives it home, calls the dealership to schedule an appointment, and they tell her to not drive it at all and they will send a mobile repair truck. Truck shows up and immediately spots a coolant leak (engine had cooled off by this point and was obviously covered in coolant). Car is towed to the dealership to review. Dealership calls a short time later to say they've discovered a crack in the radiator that appears to be the result of an accident, so we call insurance to say they missed it during the earlier accident repair. Takes a couple of days for insurance to make it out there to review, and they confirm it appears to be part of an accident, but say it was from a separate accident from the one previously repaired. They provide photo proof that radiator was fine. ****. Dealership says it's been running with low/no coolant for a little while and could potentially have some significant engine damage. More than just a radiator replacement, and could end up being weeks of gremlin chasing (read: $$ repairs).
At this point, we've been about a week without a regular daily driver and have been using Bee to get around when we absolutely have to drive (take the bus or Uber otherwise). Not a big deal, gave me an excuse to drive Bee and keep the cobwebs at bay. Small win.
Meanwhile, while at the dealership during one of the repair conversations for the Kia, we notice one of the cars in the showroom. Didn't recognize it, but it was a sportier sedan/hatch that we had seen around town that we were curious about. We didn't have much time to really look at it that night (they were getting ready to close and we needed to get home for dinner), but we said we'd be back on the weekend to check it out more. I made an off-comment about "it'd be really cool if it was yellow" as we were leaving and they said that yellow had been discontinued and was out of stock, but they had a cool dark grey and a red that Mrs Dex really liked.
Next morning, dealership called and said another dealership had just taken a yellow fully loaded one on trade and if we were interested they would give us a "first look" price on it. We went in to check it out, car is awesome. Love the color, all the options we want, Mrs Dex loves how it drives (it would primarily be hers), and to top it off the dealership gives us a good price for it (including trading the busted Kia) because it's used.
So let me introduce you to the newest member to the Dex family, Queen Bee:
Picture is not our car because we don't take possession until later this week (need to clear all the mechanical checks first).
Car is a 2018 Kia Stinger GT Sport. Has a twin-turbo 3.3l V6, rear wheel drive, 8sp auto trans, and all the bells and whistles.