Well yesterday Ben had the day off and it was payday so we went grocery shopping, i have my grocery shopping down to a science as soon as Hunter gets on the bus I take off for Sam's club because if I leave any later i will miss Business hours and Business hours is the best time to get the "reduced for quick sale" Meat... it's always a gamble as to what will be there but it's not like i clean the place out everytime anyway but it does give us a good selection in the freezer... anyway we take off and it happens to be snowing again (don't worry thats not what my rant is about today!) and My car (yes my less than 12 month old car) has had the light indicator that says my tires need air on for a week or so, i have put air in the tires at least 3 or 4 times and although the light indicates i need air (or the air pressure is somenow wrong) it never went off but it did this when the weather started getting warmer so i just figured it was having a hard time and when it was warm consistantly all the time and I kept trying to get air in the tire, if it didn't resolve it self i'd take it to the dealer to figure out! well today just as we were passing the dealership (no lie) i get a flat tire! so where we were by then (Concord) it had turned into a very cold wintery mix but mostly rain and Ben changed the tire to the little 50 mile tire and we decide to swing by the dealership to see if the tires were still under warranty (we assumed they wern't because i have almost 20K on my car) well they couldn't even give me a number as to how long the tires are under warranty and informed me Kia doesn't even warranty the tires anyway it's the manufacturer of the tires (and they were a brand we had never heard of... a korean brand) so we just decided to get a new tire at Sam's where we were headed anyway and how expensive could 1 tire be it's a small car... so we get to sam's and we find out the cheepest tire (thats all weather) is 85$ EEEK well ok so we go to the counter and then we find out the real kicker since my car is All Wheel drive we can't just replace one tire we have to replace ALL 4 TIRES!!! I am certain they are pulling my leg or at least wanting to make a sale of 4 tires.. they say i can't even sign some kind of release, releaseing them from any liability etc.. so i look in my Manuel and there you have it I can't just replace one tire URGGGG!.. so we had to buy 4 NEW TIRES!!! it has something to do with the automatic stability control (ASC) that the 4 wheel drive (all wheel drive) works off of... and theres one more kicker i didn't replace the valve caps when i put air in the tires a few times ago (since i was doing it more than regularly) so all the valve stems had to be replaced (which thankfully when they saw i was so irritated they didn't charge us for) BUT it (the not replacing the caps) also did something to the tire pressure sensors on each tire (it's a federal law now that every care born after 2007 has to have these little buggers!.. the tire pressure sensors) and they don't carry the sensors so those (theres one sensor on each tire rim/under the tire) and until they get replaced my dummy light will be on all the time.. frankley if they aren't covered under the warranty our only worry is that somehow the car wont' pass inspection with out them (although the dummy light was on when i got it inspected last in Feb) so we might just leave them out FOREVER!
so who ever said a new car was no hassel come talk to me! i really should be very grateful we were financially able to just do it on the cuff (dont' get me wrong it stung!) but we didnt have to get towed and Ben was with me can you imagine if it was just KayLea and me in a wintery mix storm trying to change a tire!
we were deffenately being watched over for that i am certain! and now we were already planning on getting All wheel tires on it before next winter anyway it just got moved up and Sam's install plan i can get them rotated regularly and they are guranteed for like 68K miles! so we shouldn't have to do it again for a while (knocking on wood right now!!!)
on a side note we must have been having tire problems for a while because the car was not handling very well but it was suttle... after we got the new tires it drives like a dream.. lots of lessons were learned today... 1. Really know what your getting into when you purchase a All Wheel Drive vehicle; i don't think we would have done it any differently because we have to deal with snow for a vast portion of our living but it would have been nice not to be SHOCKED when we found out we can't just replace one tire! 2. ALWAYS, ALWAYS put the valve stem caps back on the car; growing up i never remember having a car with the caps still on them but these new ones connected to the outragious sensors are sensitive buggers who don't like the elements or rather the salt on the road.. hey maybe thats why i never had any issues in sunny CA where Salt never was an issue... 3. i have the most amazing husband who when asked "did you not put the caps on the last time you put air in the tires" and i said "YES" didn't blow a gasket!!! Ok so the having the most amazing husband wasn't a revelation just a reminder!!!
ta ta for now!
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