Kia – CountUp

My Kia K4: The First Year

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This past October 22ND marked the 1-year anniversary of the day that I drove to my local Kia dealership and showed my saleswoman who greeted me the new car that I wanted to buy. (It was featured on their web site.) She retrieved the car, drove it to the front of the dealership, and I test drove it with her for a few miles. After that I purchased it. I paid cash for it (no financing). I drove it home.

I love my Kia K4 and all of its modern features and technology. Hopefully I’ll have it for a long time as my retirement car. Hopefully nobody crashes into it (like my previous retirement car).

I drove 7,420 miles during my first year of ownership. That actually included 8 round-trips to and from Homestead Florida. The outlook for my second year of ownership is perhaps 4,000 to 4,500 miles – an average of about 350 miles per month. (I may visit Homestead once before next October.)

Looks like I’m settling into a “stay close to home” low-mileage groove. I haven’t exceeded 500 miles in a month for the past 4 months in a row – soon to be 5 months with this month. (I’d exceeded 500 miles in the previous 28 out of 29 months.) This past August I only drove 256 miles. That was the lowest in a month since September 2021. And then last month (October) I only drove 225 miles. I wonder if I can manage under 200 miles in a single month ? I haven’t done that since the year of COVID.

I do want to embark on a few road-trips here in the local area of South-Central Florida during these upcoming winter and spring months. I need more material for future editions of #TravelThursday.

Speaking of which – #TravelThursday takes the week off next week for Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A. In 2 weeks – on Thursday December 04TH – I’ll begin a multiple part series about my adventures and experiences with family in North Texas. Let’s keep traveling together.

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about the demise of my 2020 Honda Civic and the end of an era – my nearly 10-year association with the Honda Civic family.

8 days after the collision that caused the totaling of my 4-year-old car – I bought a new car – a 2025 Kia K4 LX !

Fun Fact: Before I joined the Honda Civic family – I was a longtime part of the Saturn family. I leased a new 1997 SL1. And then I leased a new 2001 SC2. And then I bought a new 2003 Ion 3. I kept that last car longer than any previous car in my lifetime – 11½ years. So – I drove 3 different Saturn cars over the course of nearly 18 years.

And now I’m a member of the Kia family. When I still had that last Saturn, and I was shopping for my next new car (knowing that Saturn no longer existed) – the 2015 Kia Forte was actually on my short list of cars to test drive and buy. Also on that list – the 2015 Ford Focus, the 2015 Toyota Corolla, and the 2015 Honda Civic. (You now know how that turned out.)

So – I paid cash for my new 2025 Kia K4. (I actually wrote a check for the full amount. I’m probably the youngest person that I know that still writes checks.)

I love my new car. It’s got all of the modern technology that I’ve always wanted in a new car – most notably SiriusXM. I’ve been listening at home since 2005, but I’ve never had a car with it included. (Recently – I’d been listening via their app on my iPhone through my car’s Bluetooth.)

It’s also my first car with no key – just a fob. And it’s got a button to push to start and stop the engine. But what I really love about my new car (besides the new car smell) – is the compass, latitude and longitude (degrees, minutes, and seconds) and elevation of where I’m at. I’m looking forward to my first extended road-trip in it.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about my fun day at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki. Let’s keep traveling together.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I usually post there on Mondays and Thursdays.