So about 2 yrs ago my >$10,000.00 2003 Kia Spectra began to show her age or rage against me. It started with her driver door, after years of frequent use/abuse it occassionally would no longer remain propped open. This is only presents a problem when my hands are full, so on those occassions I resign myself to receiving a bruised shin or arm for my endeavours.
Today my car found a new way to berate/thank me for our life together. The driver-side visor plastic has been slowly cracking after years of heat/sun deterioration, and today something inside the visor has broken. It no longer stays in the up position, but instead continually slaps me across the face as I drive.
Kia: 2; Cathy: 0
I am starting to wonder what is next. Can anyone prepare me for what she has in store for me next?
From afar, it is difficult to tell you what to expect, but if you will reveal a few more details, perhaps we can speculate with a bit more authority.
Please tell us…
…how many miles are on the odometer
…how the car has been maintained—in detail. Please don’t give us meaningless phrases such as, "it has been well-maintained"
and…
…the conditions under which it is normally driven (i.e.–local, short-trip driving only, or mostly highway driving, or a mixture of the two, or…)
Thanks for responding. Yes…I can easily elaborate.
I have been the sole owner of the car, purchased new in Fall 2003, has only 85,000 miles on it now, 90% of which are city driving. I would not call myself an excesive short-trip driver, but maybe so, considering the deterioration of these regularly used parts.
I have had all regular maintenance performed as suggested by my manual. This was my first NEW car, and she has been babied. I have all oil changes, air filter, transmission & radiator flushes done as suggested, and have only had to have the O2 sensor replaced to date.
I am more concerned with the wear and tear on this model vehicle. I have owned total junk vehicles previously, and under-the-hood problems are to be expected. But these little things are what might just do me in.
If you do all of the recommended maintenance according to elapsed time, rather than according to odometer mileage, then you are doing the right things. In other words, since you drive less than 10k miles per year, in mostly local driving, if a maintenance procedure is supposed to be done…let’s say…every 5k miles or 6 months, whichever comes first, you need to do it every 6 months. Just bear in mind that cars don’t suffer from being maintained better than the mfr specifies, so with mostly local driving, I would suggest having your oil changed every 4 months.
Also–you need to take the car out for a good highway run of at least 40 minutes once per week. This will help to keep the oil from being diluted, and will also help to keep the battery charged and to evaporate moisture from the exhaust system in order to reduce exhaust system rust.
And…you need to lift the hood once each week in order to check all of the fluids and replenish them as necessary. Car owners who fail to do this are almost always the ones with expensive tales of woe.
As to the items that have broken, those plastic interior parts do deteriorate with age and with cold temperatures, and–of course–they may not have been of the highest quality to begin with. But, on a $10k car, this is to be expected. If you go to an automotive recycler (junk yard), you can obtain a replacement sun visor very inexpensively.
The broken door-check could be the result of your mechanic failing to lube the hinge/check mechanism, but again, it is likely that you can obtain the necessary part from an automotive recycler and then have your mechanic install it.