Well, once we found the Police Station, the report was picked up, drove to work, kicked it in high gear and met the deadline.
On a side note, the University of Mississippi turns out to be #5 on the "Party Schools" -- odds are someone had partied a bit too hard and left their mark.
Oxford is a beautiful town -- the downtown square has many restaurants and shops. Ole Miss' campus is rather striking. I usually enjoy staying there. But after summer ended, EVERY weeknight, the square has been packed with parked cars and you really had to hunt for a space. Don't these people study???
Anyways, I've worked with the rental agent almost every month over the last 14 months, so she remembers me and made it very simple to file the claim. The damage was considered "minor" by the agency, and with 23000+ miles on the odo, the '05 Optima will likely go to the auction. They just got a shipment of '07s (mostly Corollas
), so loss of use is unlikely.
Since I didn't drive the car efficiently, I'll do a quick review here:
2005 Kia Optima LX-V-6
2.7L DOHC Engine
4-speed Auto/Manu-Matic
A snapshot of some city driving and considerable highway showed 25.1 mpg -- rather abysmal. It dropped to a final 23.x after some quick driving.
The exterior is classy looking but the interior disappoints. The seats were very uncomfortable and likened to a "Park Bench", despite the 8-Way manually adjustable drivers seat -- I just couldn't get comfortable. The radio was very fiddly to adjust, but sounded good. The ride was soft, but surprisingly handled well. It didn't suffer from the front/rear disconnect of the newer Koreans.
I admit that I don't usually like small-displacement 6-cylinders (except for the 2.7L Flat-6 in the Porsche Boxter
) The car probably would've been just fine with a 4-banger. It had mid-range power, but that's it. No big deal. In addition, it needed a 5th gear.
Problems: The passenger-side front door didn't shut tight enough and the bright red "door open" indicator randomly blinked annoyingly on the instrument panel -- the plunger that detects if it's open was not being pushed-in far enough. The next morning I McGyverized the button by taping a folded tissue over the plunger so it got that 2mm when the door shut. It worked.
Conclusion: don't risk it. Korean cars have significantly improved for the 2006 model year. The classic indecisive, soft-shifting transmission is the same as most Kia/Hyundais and the FE/features point the buyer toward a used Accord or Camry (even much older) or perhaps a Civic/Corolla to get what you want.
RH77
BTW damage photos available to post upon request.
I'll be back home tomorrow 
Linear Mode
