Modern Conveniences

  Four years ago I wrote about getting a new Chevrolet Spark from Bob Brown Chevrolet in Urbandale, Iowa. At the time I said the Spark had a tough act to follow in the form of my 2009 Kia Rio. In the intervening four years my Kia has proven to be a dependable emergency vehicle that I take to the occasional chess club meeting with the only major repair being a new clutch at 95,000 miles. When the Spark was new people would ask me how I liked it and I gave my stock answer which is ‘Ask me in a couple of years’ and after more than a couple of years I can say that the Chevy Spark is an OUTSTANDING car that has never left me stranded. The only problem I have had to date was a cracked radiator fluid reservoir and a malfunctioning air conditioner compressor which were both replaced under the extended warranty. The only problem the Chevy Spark had was the passage of time. This month it rolled past 98,000 miles and was two months past the end of the extended warranty. Since I have been working in Ames (75 mile round trip) instead of Des Moines (105 mile round trip) for the last year and a half and was able to work from home three days a week for the six months before that I was able to stretch the Spark’s usage an extra year from my normal car turnover but it was finally time to get a new car. As I said, the 2013 Chevy Spark was an OUTSTANDING car so two weeks ago I sent Bob Brown Chevrolet an email saying I was in the market for a new Spark if they had one at a low price. I got an email back within the hour from Dan the car salesman at Bob Brown. Even though I had bought 7 cars from Bob Brown in the previous 22 years I had never met Dan before and he immediately tried to find out what features I wanted in my new Spark and what colors I wanted and a lot of other stuff I wasn’t interested in. I quickly made it known that I wanted as little as possible in the new Spark and the only color I was interested was some green in my pocket. The 2013 Spark had a stick shift, air conditioning, power windows and a radio. Dan got back to me and said the most stripped down Spark available had air conditioning, power locks and windows, and an automatic transmission. I suppose I could have waited for a more stripped down version to become available but I decided that I would just get the car since maybe at the fast approaching age of 57 having an automatic transmission would be a nice change after 25 years of driving a stick shift and I have to admit having an air-conditioned car is OK too.

  The new car was going to be black and we agreed on the price and made arrangements for me to get the car two Saturdays ago. Kathy was going to drive me down to do the paperwork and I was going to drive back. Everything was according to plan until that morning when the dealer called me to tell me just as were getting ready to take Daisy and Baxter on a long walk before leaving them along for the day. It seems that every Spark was under recall for an air bag issue and I couldn’t get the car that day so I made arrangements to get the car the next weekend ad was very glad that I didn’t go 60 miles to Urbandale for nothing since there is no way I would have gotten a car from Bob Brown ever again.

Neither of these $80,000 Corvettes were in my price range seeing as either one cost more than my house!

  On Saturday, Kathy drove me to Urbandale and dropped me off at Bob Browns at 10:45 for my 11am appointment to get my car. I had some time so I walked around the showroom looking at the cars. There were $80,000 Corvettes, pickup trucks ranging from $35,000 to $70.000, $40,000 sports utility vehicles, with the low price of $25,000 for a Cruze passenger car. Some of these cars had tacky handmade signs pasted on them offering things like cargo mats for an extra $1.16 a month! I would like to think that a $40,000 vehicle would have the cargo mat included. There were no Sparks on the showroom floor. It is the cheapest car offered by Chevrolet and the profit margin isn’t close to what the dealer could get for selling any of the other cars. I’m sure the marketing mavens that advise such things didn’t see the point in wasting floor space on the least expensive car.

A $40,000 car with a cargo mat included...for an extra $1.16 a month!

   Dan the salesmen met me and gave me some paperwork to fill out. When that was finished, I had to wait for the credit approval process. I could have paid for the car or even put it on my credit cards but having the occasional car loan keeps my credit rating up and I’m going to pay it off pretty early anyway. I noodled around on my iPod and put my headphones on so I could avoid the ever present televisions playing Chevrolet ads showing beautiful people getting into brand new beautiful cars and taking drives along some beautiful scenery.

The 90 cent bag of chips was more in my price range although I passed on the $2.50 ounce of beef jerky...

  After a bit I got hungry. Bob Brown had free coffee but no donuts. Luckily there was a series of Chevrolet vending machines so I got a 90 cent bag of potato chips. The vending machine wouldn’t take my dollar bill and I didn’t want to pay for the 90 cent bag of chips with a credit card but I had enough change to cover the purchase and the machine accepted the metal coins, no doubt preparing for the day when it will be configured to accept bitcoin.

  Finally my credit was approved and I met Billie the financing lady who went over all the details. I got the 5 year 100,000 mile warranty instead of the 4 year 100,000 mile warranty I bought last time because this new Spark had an automatic transmission and many more electrical parts and sensors to go bad. The 2017 Spark cost me $3,000 more than the 2013 version because I had $1,000 less from my GM Card to use as a down payment, the extra year warranty cost more, and the 2017 Spark had some extra conveniences like the automatic transmission and cruise control and power locks and 5 years free use of an app that allows me to turn on the headlights and unlock the doors from anywhere in the world as if I was Batman and my Chevy Spark was the Batmobile.

  Less than two hours after I arrived at Bob Brown I was driving out with my new car. I used the cruise control to drive home and in the week I’ve owned the car I’ve only come to a screeching halt in the middle of the highway three times when I forgot I had an automatic transmission and hit the brake thinking it was the clutch. I hope the new Spark wears as well as the old Spark which will now begin a new life as Ben’s car when he goes to school in Long Island this fall.

  I’ve learned a few lessons from my new Spark. The first lesson is that compared to a stick shift, the automatic transmission seems unresponsive. I hit the gas and the car shifts into gear to get into top speed much slower than when I could manipulate the gears with the stick. This is only an issue on the tricky left turn to Highway 30 on my way home where I find I have to leave myself a lot more room. Another lesson is that I don’t care much for the power locks and the little button on the key to lock and unlock the car. I’ve pushed the lock button down and left the rest of the doors unlocked by forgetting to press the button four times already. If I still lived in New Jersey this car would have been stolen (it may have been stolen even if I had locked it). I’ve also learned that I really like the cruise control which will save me money on my annual speeding ticket even though I don’t get where I’m going as fast as I used to. My fourth lesson was a surprise to me in that I found I kind of like the rear view camera. I’ve hardy ever backed into anything but having the close up view is kind of cool when getting into a tight spot. The last thing I learned is how much electric stuff even the cheapest car is full of. Not only can I open the windows and unlock the doors at a push of a button from an app on a smartphone half a world away. I can plug in my iPod into the supplied USB port and play music or podcasts over the cars stereo and even set up a wireless internet hot spot using the car's OnStar system (charges apply). I thougth self-driving vehicles were still decades away but now I am thinking by the time I’m ready for my next car it may be a self-driving vehicle. I don’t know how I’ll like being a full time passenger but I suspect I’ll really like it.

The black and white of my Chevy Spark collection. Live long and prosper in New York, 2013 Chevy Spark! Thanks for your superb service!
Welcome to Marshalltown, 2017 Chevy Spark!

Mine all Mine

  Before I get started on the main topic of this post I wanted to weigh in on the ongoing staggeringly popular NCAA Basketball tournament that generates BILLIONS of dollars in revenue (see it here)...

  Unlike most of America I didn’t fill out a bracket sheet for this month’s NCAA March Madness mens basketball tournament. Like most of America I watched a large sampling of the first two rounds this past weekend. The big storyline this year is whether the Kentucky Wildcats will win the championship and have the first perfect college basketball season in 39 years. I got to see Kentucky play for the first time this year on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bearcats. Kentucky is very long but not very beefy and were getting pushed around by the very physical Bearcats for most of the first half. What I liked about the Wildcats was that instead of settling for jump shots in the face of a physical challenge they kept bringing the ball inside first and only tried to score from outside when the lane was closed. Cincinnati was unable to sustain their effort for a full 40 minutes and lost by a fairly respectable 13 points. I like the way Kentucky faced up to the physical challenge and I think they will win this tournament and take their place among the best NCAA teams of all time. There is the possibility their season could be undone by a hot three point shooting team but those teams tend to disappear as the tournament goes on since it is exceedingly hard to win game after game with long range shooting. I’ll put my money on the team that can get the ball inside for easy baskets every time and be right more than I’m wrong.

The four door Chevy Spark on the left has the same VIN number than the one on the right but there is a difference. The Spark on the left belonged to Bob Brown and then to me and a finance company while the one on the right is all mine as of last week.

  I’ve had my 2013 Chevy Spark for a little less than two years. When I got the car I put no money down and signed up for a 60 month loan with a payment of $249 a month which included the taxes and a 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. The interest rate on my loan was 2.44% which was outstanding but getting the loan at a term of 60 months was silly on my part. I travel over 100 miles a day to and from work. After three years my car is looking at 90,000 miles and it’s time to think about getting a new car so a five year loan leaves me with two years to pay for a car with 90,000 miles on it. I’ve taken three year loans on all my other work cars and still don’t understand why I set up a five year loan this time around. I set up my payments to be automatically made online with the first payment on July 8, 2013.

  By September 8th 2013, I'd made three car payments and wasn’t seeing much of a dent in how much I owed to pay off my car. A couple of weeks later I got some checks for helping people who still use the shoe store software I wrote years ago and instead of buying a new TV or some chess books or anything else I deposited the checks in the bank and made an online payment towards my car. That made a small but visible dent in my car loan so whenever I got paid for supporting the legacy shoe store software I put it towards paying off my car.

  In December of 2013 I set a goal to pay off my car by May of 2016 (three years from when I took out the loan). To that end I increased the automatic monthly payment from $249 to $325 and I started putting all my extra money towards the car. I got a check from my father in law as a Christmas gift and it went towards my car. I put in some extra time at work (I don’t get paid overtime or even straight time but I do get some time) and I put that towards my car.

  Once 2014 started it was more of the same and more. At work we got a profit sharing bonus and it went to my car along with my shoe store money. Then I was assigned to work at a bank on the other side of Des Moines for most of the year. I got a few dollars a day in mileage reimbursement for driving across town. The reimbursement would get deposited in my bank account once a week and once a week I forwarded it towards my car loan. Even though it was just a few dollars at a time I took a lot of enjoyment in watching the loan balance go down and each time I erased a month’s payment from the end of the loan was like a mini-celebration. Just a week before the 2014 elections, I got a $79 check from Iowa’s incumbent attorney general Tom Miller for a class action lawsuit for some distress I apparently suffered during some telemarketing calls. It was a win-win situation since Miller won re-election and I got to put another $79 towards my car loan.

  Slowly but surely every little bit added up and by March of 2014 I was on pace to meet my goal by just making my automatic payment but I was on a roll. Each night I put my change in a giant jar. Once a year I cash in my change jar but this year I put my change jar towards my car. I kept on putting my gas and shoe store support money towards my car and by the end of 2014 I was on pace to be finished by September of 2015. Then in March I got another profit sharing bonus from work and combined with some of my tax return I made the last payment on my Chevy Spark 22 months after I bought the car and 20 months after my first payment in July of 2013.

  What did I learn from my 18 month quest to pay off my car loan early? I learned a lot about discipline. I could easily have taken a few dollars of my found money and bought a book or had a nice lunch but I didn’t. And I didn't miss the found money since it was found and not something I ever counted on. I’ve known a lot of people that would spend their found money two or three times and be worse off than if they hadn’t any found money in the first place. I’ve been there myself but for the last year and a half I was able to take my found money and put it to a single goal. The other thing I learned is that between occasional gas reimbursements, tax refunds, bonuses, change jars, and supporting my old shoe store software I get a lot more ‘found money’ than I thought I did. Now that my car is paid for the big question to my mind is will I let my found money drip through my fingers or be able to find another good use for it.

In Search of an Oil Change

My search for car service competency took me to Toledo, Iowa - home of Thys Chevrolet

  I haven’t written about my Chevy Spark since last May and no news is good news. After a year and a half the Spark has about 43,000 miles on it and hasn’t left me stranded so I have to say so far, so good. One thing I can say about the Spark is that I’ve received three recall notices from GM in 19 months compared to zero recall notices on my now 5 year old Kia Rio so I have to assume that either Kia makes cars better than GM or GM checks their cars better than Kia.

  When I last wrote about my Chevy Spark I told the sad tale of how I waited over two hours at Ben’s Tire in Marshalltown getting my oil changed because they couldn’t get oil filters for the Spark from their normal supplier. I also told the happy story of how I was able to get my oil changed at Bob Brown’s Quick Lube Service center in Urbandale and avail myself of the wireless internet, free coffee and soda, and a complimentary car wash that didn’t clean my car. Before my next oil change was needed I got a recall notice. The Bob Brown Quick Lube doesn’t handle recalls so I called Clemons Chevrolet in Marshalltown to schedule my recall repair and also get my oil changed. The recall notice suggested I make the recall appointment well in advance so the dealer could have the parts ready so I made the appointment for the next week so Clemons would have time to get the recall parts.

  The next week I arranged to work from home on the appointment date, dropped the car off at Clemons at 7:30 and was told my car should be ready by 10 and I would get a call when it was done. I got a ride back home from Kathy and worked and waited for my car to be done. I waited until 10 and I waited until 12 and I waited until 2 and then I called the service department and was told that they would be done by 5. I asked why it took so long and was told that they had to wait for the parts because they didn’t have the recall parts in stock and had to order them from Des Moines. It made me glad I set this all up a week in advance and I wondered why they told me the car would be ready at 10 when I brought it in. All in all I wasn’t too surprised since this particular service department is one of the laziest I’ve ever encountered which is why I rarely go there. Years ago Kathy had a problem with our Chevy Venture minivan and brought it to this same service department and the ‘service advisor’ told her the repairs weren’t covered by the warranty. I called the ‘service advisor’ and asked how the repairs couldn’t be covered since we had one of those 100,000 mile extended warranties and the ‘service advisor’ said he didn’t check to see what kind of warranty I had and thought I had the standard warranty. I did get my car by 5 and it was probably a good thing for Clemons that I didn’t get one of those customer service surveys to fill out.

  I got my next oil change at Bob Brown’s Quick Lube Service Center and it was a different experience than my May encounter. There was a long line of cars waiting for oil changes so instead of pulling in a bay and going to the waiting area, I waited for over an hour outside in my car and while I could connect to their complimentary wireless network I couldn't connect to the internet. Once I got my car pulled in I went to the waiting area and got a free coffee but the wireless network still couldn’t connect to the internet. I couldn’t check my emails or do anything with my amazing iPod that wasn’t already loaded on it. When I paid I told the ‘service advisor’ the wireless internet wasn’t working and he said that they were thinking about adding a fiber optic line but this was the first he heard of the wireless internet not working. The ‘service advisor’ also told me that the tread on my tires were down to 5/32 of an inch and I should think about getting them replaced. I asked what I thought was a reasonable question which was how much tread came on the tires in the first place and the advisor told me that I’d have to ask where I bought the tires. I told him that these were the tires that came with the car so I was in fact asking where I bought the tires. The ‘service advisor’ then told me that he didn’t know and I told him that I probably could get the answer myself if the wireless internet was working. On the bright side the car wash worked perfectly (unlike my last visit).

  My next oil change was three months later and I went to the same Quick Lube Center in Urbandale. I know I didn’t need new tires because I had already gotten some at Freedom Tires who were so great about replacing my spare tire in 2012 when I lost my tire iron. I only had to wait a half hour in my car this time and when I got to the waiting area not only was the wireless internet still not working, there was no coffee and there were cups and soda and newspapers strewn all over the waiting area. When I paid my bill, I mentioned to the very same ‘service advisor’ I had dealt with two months ago that the wireless internet wasn’t working and the very same ‘service advisor’ said that they were thinking about adding a fiber optic line but this was the first he heard of the wireless internet not working.

You want the truth???

  I didn’t stick around for the car wash and the next week I received an email from Bob Brown asking how their service was. I asked if I can’t trust Bob Brown to get their wireless internet working or even tell the truth about it not working why am I trusting my car to them? I got an email back from the Service Manager saying this was the first HE heard about it and then I got another email from the Quick Lube Manager telling me that the person I spoke to is part time and laying out all the reasons and excuses that there wasn’t any wireless internet at the Quick Lube center. I noticed that the Service Manager didn't know about the wireless internet not being available for at least two months but the Quick Lube Manger was intimately involved with every detail of the situation. I got the impression that I was being told whatever would get me to stop complaining so I sent an email asking the Quick Lube Manager to let me know when the wireless internet was back working so I could consider going back to Bob Browns for my oil changes.

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!

  I was due for an oil change last week and also had another recall notice on my Spark. I didn’t want to go to Clemons and Bob Brown’s hadn’t written me back to let me know if their wireless internet was working. In August, the headlights on our Chevy Aveo stopped working and Ben’s Tire suggested we bring the car to a dealer since there was an electrical system recall with that may have caused the problem and allow the repairs to be made for free. We needed the car for Ben to bring back to school in Idaho the next week but when Kathy called Clemons they said she could bring the car down but couldn’t promise when they were going to look at it so Kathy took the car to Thys Chevrolet in Toledo and they looked at it and had it fixed within a day.

  That positive experience prompted me to call Thys two weeks ago to make an appointment for the recall work and oil change. I was using my last three vacation days of the year and scheduled my appointment for 8am on Tuesday (my last vacation day) the 30th for 8am. I had never been to Thys before and figured it would be like Clemons or Bob Brown with a waiting room with free coffee and soft drinks and hopefully working wireless internet. Tuesday morning I drove the 20 miles west to Toledo. I found Thys easily enough and dropped of my car at the service desk. The clerk asked me if I had someone coming to pick me up and I told him I didn’t. Then he said the parts they needed for the recall were supposed to arrive this morning.

  What went through my mind was ‘Oh no!! Here we go again. Another day wasted because somebody didn't have the oil filter or didn't bother ordering the parts’ What came out of my mouth was if the parts weren’t in by 10 to just forget it and I’d reschedule. The clerk told me that they would change my oil and the parts were ordered last week and would arrive in just a few minutes.

The service department 'waiting room' is short on amenities but there are other benefits to being a Thys customer....

  I went to the waiting area and it was very different from Bob Brown’s or Clemons. Instead of some brand new area with soft drink dispensers, flat screen TV’s, and cushy chairs, Thys had a corner of their tiny two car showroom equipped with a round table covered with newspapers and magazines with a half dozen plastic chairs surrounding it. There was a coffee pot and a soft drink machine that only charged 50 cents a can. There wasn’t wireless internet or even a place to plug in my iPod or computer.

  Luckily I had planned for the possibility of no internet or plugs and was prepared to go 'old school'. I pulled a chess book out of my computer bag, a small chess set out of my car, set up the chess board on one of the plastic chairs and went over the games from my book. Just before I got started, the clerk came out and told me the recall parts had arrived and my oil was being changed. It was nice not to have to sit and stew for a couple hours. I got myself a cup of coffee, poured some of the powdered creamer from Fareway into it and played over some games from my chess book. At 9:30, the clerk came out and said my car was all finished so I packed up my stuff, paid, left, and was home by 10 am.

  The waiting area was not the only difference between Thys and Clemons and Bob Browns. Thys didn’t have the amenities in the waiting room or a brand new showroom but they provided the ultimate amenity – they got my car in and out without making it take all day and without any phony excuses. All the new car dealer service departments have elaborate waiting areas designed for a positive user experience with wireless internet, big screen TV’s, and free beverages and snacks. These are all great features but along the way I think the dealers have forgotten the main reason a customer chooses an operation to service their car in the first place and that reason is trust. I bring my cars to Ben’s Tires because I trust them and the only reason I don’t have them change the oil in my Spark is because they don’t stock the oil filter for it. When they tell me a tire is worn down or I need a new belt I have them do it because I trust them and when I have a bigger problem I know I can bring it to them and they will fix it and not do a lot of unneeded work. I don't know anything about cars so I have to trust the repair shop but how can I trust Clemons when they don’t bother ordering parts or a Bob Browns when they dismiss problems by saying it was the first they ever heard of it or pass along my question about how much tread is on my tires to where I got the them until they realize that I got the tires from them in the first place. I don’t know when I am going to get another car but when I do Thys will get the first shot at my business.

Telling it like it is!

Shine On

A warning light! Uh-oh...

  I’ve had my 2013 Chevy Spark for almost a year now and so far it has been a dependable car. It hasn’t broken down and it gets 37 miles per gallon. I do have a couple of quibbles. Even though my Spark is a 4-door sedan, it's so small that I can’t take my chess tournament stuff AND 2 passengers so when I take anyone to one of my youth tournaments I have to travel in my trusty Kia Rio instead of my new Chevy Spark. About four months ago the low tire pressure light started coming on in the middle of my drive to and from work. The light blinks for a minute and then goes steady but turns off after around 10 minutes. The blinking light means a tire has low pressure but when it turns steady after a minute it means the sensor that tells me a tire has low pressure is malfunctioning. I called the dealer and they said to bring the car into the service department when the light is on but by the time I get to work the light has already turned off so after every drive to and from work this blinking light comes on and I am left to wonder if I have a tire going flat or if I have a malfunctioning sensor which it has been so far.

  My other problem with the Chevy Spark isn’t a problem with the car per se but it is a problem nonetheless. Ben’s Tires, the place I've used to get my oil changes, tires, new clutches, and routine maintenance in all my cars over the past 15 years cannot get the oil filter for my car from their usual oil filter supplier. They have to get it directly from the dealer. The first time I went to get the Spark’s oil changed at Ben’s they took the oil out, realized they couldn’t get the filter from their supplier and that the local Chevy dealer was closed on Saturday, and put new oil back in the car while replacing the old filter. They ordered the filter from the dealer and the next week put the new filter on the car with some new oil. Kelcy the owner told me she would always keep one or two of the filters in stock so I could keep getting my oil changed there and I didn't have a problem until this February when I went to get my oil changed on a Saturday only to be told they didn't have a filter and the dealer's parts department was closed but would order some and I could come back next week for my oil change.

  I like and trust Ben’s Tires so I didn't get too upset over them not having the filter in stock but all the same I decided to call ahead the next time I was going to get the Spark’s oil changed. I had to work late a couple of days the next week and found myself leaving work at 12 for a rare afternoon off. On the way home I mentally took stock of the things I could get done during the afternoon and when I got home at 1pm I called Ben’s Tires and asked if they had a filter in stock for my Chevy Spark. The owner told me she did so after a quick lunch, I found myself at Ben’s Tires at 1:30.

  Ben’s Tires is not known for their quick service – in fact the owner Kelcy likes to take pictures of the customers who fall asleep waiting for their cars and post them on facebook (you can see them here) – but I have never waited more than a half hour for my oil change. There are a lot of old barber chairs to sit in and free coffee and donuts. I gave Kelcy my keys, got a semi-stale donut and fresh coffee and sat down in a barber chair watching a rerun of Will & Grace on the TV and the ensuing hilarity of best friends Will (single and gay) and Grace (single and straight) sharing a New York City apartment as best friends and the odd situations they encounter due to their unconventional living arrangement with a convenient laugh track provided so you will know when it is OK to laugh without seeming politically incorrect. I don’t care much for the Friends and How I Met Your Mother buddy-buddy types of shows and I don’t care much for Will & Grace either but I sat down and watched all the same since I didn't plan on being there long anyway.

  After the first episode, another episode of Will & Grace came on and in the middle of the second episode, a mechanic came out and told Kelcy that the dealer sent the wrong filter for my car. Kelcy called the dealer and after the beginnings of a civil discussion she started yelling that they must have send the wrong filter because the one they sent didn't fit on the Chevy Cruze. At that point I interjected and mentioned that I owned a Chevy Spark and not a Chevy Cruze and Kelcy made nice with the person on the other end of the phone and called herself an idiot and called him honey and asked if he could run an oil filter for a Chevy Spark up to her shop. She hung up the phone and told me that they would bring it right away and I sat back down in the barber chair just as the Will & Grace episode was ending with a voice telling me to stay tuned because another Will & Grace episode was coming up next.

  At that point I must have dozed off because I came to as the third Will & Grace episode was ending with a voice telling me to stay tuned because another Will & Grace episode was coming up next. I don't know if Kelcy took my picture when I was sleeping but if she did it isn't up on facebook yet. I made a mental note to find out what channel was on so I could gouge those buttons out of my remote control when I got home and went to check on my car, which was still in the garage up on the lift in a filterless condition. I asked Kelcy if the dealer had brought the filter yet and she said not yet but they would bring it up right away. At that point I was ready to just drive my car off the lot without any oil but instead I called Kathy and asked her to get me since I didn't really want to spend the other half of my afternoon off watching Will & Grace.

  Kathy got me and drove me back around 4:45 - 15 minutes before quitting time at Ben’s Tires. My Chevy Spark was sitting happily in the parking lot so I walked in to Ben’s, paid my bill and drove my Chevy Spark home. I decided the next time I needed an oil change for the Spark I'd go to the dealer where I bought the car: Bob Brown’s Chevrolet in Des Moines who presumably would have a filter. Normally I wouldn't travel to Des Moines to get an oil change but the bank I've been assigned to work at for the last few months is only a few miles away from the dealership. I left work a little early on Friday and headed over to the Bob Browns’ Quick Lube where no appointment is needed. I pulled right into a bay, told the clerk that I wanted an oil change, and headed to the customer waiting area.

Welcome to Bob Brown's Quick Lube center. I sampled the free soda and wireless internet while my Chevy Spark hid amongst the big trucks...

  I hadn't had any service at Bob Brown’s since my terrible experiences in 2006 (which I wrote about here) when they were located on the Merle Hay Auto Mile. Since then they moved to a huge space off Rt. 80’s Exit 126 in Urbandale and I have to say the waiting room at Bob Brown’s is pretty impressive. While Ben’s Tires has coffee with powdered creamer, donuts and Will & Grace on the TV, Bob Browns has coffee with flavored liquid creamers, pastries, and Jeopardy on the TV. But that’s not all! Bob Brown’s waiting room also has a free soda dispenser with fine Coca-Cola products and wireless internet. I sat down, plugged in my amazing iPod (which at the ripe old age of two doesn't hold a charge very long), checked my email on the Internet, and before I knew it the Spark’s oil was changed and after paying my bill ($43 which is $12 more than Ben’s Tires – someone needs to pay for the free soda, I guess) I was on my way. I was offered a coupon for a free car wash but I wanted to get home so I passed but after spending so much time at Ben’s Tires and so little time at Bob Brown’s I channeled my inner Arnold and told the clerk "I'll be back!".

When you drive over a hundred miles a day, your car can get pretty dirty...

  And I was back. I took last Thursday off from work to drop Kathy off at the airport in Des Moines and on the way back home to beagle-sit I stopped at Bob Brown’s Quick Lube to get my oil changed. I pulled up to the bay, told the service attendant I needed an oil change, headed to the customer waiting area, made myself an ice cold Cherry Coke (ice is also available!), and sat down with my iPod to check my mail. My iPod had hardly had any time to run down when the attendant came out to let me know my car was ready. I paid my bill and again got a free coupon for the car wash but this time I decided to use the coupon since I had time and my car was filthy.

In goes the coupon and one car wash later....

  My coupon was only good for the 'Classic' car wash – a $7 value. I resisted the urge to upsize my car wash to the $9 DELUXE package with the underbody wash and sealer wax or the $11 ULTIMATE package with the underbody wash and sealer wax AND TripleFoam Polish, but I was so taken with my free soda and excellent customer service that I decided to photograph before and after pictures of my Chevy Spark’s car wash so I could extol their praises in my blog. I put my coupon in the dispenser, pulled my car into the bay and I was on my way to a clean car.

  The car stayed stationary as this giant machine on rails passed over my car in multiple passes spraying water in varying degrees of pressure. I was a little concerned that I never saw any sign of soap or foam. But after several passes past my car which took about as much time as a segment of Will & Grace that fills the time between commercial breaks the giant contraption stopped, the 'Exit Now' sign flashed and I drove out of the car wash bay.

  I pulled over to see the results of the free car wash I got with my $43 oil change and was unpleasantly surprised to see that only a minimal amount of dirt was removed from my car. The front of the car was still covered with insects and insect by-products and the only clean part of the back of the car was where my fingers had removed some of the grime when I open the hatchback. It looked like the touchless car wash had barely touched my vehicle.

...except for the water marks this could have been the before picture!

  I ended up washing my Chevy Spark in Marshalltown at the Rainbow do it yourself car wash on Sunday afternoon. It took ten minutes and cost $4.50 in quarters. I’m still pretty happy with my two oil changes at Bob Brown's and will go there again and I'll go to Ben’s Tires for everything else on all my cars except the Spark's oil changes. I'm hoping someday Ben's will have filters for the Chevy Spark, offer free soda, and have wireless internet in their waiting room but I can't hold it against them for not having a car wash since after all, neither does Bob Brown.

I took my Chevy Spark to the Rainbow Car Wash in Marshalltown on Sunday. A few minutes of elbow grease and...

Viola! ... A clean car!

  As fate would have it on Monday I received an email from cars.com asking me to fill out a quick survey about my service experience at Bob Brown's. I filled out the survey and gave them a top mark for customer service and a middling grade for their facilities which would be the average of the excellent waiting room and the terrible car wash. Then I was asked to fill out a review which I did. In the review I wrote (you can find it here under May 19th):

Great Oil Change - Awful Car Wash
I came to Bob Brown's Quick Lube for an oil change. I was in and out in 20 minutes without an appointment and there was wireless internet and free soda. The clerk was excellent and let me know about a recall I needed to get taken care of. $43 is a bit much for an oil change but it does come with a compimentary (sic) car wash coupon. The CAR WASH was the WORST - MY CAR WAS JUST AS DIRTY AFTERWARDS AS IT WAS BEFORE. At least I got my money's worth from the coupon.

  I didn't realize that my review was going to be posted on the Internet but now that it has been I hope I don't get a special recall notice to install an ejector seat in my Spark!

Service with a...

  I’ve had my 2013 Chevy Spark for almost 5 months and it has performed as well as advertised. The gas mileage is acceptable at 37.5 miles per gallon (if you think that is good please keep in mind that my 1995 Geo Metro got 40 MPG!), I haven’t been stranded on the road and the car can comfortably get to 80 miles an hour when I need to pass someone or just want to get home by driving more quickly than I should.

  I needed to get new windshield wipers for my car and while the little windshield wiper guide books at the K-Mart and Wal-Mart pointed me to the correct size wiper blades the wiper assembly on my Spark is at least twice as wide as the blades for sale at the stores. This led me to head to Advance Auto Parts (a real auto parts store) in search of wiper blades. The store had the wide blades and I bought a pair but when I got outside to put them on the wiper blades did not contain the correct adapter so I had to head back in and talk to a clerk.

On the left is Mike, the advance Auto parts clerk getting authorization for the return of the Trico NeoForm wiper blades I bought five minutes before. Auto parts stores have entirely different impulse buy items than a Wal-Mart. Luckily I live in Iowa and not California or else I could have gotten cancer or suffered other reproductive harm from touching this single blade scraper! Another reason not to live in California...

  Mike the clerk tried to check out what kind of wipers I needed on his computer but could only get the passenger side part on the screen. I went back to the book and it turned out that while I bought the right brand of wipers (Trico) I got the Trico NeoForm brand instead of the Trico Onyx brand. I picked out the right wiper blades, Mike the clerk made a phone call to get authorization to make the exchange on his computer and I was driving away with new wiper blades on my Spark within five minutes. The world of auto part stores is a manly place when real men with real grease underneath their real fingers pick out brake pads, alternators, and buy motor oil by the gallon and while I felt a little less than manly not even being able to get the correct wiper blades on the first try (There we a lot of choices as you can see here) at least I was able to take the old wipers out and put the new ones in without help from Mike or the rest of the Advance Auto Parts crew.

  I have no choice but to use the power windows that came with my Chevy Spark but I haven’t had an occasion to use my free six month OnStar trial (I wrote here about how long it took to get the service activated when I got the car). I haven’t thought about the OnStar service except for a monthly piece of mail from OnStar that contains some sort of special offer of a lifetime judging from the exciting text on the outside of the envelope but I’ve just been ripping the offer if half en route to the trash can. I suppose I should shred or burn the letter but if someone tries to steal my identity from the OnStar letter all I can say is good luck getting it activated.

  Last week I got two calls from OnStar representatives. On Tuesday at 8 pm, Sandy the OnStar representative called. Sandy asked if she could speak to Henry. I always know that I’m going to get a sales pitch when they call me Henry. I identified myself and Sandy asked me how I was. She was delighted to hear that I was fine and thanked my profusely when I asked how she was. Sandy talked quickly and told me that she knew my OnStar six month trial was nearing its end and that she would be happy to set up my new plan for $19.95 a month or if I wanted to get the deluxe $29.90 a month package I would receive extra OnStar minutes to use in my car. I told Sandy that I wasn’t interested in the OnStar package and she proceeded to tell me how useful the OnStar package would be for me and started to go over all the features when I told her that I wasn’t interested and also mentioned that I had to get off the phone now, which got me a hurried thank you from Sandy and an ear free of getting a sales pitch from OnStar.

  The very next night I got another call from OnStar, this time from Marge the OnStar representative. Kathy answered the phone so I don’t know if Marge asked for Henry or Hank but I suspect she asked for Henry. Marge asked me how I was and she was delighted to find out I was fine but didn’t seem to happy when I asked how she was and got right down to business. Marge explained that my OnStar six month trial was nearing the end and started talking about the $19.95 a month plan and the deluxe $29.95 a month plan but I told her I wasn’t interested before she could offer the free OnStar minutes. Then Marge said that the OnStar package was such a wonderful help in case I got stranded on the road and as an example she said that if I ever locked my keys in my car, OnStar would be able to open my car door for me with just a touch of the OnStar button.

  That got my attention so I asked Marge if OnStar could really unlock my car remotely and she said ‘of course’. Then I told Marge I didn’t have power locks and she said ‘Oh… that could be a problem’. I didn’t want to get into whether OnStar could open the windows remotely to get me into my car (since I do have power windows) or how I would even be able to push the little OnStar button in my car since I was locked out so I thanked Marge for giving me a talking point for the OnStar calls I would surely be getting in the weeks to come and wished her a good night.

  I’m sure the OnStar is a good deal for some people but for $20 a month or $200 a year it doesn’t seem worth it. I pay less than that for my AAA membership and it does much of what OnStar does but it also covers all five of my cars. I had a big problem with AAA not changing my tire when I lost my tire iron last year but I still renewed the service the last two years and unfortunately I had occasion to try them out again last weekend.

  I had my monthly chess tournament at St. Francis on Saturday and since the Chevy Spark cannot hold my tournament supplies AND Seth and Chandler (the players I bring from Marshalltown to help set up) I take my 2009 Kia Rio to tournaments. On the 60 mile trip to St. Francis, I noticed that when I tried to go faster the engine would rev for a few seconds and then the car would speed up. I assumed there was a problem with the manual transmission and told Seth and Chandler that I’d have to bring it to the service station before the next tournament. We got to St. Francis OK and had a fun tournament, but at 5:15 the Kia wouldn’t accelerate at all when I gave it gas and we were stuck on the side of the road 20 miles from Marshalltown. I don’t have OnStar on the Kia but I did have my cell phone and called AAA to get me towed back to town. I had to punch in the 16 digit AAA membership number on the phone before I got to talk to the representative from AAA but once she found out I needed a tow, she put me on hold and called the tow truck driver. I had no problems and the lady from AAA told me that the tow truck would arrive at 6:15 and that he thought he would be able to take all three of us home along with the car.

  My cell phone costs me $2 a day to use but only on the days I use it. I considered the $2 well spent and didn’t mind when the tow truck driver called me back a few minutes later to verify the location and type of car I had and also to tell me it would be a good idea if I got someone to pick us up and left the key under the mat and the car unlocked since he wouldn’t be there at 6:15 and that he wouldn’t be able to take all three of us in the tow truck anyway. So I used my phone again to call Kathy. She came and got us right around 6:15 and we were all back home at 6:35. At 8 that night the tow truck driver called to tell me that he dropped off the Kia at Ben’s Tire as we agreed on and that I should call the dealer because Kia advertises a 10 year 100,000 mile drive train warranty and that my car had only 95,000 miles on it.

  When I called Ben’s Tire on Monday, they told me my manual transmission was shot and just like the tow truck driver told me to call the dealer because the 10 year 100,000 mile drive train warranty should cover the gear box. Since I couldn’t get the dealer (Des Moines Imports) to honor an $8 oil change coupon 3 years ago when the car was new (I wrote about it here) I figured it would take a miracle for them to honor a 3 year old warranty for a busted clutch and that’s just as well since Ben’s Tires does good work and I trust them with my cars. But since I do believe in miracles I decided to call Des Moines Imports just in case. I got a ‘service advisor’ named Scott who told me that a manual transmission was not covered under the warranty since it was a ‘wearable part’. I asked Scott if an automatic transmission was covered and he told me that is was if the driver could show that ‘all the proper maintenance and inspections were performed on the vehicle’. Luckily I had a ‘Service Advisor – English’ dictionary with me and looked up the phrase ‘Yes, if all the proper maintenance and inspections were performed on the vehicle’.’ I found two definitions:

1. It’s not covered if we can wriggle out of it
2. It may be covered if we’ve soaked you for countless thousands of dollars on multi point inspections along with your oil changes but not if we can wriggle out of it.

In this scene from the as-yet unreleased movie 'Taken 6', Liam Neeson tracks down the Des Moines Imports service advisor call center in Albania that refused to honor the warranty on his broken clutch and passes them a note in Albanian ('The clutch on my Kia Rio is busted. Is it covered under the 10 year/100,000 mile warranty?') to translate...

  I feel bad that my 2009 Kia left me stranded after 95,000 miles but it is still a great car (I may have felt differently if I had gotten stranded on the way TO the tournament instead of on the way BACK). When my Aveo’s manual transmission went out after 60,000 miles GM wouldn’t honor the extended warranty that I paid for so I can’t give Des Moines Imports too hard of a time for not honoring a ‘sales pitch’ warranty. The clutch that Ben’s Tire put in the Aveo is still going strong 5 years later and I expect to get many more years use from the Kia Rio.

One For The Thumb

On the left is my 2013 Chevy Spark which barely needs half a parking space but believe it or not has four doors. On the right is car salesman Chris in front of some larger vehicles.

  In November I wrote about my visit to Clemons Chevrolet in Marshalltown when I not only won a $5 Wal-Mart gift card, but also received a tour of all the new GM cars none of which cost under $16,600 (NOT including tax, title, and license fees). Between then and now, my trusty Kia Rio passed the 95,000 mile mark, which prompted me to start looking for a new car a couple of months ago without waiting for cheap gimmicks in the mail to lure me in to a car dealership.

  On January 2nd, 2010 I made an Internet inquiry for an inexpensive car at seven in the morning. Within an hour Des Moines Imports had emailed me an outstanding offer for a stripped down Kia Rio and I drove to Des Moines that morning and bought the car after a quick test drive. The car has been in a word OUTSTANDING. All I do is get the oil and tires changed and the Kia Rio has never left me stranded, unlike my Chevy Aveo (clutch), Geo Metro (Dashboard), and Chevy Cavalier (engine sensors).

  With a track record like that, it was a no brainer for me to call Des Moines Imports and ask them if they had a stripped down Kia Rio for me, but the salesman told me they didn’t have any. That led me to request Internet quotes like I did in 2009, but the lowest price I could find was a $14,800 for a Kia Soul. That was so close to the list price that I felt I could keep on looking. 2 weeks ago I did another Internet search for a car, but this time instead of a Kia, I requested a quote for the cheapest GM car, the Chevy Spark.

  Why would I pick another Chevrolet car after I just recounted the times I’d been left stranded? Well, I was hoping I’d have thousands of reasons and besides, Ben is still driving the Aveo (95,000 miles), Matt is still driving the Cavalier (110,000 miles) and our 2004 Chevy Venture is still running good at 85,000 miles so it’s not like the cars are lemons – they just had some problems and the crummy GM service (as recounted here) made me want to look elsewhere for a car.

  I got an email from the Jon the Internet Sales representative from Bob Brown, the same dealer I had purchased my five Chevrolet cars from. Instead of getting a quote, I got a sales pitch asking me if I was familiar with the ‘programmable 7-inch diagonal touch screen’. I wrote back to Jon telling him that I was interested in a low price and not spending time being upsold and that if we had to discuss ‘7-inch diagonal touch screens’, I wouldn’t be getting a car from Bob Brown.

If you want a car that costs more than the Gross National Product of some countries, this Camaro has just had it's price reduced to a economical $64,250! I think they had to lower the price to make up for the fact that this Camaro has merely half the doors my Chevy Spark has.

  The next day I got an email back from the Internet salesperson getting down to brass tacks. He said the dealer would have to trade with another dealer for the car and asked me what options I wanted. I told him I wanted a radio. It seems that Gonzalo from Clemons Chevrolet was right last November when he said that power windows and air conditioning were standard on all Chevy vehicles. The only Sparks the dealer could get all had power windows and air conditioning, but he did manage to find one with a manual transmission and I got a few hundred dollars off the price for having all the extra equipment.

  The Friday before last we had our last chess club at St. Francis. I drove from club to the dealer, met Chris the salesman, test drove the car, and signed all the paperwork. Chris didn’t try to upsell me, but the finance guy tried to sell me a rust proof package. I said no and when he asked me why I told him that of all the Chevy vehicles I ever bought the only one that rusted out was the one I bought the package for but it didn’t rust out until the rust proof warranty expired. With all the power windows and power steering and power brakes, I did get the extended warranty and I hope they’ll honor it if I ever have to use it. I did mention my problems with the Aveo’s clutch not being covered under the ‘bumper-to-bumper’ warranty and also that the incident was featured prominently in my ‘award-winning blog’ so maybe if I have future problems I can get a little extra consideration.

The $43,000 electric Chevy Volt will save you almost $7,000 in fuel over five years.
Not the kind of green I was expecting.

  I decided to leave the car on the lot for a week and last Saturday, Kathy drove me down to the dealer and I picked up the car as I had arranged. Chris the car salesman was writing up a sale of a used car, but as soon as he was done arranged for my car to be washed before I left. While I was waiting I took a look around at some of the new cars on the showroom. There was a Camaro that had a retail price of $66,020 but was on sale for only $64,250. I assume they were marketing the car to the rare people suffering from a split personality disorder that would case someone to spend SIXTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS on a car but only if they could save $1,800 first. There was also a Volt Electric car (despite the name, the Spark is a gasoline only car). The Volt costs $43,000. Assuming an average mileage of 32 miles per gallon for the Spark (27 city, 37 highway), I could expect to buy 3,125 gallons of gas over 100,000 miles. If I paid an AVERAGE of 5 dollars a gallon, 3,125 gallons would cost me $15,625 which would be about half the price difference between the two cars. I didn’t count any ‘green’ tax rebates but I also didn’t count the cost of charging the Volt’s battery ($3 a charge) or any gas I’d have to buy when I exceeded the 40 mile range of the batteries. I also looked at a $55,000 SUV which was really a $47,000 SUV with the optional Luxury Package that included heated seats and a rear seat entertainment system. I thought a $47,000 vehicle wouldn't leave any luxuries to be desired but I thought wrong.

If the base $47,000 Tahoe does not have enough luxury (even with four doors!),
don't fret - this $55,000 model comes with an optional luxury package including heated seats!

 
Monster truck to go...

  I was looking at a $55,000 Silverado Truck that had a base price of $41,000 but was tricked out with a $14,000 package that made it look like a monster truck when Chris the car salesman told me my car was ready but he wasn’t allowed to let me leave until I activated the six month free OnStar feature of my new car. The OnStar is a magic genie or a civil liberty nightmare that can give directions, call for assistance, allow for hands free calling, perform diagnostics, or even unlock my car in case I get locked out (if I had power locks). OnStar knows where you are at all times and I don’t doubt for a second that it can't listen to your conversations and someday it will be able to take video of you while driving. I pushed the little blue ‘O’ button and was greeted by a robotic voice asking me if I wanted to activate my OnStar trial by code or by talking to an attendant. I repeatedly said I wanted to talk to an attendant, Chris repeatedly said I wanted to talk to an attendant, but the automaton voice kept telling us it could not understand our response and repeated the question. After two minutes, the automated voice told us to please wait for an attendant.

  Once I was waiting for an attendant, Chris’s job was done. We said our goodbyes and I headed a few miles away to the Half Price Book Store. About halfway to the bookstore, Brenda the OnStar attendant started talking to me through my car’s speaker system. Brenda took my name and information, activated my account, told me about all the things OnStar could do for me (like call an ambulance in case of an accident), and tried to sell me some OnStar phone minutes. I only had one question for Brenda which was if it took over five minutes to get ahold of someone to activate my account, how long would it take to get ahold of someone in an emergency situation. Brenda proceeded to tell me that the emergency division was much better staffed than the activation division. I felt better hearing that since I don’t know how to swim and while I was waiting for Brenda I had a vision of being swept away in a raging flood and calling OnStar as my tiny car quickly filled with river water only to be told by the friendly automaton voice to please wait for the next available emergency technician and that my call was VERY important to them. Brenda then tried to sell me more phone minutes at which point I arrived at Half-Price Books and bid Brenda and OnStar goodbye.

I can open or close every window in my Spark with my left hand. On the right is a convenient beef stick tray. Both are standard options on the 2013 Chevy Spark without the need to buy an additional luxury package.

  After my side trip to Half-Price books, I headed back home. There was an auxiliary sound jack so I could plug in my amazing iPod and listen to music from my Rhapsody app. The sound in the car was really good and the only problem I had on the ride home was when the car started vibrating like crazy on the highway. After a little trial and error I realized that when I was playing with the power windows I had opened the window on the rear passenger door which caused the intense vibrations. Interestingly enough, my tiny Aveo had the same problem. I closed the window and had a smooth ride home.

  I’m sure people will ask me how I like my car and when they do I’ll tell them what I always say : ‘Ask me in a couple of years’. I will say now that the Kia Rio was the best car I’ve ever owned and will make a dependable backup for any of the other four cars we have. If anyone had ever told me that I would someday own five cars I would have said they were nuts but here I am with five cars. As I got home and parked my white Spark right behind my white Kia Rio and took a picture of both of them, a guy with a truck and a trailer pulled up and asked me ‘How do you like that electric car?’ and when I told him it wasn’t an electric car he said ‘Then why do they call it a Spark? Because it’s so tiny?’

The 2009 Kia Rio (l) and the Chevy Spark. Welcome to Marshalltown, Chevy Spark!
You have a tough act to follow.