Eight years of opulence comes to an end. The Amanti has been sold and I'm left to experience life after affluence. This car has spoiled me rotten and I'm better for it.

Sudden work changes (alongside Carmax offering triple the amount I was quoted back in 2016), have led me to set my lavish lifestyle of 2000s Korean craftsmanship on hold.

Now, it may seem as if an Amanti would get you more lays than the potato chip aisle, but it's actually been a quiet silent life. Every other expectation? Terrifically exceeded!

The Amanti is silky smooth, fast to respond, and works more often than a single mother. It corners flatter than the Earth and has a trunk that can fit one to six bodies depending on your fetish. Top tier sedan qualities!

Sad to see it go, but better to sell while the used market is overextended and I can be without the car.

Dear Amanti, may your smoothliness enrich another.

This has been outstanding! Not the Land Rover leave you out standing, but the good kind of outstanding. For around the base price of a Nissan Maxima or Kia Cadenza, I feel like this thing has been a steal.

I think it's safe to say this Land Rover is reliable!

...does anyone else hear boss music or is it my suspension?

As this Earth rotates, I spend 360 days convinced that I will need some degree of truck. I go on to live proudly able to relabel that I'm not indecisive, I'm predecisive! But pride goeth before destruction and that siren song slithers into my ears:

"Oh, so practical from bottom to top,
Low floor, sliding doors, no need for no's.
Any man can make a truck stop,
But few can make a van Gogh."

Music mesmerizes my monkey mind, knocking me for the same loop it plays on. My brain spins on a loom, turning over, and over, those words.
A single man can own a minivan! The incantation always works.

Where logic and reasoning are truth in science, perception annihilates all Aristotle arguments. Sadly, according to conversations with friends, family, and forums, when you are single, owning a minivan gives you the public image of a politician's private image.

Pull up to your date in a Carnival and they'll assume that you're a circus out to stuff your clown in the cannon. An Odyssey, Voyager, or Quest are guaranteed to lead to long and lonely journeys. Somehow the Sienna of all things becomes the banner of a sinister, secret life!

Thus, rather than defend lives that I don't even have, I'm right back to saying a truck or SUV is next. But all this talk lead to a realization! The Model X may make a case for fastback minivans when it comes to one car singles.
Tesla Xpl00d!

What they think it will be like:

What it will actually be like:

Autonomous cars will allow more amazing moments such as the one above, but at the cost of mayhem purely because people do NOT consider the inside of their cars to be public spaces. All the things people do behind closed doors will still be behind closed doors... TO THEM!

Think of the gaming, the streaming, the producing, the practicing, the painting, the debauchery, the haberdashery, the rotisserie! By gumption, think of the in-car gym equipment! Pottery wheels, people!!

"It's fine, my windows are tinted." Second floor attitudes, ground floor consequences. Just you wait, because autonomous cars mean in-car ads.

The ads, the ads, THE ADS! Your car flashes a CEL every time you drive by today's destination sponsor. McDonald's approaching on the left, ad for the new Lil Mo x Ca$ Meal which is just 4 nuggets and a McFlurry for $5.

"You're supposed to dip the nuggs in the flurry, Dad! OMGosh!!"
I don't even know how to say the DAMN NAME!!

Driving to Home Depot,
"Now on sale at Lowe's!"
YOU DON'T KNOW ME, GOOGLE!!

"Extend Your Stay!"
"Extend Your Warranty."
"Extend Your Manhood??"

Enthusiast will be praising the 2036 Miata for offering an ad-free driving subscription (something that's only an option in high-end luxury sports pods)!

Freak now or forever hold your peace.

Ever since I was on set for America's Next Top Model, followed shortly by being identified behind glass at a lovely police precinct, I've been an avid model lineup enthusiast. Now, for me personally, the Wagoneer line doesn't work for me.

I agree that the Wagoneer name should be at the precipice of Jeep's Mt. Debt, but the vehicles don't feel like they properly get you there. They threw the barn but missed the broad. Why isn't this setting right for me?

Suddenly, an epiphany hit me like a father from the 50s, "Ayo! The Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer are actually the Jeep Voyager and Jeep Grand Caravan!" Boosh!!

These things look like mobile daycare centers. The proud evolution of the minivan into the minicenter. The Grand Wagoneer is the Grandest Caravan, and that finally feels right to me!

Let's face it, the webpage for Chrysler is probably still hosted on GeoCities. Who even knows?! So, let's pull out some non-racially insensitive nameplates from Chrysler and deliver some good old-fashion financial sodomy that anyone can feel comfortable getting behind!

@musashi66
That cash flow! Congrats, that's amazing!

@gibbsemphasis Maybe the shot sprite from Duck Hunt.

Honey Badger may work.

@smallbear

You're daaaamn right!

@rallydarkstrike I still have two other cars. I'm thinking about going down to just one car since the resell values are back to where they were two years ago. I need to take advantage, sell now, and save up for future deals down the road.

Haven't been to Oregon, so it's a blind move. Anything I should know about weather, traffic, motorcycle conditions, taxes, car culture, and so on?

@Nick-Hynds Ugh, way too sculpted and the curvatures are far too sensual. Worst car I've ever never seen.

@Mercedes_Pagoda_230SL You would never catch me in a car so tragic. But just this once, I'll humor any Carrera GT owners that would like to lend me their cars for a fair and unbiased evaluation.

In most typing circles, Im known as the Life of the QWERTY, and I gotta tell you all, the Carrera GT is really more awkward than interesting. Don't get me wrong, it definitely seems like a nice progression from an MR2 or Viper, but both of those cars are infinitely more compelling.

The styling of the Carrera GT is extremely derivative. Just a 911 with a heroin addiction. Yaaawn. Honestly, the Carrera GT has about the same presence as a Chevy SSR and a lot of the same quirks. It's the Pulp Fiction of cars. Terrible! Just tell a good story in order, Tarantino! Take the badge away and it could be any skunkwork, low volume project car.

The Carrera GT was lucky. Its radiance simply a great debut while journalists and enthusiasts were coming of age. A well-framed car which chokes on a fame purely based on premature romanticism for aspects of the car that aren't even assets in any car. Sad. Hardly enough to be hailed an armiger of autodom.

A few partnerships, marketing, and unfortunate events all propel the Carrera GT into legendary status but is the reverence really deserved???

@Chariotoflove said in The Learning Curve: Hyundai and Kia luxury cars:

@Sam-Blockhan
I have to tag @Wobbles-the-Mind for the Amati. He absolutely loved his. I still can’t believe he sold it.

I did love that amazing Amanti! Mine was really clean though and was rolling on dubs. Great freaking car.

And I'll say this, if someone told me that I look like a mishmash of Denzel Washington, Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, and Michael B. Jordan, I'd be flattered!

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly Find yourself a Willys Wrangler that's a Hard Top. If 32 inches can't get you there, then you probably need a firmer ride.

Ever since I was on set for America's Next Top Model, followed shortly by being identified behind glass at a lovely police precinct, I've been an avid model lineup enthusiast. Now, for me personally, the Wagoneer line doesn't work for me.

I agree that the Wagoneer name should be at the precipice of Jeep's Mt. Debt, but the vehicles don't feel like they properly get you there. They threw the barn but missed the broad. Why isn't this setting right for me?

Suddenly, an epiphany hit me like a father from the 50s, "Ayo! The Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer are actually the Jeep Voyager and Jeep Grand Caravan!" Boosh!!

These things look like mobile daycare centers. The proud evolution of the minivan into the minicenter. The Grand Wagoneer is the Grandest Caravan, and that finally feels right to me!

Let's face it, the webpage for Chrysler is probably still hosted on GeoCities. Who even knows?! So, let's pull out some non-racially insensitive nameplates from Chrysler and deliver some good old-fashion financial sodomy that anyone can feel comfortable getting behind!

If you have ever changed addresses, businesses, suffered a loss, or accidentally forgot/thrown away checks or money orders, then you probably have some unclaimed money with your name on it.

This always sounds super scammy, but
it's free and easy to check for unclaimed money.

https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money

https://www.missingmoney.com/en/

Great time to file since you probably won't need to worry about unclaimed money becoming taxable claimed income for the 2021 tax year.

If you have contributed to any retirement accounts in 2022, make sure that they counted towards the 2021 tax year (if the account contribution limits weren't maxed out).

@dofphish Sold in perfect working order last year due to me moving from New Mexico to Oregon. It was such a good car!

@pip-bip I wasn't expecting someone to give an answer that I would honestly view as an improvement and an honor over being human. Nice!

@dofphish The more info the better, I love this kind of stuff! And if you ever need stories just short of intriguing about owning a Kia Amanti, I'm your guy!