A day of car maintenance
So the H.S. Golightly (Holly to her friends) has recently ticked over the 60k mile-mark, and is in need of some maintenance. I took a few minutes a couple days ago and spoke with a Kia dealership to see what this sort of service entails and costs.
The service consists of the following:
- Change the timing and accessory belts
- Flush radiator, flush transmission, change oil & filter
- Change the spark plugs
- Total: $1185.00
Ouch!
Not having that sort of money lying around, I figured I was going to have to get my hands dirty and do as much of this myself as possible. Breaking it down, the belt changes only come out to $360, and half of that is labor. That seems doable, but will probably have to wait a bit.
This means that they want some $825 for changing a bunch of fluids and the spark plugs. further research on the spark plugs shows that the OEM plugs are NGK and run $2.50 each retail – but the dealership wants $15 each!
I call ‘horseshit’.
So, off I went to Oil Can Henry’s and my local Schuck’s, and between the two I got a better set of spark plugs and all the fluids and filters changed for $200 plus the time it took. Which was significant, because OCH was packed when I got there. I waited in the car for an hour before I could get into a bay, but it was still worth it to have all that bit sorted by someone else. After all, I had my copy of Sherlock Holmes in the car with me, so it’s not like I lacked for company :)
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Hollerings