What happened in or around your Elantra today?

[crownr0yal]

I come back and everybody has changed their pictures! I feel so looooooooooooooooosttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt tttttttttttttt!

[OkieRich]

Originally Posted by crownr0yal

I come back and everybody has changed their pictures! I feel so looooooooooooooooosttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt tttttttttttttt!

Mine is just me with a couple of surgery nurses when the whole gang went bowling last weekend. We needed to blow off some steam from the stress of the holidays in the OR. And we did it! lol

[someguy]

Mine is my weekend ride :-)

[Em-squared]

Originally Posted by crownr0yal

I come back and everybody has changed their pictures! I feel so looooooooooooooooosttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt tttttttttttttt!

I was WONDERING where you went. Welcome back! I changed my pic to this one with weird, eyes-popping-out glasses, but then every time I saw it, it actually disturbed ME. Bad when a pic of yourself can do that. So I had to change it to something normal-ish.

[OkieRich]

Originally Posted by Em-squared

So I had to change it to something normal-ish.

Define "normal-ish," keeping YOU in mind during the defining process, Holly!

[lovemysantafe]

The Optima is out for now...it's just more money than I want to spend even though I feel comfortable doing it, I simply can't justify it. That being said, I am back to waffling over a Veloster Turbo, especially after a call to State Farm revealed that it would actually lead to lower insurance rates with similar fuel mileage and the performance I'm craving.

[someguy]

Andrew I think that is a much smarter buy and definitely more fun to drive than an oversized turbo family sedan. A Veloster turbo flew by me as I was getting on the hwy a few weeks ago. About 15 minutes later though I passed him, police got him.

[OkieRich]

Doesn't that warm your heart when that happens? I was passed by some crazy lady in a school zone. While she was passing me, I was angrily thinking, "Where's a cop when you need one?" About that same instant, I see this patrol trooper get out of his cruiser up at the next block and stand in the lane motioning her to pull over.

One of those great moments in life that you treasure!

[ravenspilot]

Optimas are sweet. I test-drove one last year - and its Sonata sibling - when I was car-shopping before buying Raven. Only problem for me was that an Optima or Sonata would have been another year of car payments over a comparably-equipped Elantra. More, if I opted for the turbo version. And turbo Sonatas/Optimas are awesome.

But, I just couldn't justify spending the extra money. Sigh. Responsibility just sucks, sometimes...

Speaking purely for myself, I think I'd rather have a Sonata over an Optima, simply because of the Optima's more pronounced front-end overhang. The Kia has a chin like Bruce Campbell's, easily scraped against curbs or driveways with steep approach angles. (I scraped bottom several times with the Dodge Intrepid - also possessed of a long nose - I had before I bought my Elantra, so that was something I was leery about when shopping for a new car.)

Other than the nose overhang, though, I'm blown away by the Optima's styling. Kia definitely got their money's worth when they hired Peter Schreyer away from Audi...

[Em-squared]

Originally Posted by someguy

Andrew I think that is a much smarter buy and definitely more fun to drive than an oversized turbo family sedan. A Veloster turbo flew by me as I was getting on the hwy a few weeks ago. About 15 minutes later though I passed him, police got him.

+1 on the sentiments toward Andrew.

On a similar note, I've been really working on dialing down the road rage lately. I had a large Ford truck right on my tail, going downhill and in the right-hand lane, with another car in front of me! I couldn't change lanes because I was about to exit on the right, and he continued to tailgate me onto the exit. So, in a turn-out, I pulled over and let him pass. I think it's better to swallow my pride and let him go on rather than get rear-ended. Had another tailgater today on the way home; did the same thing. Funny, because their entire back end was smashed in. You'd think by having a rear-end like that, they wouldn't themselves tailgate.