Car Shopping and Wine

Replacing my car has been a goal for quite a while now. I've had issues with Kia, and after finally getting the radio replaced after two years, which was part of a separate shitshow, I was done with them. Almost done, actually. I gave them a second chance in November, with an upgraded version of my Niro they had set for delivery. After work, I stopped at the dealership the day it was delivered, and we began the process. However, the numbers all came back a lot higher than expected. I walked away from the dealership after two hours, finding out a few days later that they had raised the price of the car by $3000. They ran the credit checks without telling me about the drastic price change. They didn't care that I caught them, so I knew I was done with the local Kia dealer.

Then, just as the year came to an end, I saw two Nissan Kicks listed in Indiana, about an hour away. It was funny, because they had two that appeared identical, but was about a $500 difference in price. I finally figured out why, and it was because one of the models lacked a spoiler. A quick check with Saris showed me that my old Bones rack that I hadn't been able to use since I traded in my Blazer about 4 years ago was able to be used on the Kicks, but only without the spoiler. The lack of a spoiler was a huge benefit, so my wife and I got in the Kia, and headed to Indiana. 

The dealership happened to be part of the same company that sold us the Kia in the first place, which had been great to deal with, but they were two hours away. It helped a bit with trade-in, getting a better offer than the local Kia dealer made, and we were offered lower payments and a lower interest rate. We even were able to use the refund of the Gap coverage as a down payment. I did take a hit on fuel economy, but it is a much nicer ride. It doesn't center in the lane, but it has better safety features and a remote starter. It reminds me a lot of the Jeep Renegade I used to have, which I don't miss nearly as much now. 

Since we had the day largely filled, with going to look at the car, and with the previous experience of the process not working out, we planned to hit a winery or two on the way home. Time-wise though, we only had time for one, and we went with the Olde Schoolhouse Vineyard and Winery near Eaton, OH. Somewhat obviously, it was an old one-room schoolhouse converted into a winery. I got a cider flite, and my wife got a wine flight. There were some really good ciders in the flite, and my wife took interest in one seasonal wine that tasted like cotton candy.  (It was called Circ Ass, but I couldn't find it on the website.) We brought a bottle home, and I think she would have been happy had we picked up two bottles instead. 

An interesting thing is that the winery is part of the Darke County Whiskey, Wine, & Ale Trail, which I found amusing since it is actually in Preble County. I think another one of the locations is in Miami County, for what that is worth.  Aside from The Winery at Versailles, we haven't been to any of them before. (We have had products from a few of the others though.) We will need to stop in Versailles sometime and get the booklet we got stamped. I don't know which location will actually be next, but the Olde Schoolhouse was a nice surprise.