Happy Halloween!

Actually, Halloween is a non-event in Southern Man's life. He lives in a sufficiently remote area that there are no trick-or-treaters; the only clue was that some of the folks were in costume at the Hyundai dealership where Southern Man left his loaner Sonata and abut $550 in exchange for The Hyundai. Pretty steep for a broken ignition, but at least they washed it.

Southern Man doesn't regret paying a little extra to have the dealer do the work (and he did get a loaner car out of it) but The Hyundai will be paid off in about six months and it's probably time to shop around for a local mechanic and get estimates on a new timing belt and brake pads and such. Not that any of that is broken, yet - the ignition was the first malfunction in five years and 70K miles - but it will be interesting to see if an independent shop will do the timing belt for less than the $500 quoted by the dealer.