K-9

We bought a new-to-us car in late September - a 2017 Kia Sportage SX with almost 7,000 miles on it. I know! It's practically brand new. We traded in our old 2005 Kia Sportage; it had a little over 216,000 miles on it. We got $500 for it and we were very grateful for it too.

The new Sportage is very cool. You push a button to start it and turn it off. It has all sorts of warmers and coolers - seats, steering wheel, rear seat controls, passenger side controls! It has a rear camera that activates when you put the car in reverse, and it has these guidelines to help you navigate into a parking spot and beeps that warn you when you get too close to things and the side view mirrors fold in automagically when when you turn off the car and the sunroof is panoramic.

You can even talk to it, and the no-nonsense lady voice talks back to you. You can ask it to make a phone call, tune to a radio channel or select a tune from an iPod, plot a route to wherever you want to go, and more.

We had no idea that cars were so fancy!

Joe wanted a six cylinder engine, like the old Sportage, but the new ones only come with a four cylinder engine. But! It's turbo charged, so it's actually quite peppy and responsive.

We have never felt so fancy and space age. So space age, in fact, that Joe has named our Sportage K-9, after Dr. Who's robot dog.