Sonata

Our very sweet and loving Hyundai Sonata is sad tonight.  It has been overheating so we took it to the dealer in Orem and found out that it the head gasket leaks and it is probably a warped head.  Dad is guessing that it started long ago when the dealers put something on backwards and it overheated.  We were very blessed at that time that we were in Reno where there was a dealer rather than on the desert miles from anywhere. 

This one is going to be a pretty penny, over $1,600 and they will keep the car for a week.  They have to take the whole engine apart and send part of it out to be milled ($450).  The amazing thing is that the parts necessary to fix it are less than $100 but it will take an estimated 9 hours of labor and about $130 per hour. 

We have had the car since June of 2007 and it has run so well.  We don't like this big bill but we are grateful, once again, that it didn't happen on the way home from Oregon or at a more inconvenient time.