My Sedona Speaks

I’m a Kia Sedona and this is my story of my experience with the Anthony family.

There were six of them. SIX! And they had lots of luggage. People underestimate the amount of stuff that kids require even on vacation, yet I was able to easily accommodate all six passengers and their stuff comfortably.

They talked a lot. Several of them mentioned how fancy I was – that made me blush a little bit, but I wanted to show them just how functional and practical I was. I wanted to redefine their idea of what a minivan was.

The dad, he calls himself “The Captain”, or some such nonsense, may have had a little too much fun driving me. He took a bunch of pictures of me before he picked the rest of his family up and seemed to smile a lot. He also pressed a lot of buttons. It took him a few minutes, but he did figure out my voice activated navigation system. He needed to speak more clearly, but I think that was a side effect of the smile I kept causing on his face.

The Anthony family arrived pretty early, like 8 in the morning, so the very first thing I did was find them a McDonald’s en route to their favorite place in St Pete, Beach Haven.

The Captain soon learned that I was able to warn him of cars in other lanes – if he signaled before he tried to change lanes. He also learned that I could make parking a snap with my sensors and cameras that adorn all the sides of the car.

After eating and traveling the short distance to St Pete, the Anthony family checked in and proceeded to make their first trip – to the grocery store. They bought a lot of food, but just like the luggage they brought, I had no problem holding it all!

Let me tell you though, for a family that was on “vacation” they sure did drive me a lot. They took me out for late night ice cream runs, sight seeing, and even an early morning jaunt for donuts (they didn’t share any of those!).

One of the days, they took the kids to Clearwater, Florida to see the Winter and Hope – the dolphins from that movie Dolphin Tale. My navigation system was pretty helpful for that trip.

The kids seemed to be pretty entertained by my dual moon roof option. The parents kept saying that it was too hot outside for the windows to be down, but they let the kids see the Florida sky at night when it was cooler.

Speaking of cool- we (at this point I am pretty much part of the family) surprised the kids one morning with a trip to Orlando, Florida to visit the Magic Kingdom. They even got to eat breakfast with Mickey (I heard them talk about it before and after)! When they returned from the park, they were all pretty wet. “The Captain” seemed to be soaked the worst, but they seemed to have a funny story to tell. We returned under the same moonlight that we started off with.

For the last couple of days, they made very few trips, but when they did they kept saying how thankful they were for my air conditioning that had multiple controls for the front and the back. The kids especially enjoyed the fact that my captain’s chairs reclined AND the feet kick out. Sometimes they would sit in the car just for that experience.

The morning after a bunch of fireworks, the Anthony family had to head back to the Tampa airport. Somehow that trip took longer than it did to go from the airport to St Pete. The family was much quieter.

The Captain guy dropped the family and bags off at the curbside check in and then drove me, slowly, back to valet parking. For a moment, I thought he was going to make a run for it and drive off with me, but he dutifully returned me. And then took one last picture…

He kept complaining about his allergies or something bugging his eyes as he slowly walked off. And for the record he did look back – twice.

I’ll miss that Anthony family. I hope I get to see them again and go on more adventures in the future. I think it is safe to say that they enjoyed driving a Kia, and that I did, indeed, transform the way they see minivans.

That’s it for now. Kia…out!

Disclosure: It was my pleasure to work with Drive Shop for this vacation driving experience. They provided me with the Kia Sedona for 10 days. Though I was not compensated for this post, the words and thoughts (of the “car”) are actually my own.