Yeah, I started a new job. So that means, it may be possible to buy a new car. I would like to upgrade from my 7 year old Kia Spectra. What is an upgrade to that you say? How about a new, snazzy Kia Optima. The Kia website even states that you can get it with a 6-speed manual transmission. Awesome!!!

So lets start looking around the Phoenix area for a manual transmission Kia Optima.

It's fairly exasperating to say the least. I have unable to find any looking in the online inventories of all Kia dealers in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and San Diego.

Finally I contact the sales guy at Mark Kia, in Scottsdale to ask him if he can locate any for me. He states that they had one there for over a year, and finally sold it to a Kia dealership owner from Canada. Even he was unable to get one delivered to his dealership and had to track one down thousands of miles away.

This does not bode well for me.


more to follow....