Of course this had to happen on the weekend. Last night (Saturday night) I was coming home and as I was turning into my apartment's parking lot, my car (2001 Kia Optima LX) just died. I was still getting battery power, radio on, air conditioner on and have a full tank of gas (had filled up yesterday morning and drove 22 miles). I couldn't get it started again, even when pumping the accelator a little when trying to start. Fortunately I was able to coast it into an empty parking spot.
So does this sound like the fuel pump went out? I had one go out on a Chevy Cavalier but I was cruising on the interstate but I can't remember exactly what happened--I think it sputtered and went out because my initial reaction at that time was that I ran out of gas. And the big question--my car is sitting at just under 51K miles and I have the extended service agreement with First Extended Service Corporation (whose offices are closed after 3:00 on Saturday and not open at all on Sunday--the towing service is available but since it's the weekend, the dealership is closed) for 75K miles--is this going to be covered under my extended warranty? (All I got from them was a card to call when I had problems but the guy at the dealership at the time said "bumper-to-bumper for 75K miles." and the one time I called and asked just being curious, the lady said something about how it kicks in when Kia doesn't cover stuff anymore.)
I've had some of the same things happen with my car that others have--fuel tank sensor was off, the power windows, battery went dead 2 months after I got it and the second battery went dead before the battery warrant was expired (the guy at O'Reilly's Auto Parts told me that foreign cars are harder on batteries), driver door power lock went haywire, clock went haywire and kept flashing and couldn't keep the time, I had some sensor go out that caused the check engine light to come on but didn't affect my 3 hour trip home (don't you just love it when that check engine light comes on when you're hours away from home?), the squeaky brakes issue, and I had to get the "software update"--turns out that it wasn't the cause of my skipping problem--following the maintenance schedule, I got the spark plugs changed at 30K miles but I didn't get *Kia* sparkplugs and after awhile, the check engine light comes on because the cheap plugs didn't mesh with the wires and I had to get all new plugs and wires (over $300 including labor). I've also had some of the plastic chrome come off, the rubber seal around the windshield started coming off, the plastic tape around the doorhandles is coming off (guess 2001 was a bad year for adhesive).
Other than that, it's been a good car. Unlike some of the other posts I've seen, I've consistently gotten good gas mileage--around 28 mph.
So has anyone had experience with the extended warranty deal and/or fuel pump going out (if it's that and for all of you mechanic types out there, what else could it possibly be?)
Thanks.
--Molly