You want a piece of my heart? You better start from the start.

[substitute]

The “check engine” light has gone on in my rental car. This has to be the worst error message in the history of modern consumer products. You just get a little glowing picture of an engine. Depending on the make of your car, it could mean anything from “your emissions control system is faulty” to “all the oil has just fallen out of the engine and you have 30 seconds to save it”. Quite often it goes on just for the hell of it, and the mechanic switches it off and smiles sadly and you give him $100.

On this particular car, I got out the manual and saw that it wasn’t oil, or temperature, or battery, since they all had their own indicators. It was in fact the emissions system. The most common cause is an insufficiently tight gas cap, but that was not it. So I have to call the rental company on Monday.

Error messages should be specific. Grarmpf.

I am feeling particularly old and left behind this week. I wish things hadn’t turned out this way and I hate shitty consolation prizes.

Comments

[brianenigma.livejournal.com]

More specific like these?

Segmentation fault
General Protection Failure
NullPointerException
The application "Safari" has unexpectedly terminated
Printer on fire

PC Load Letter?!?!?!?!

[nosrialleon.livejournal.com]

What the fuck does that mean?!?!?!?!?

And...

[fimmtiu.livejournal.com]

"Not a typewriter"!

[vegemitelover.livejournal.com]

The light on Sister's car would go on whenever she didn't tighten the gas cap enough. The lame part of it was of course the fact that you had to goto the dealer and pay $100 for them to turn the light off again... even if you rectify whatever situation triggered the thing in the first place.

I vote for a nice class action suit over this kind of thing.

[mendel.livejournal.com]

I'd look for a better dealer.