A funny thing happened...

A funny thing happened yesterday on my way to Target...

It all really began a week ago with the purchase of our new 08' Scion xD. Due to the rising gas prices and lack of use, my wife and I decided to trade in our gas guzzling 04' Toyota Tundra double-cab for the Scion xD, which I was immediately sold on after the test drive at Torrance Toyota.

I was initally going to settle for an 08' Toyota Corolla SE, but thanks to the game-playing, sneaky little schmuck salesman at South-Bay Toyota I decided to "put my bats in the bag" and take my business elsewhere.

Thank-you Mr. Schmuck for pissing me off! You led me in the right direction, and I now own a car I really love.

It definitely does not have the room the truck had, but it makes up for the room in its monthly payment and fuel economy, not to mention the kick-ass Pioneer stereo system. Many of the car reviews bagged on its looks and "road noise," but for the price you get a lot of features only found on much pricier vehicles.

It's not a Land Rover or Mercedes, but I am extremely happy with it and that is all that counts.

On to my story...

With this new car came a new type of instrument cluster. Instead of having the standard needle and four quadrant gas gauge, it has a linear set of little boxes that disappear as the gas is depleted.

It is also located to the LEFT of the steering wheel. Most gauges in other vehicles are generally located to the right of the wheel.

You see where this is going, right?

After a trip to Traveltown with my son, his cousin, my wife and Mother-in-law, We decided to make a stop at Target after dropping off my cousin.

Well, as we were sitting at a light getting ready to make a left turn in front of the Target store, the engine suddenly spuddered and quit.

I immediately started having flashbacks to a similar situation many years ago when my parents had purchased a new Chevy Vega hatchback that did that exact same thing. After several hours on the phone my father ened up making the dealership come and pick up the car out of the driveway, exclaiming to the tow truck driver to tell the dealership to "take this piece of shit lemon and stuff it up their ass!"

But thankfully my issue was not due to a lemon, but rather my lack of observation.

After my ptsd flashback my second instinct was to look down at the digital gas gauge.

Yep, I was out of gas.

Thankfully I had my wife and mother-in-law with me who, without asking, immediately got out and helped push it into the parking lot amidst the angry honking and happy screams of my son who was enjoying every minute of it.

Once we were able to "park" the car, the embarassment set in as my wife and mother in law stood there histerically laughing.

I eventually laughed too.

This is one time I am thankful we live in a big city with a Target store that carries gas cans, and a gas station within walking distance.

After some leasurely shopping and a 30 minute walk, all was well again.

So the moral of the story is- if you buy a new car, always pay attention to the gas gauge.

I will have pics to follow.