> To me this is the worst user interface idea ever. If a light I HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE had popped up on the dash, I would have pulled over immediately and tried to figure out what the light meant. But when a light I'm already familiar with starts acting weird, I just assume there's something stupid going on with the electronics or something. Obviously that was a stupid assumtion to make and I won't be making that assumption again in the future. But damn, what a bad design decision THAT was.

I probably would've made the same assumption. Actually, I probably would have timed the light first to see if it was regular, utterly failed to be able to tell, looked in the book and failed to find it, and made your assumption.

My car has this "check engine" light that came on earlier this year. I looked it up in the book. It means one of three things. 1.) You have water in your gas, 2.) The gas cap isn't closed all the way, and 3.) There is a problem with the emissions system and get your car checked RIGHT NOW BEFORE YOU GET HURT.

Now, I thought *that* was a bad UI... How am I to know it's not water in my gas without driving through the entire tank and getting new gas...? Oh, and to make it better, if it's the water or gas cap problem, the light doesn't turn off until THREE complete driving cycles from a cold engine and "mixed city and highway" driving, further delaying one's ability to figure out it's the RIGHT NOW problem.

But Dave, I award your car the stupid light award over that!

-ahmo"And it was the RIGHT NOW problem, which I finally figured out when the car started running badly"acah