Outta Sight, Outta Mind, Outta Gas

Hey Mazda.  Just an opportunity for improvement I wanted to mention.  In your world, you might call it a design flaw, but I like to remain upbeat about things.  You know me, funny, pretty, always on the lookout for a chance to make things better – looking for opportunities to improve things, not getting’ mired in the negative…  But this has less to do with me and more to do with the “Empty Gas Tank” notification coming from the dashboard of my husband’s car.

Said notification, being down by my left knee, IS NOT HELPFUL!!!!

I never notice it down there.  Because it’s covered up by my knee.

As a result, when I was driving the kids home from school the other day, the car completely conked out in the middle of an intersection.  I lost the power steering, forward motion, EVERYTHING!  So I had to coast across two lanes of traffic and then do hand-over-hand manual labor to turn down some random side street.  We rolled to a stop while I flipped my funny, pretty, upbeat lid thinking the transmission had bottomed out.  At which point, my 12-year-old daughter leaned over from the front passenger’s seat and announced, “You’re out of gas.”

I am?!?  How did you know that??  HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT???  More importantly, HOW DID I NOT KNOW THAT?!??!!

“Look, right there.  Down by your left knee.  It says you have no gas left.  The car acted the exact same way when Dad ran out of gas.”

Aha!  AHA!!!

So it’s not just me.  It’s others as well.  This has “Current Owner Focus Group” written all over it, Mazda.  I’m happy to participate in that (as is my husband, I’ll sign him up, he loves it when I sign him up for stuff.  Hi, Honey!  Remember that one time when I signed you up for the school field trip nature hike thingie?!  And that girl in your group got some sort of hive-y reaction to nature?!  Gosh, so fun, right??  You’re welcome.).  But for now, we’ll just call this whole thing “customer feedback.”  Your Product Managers will want to build said feedback into your car “futures.” 

And if you need any more ideas, feel free to ping me.  I’m a helper, just a helper.  Doin’ some helpin’.  And even though you act towards my helping the same way my husband acts toward my signing him up for stuff, you don’t fool me.  I know you love it when I help!

Speaking of which, THIS has been helpful, right?  You’re welcome.