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The VAF Courtesy Car Warning Light Challenge

DeltaRomeo

doug reeves: unfluencer
Staff member
So you know about the VAF list of courtesy cars and food, right? Well, the other weekend an RV bud sent me the picture below of all the warning lights that were on while in drive on the way to BBQ in Mineral Wells. Four dummy lights and a 'K FUEL INLET' warning in the display. Gold.

Top that <g>.


Rules: Car running and in drive (stopped). This concludes the rules...




IMG_1796-X3.jpg
 
I say the "C" in front of the K is missing on the display.
As in "CK FUEL INLET"

I dunno...........
 
First the entire instrument panel is bogus. When have you ever seen a courtesy car with a full gas tank?
 
DR

You have to let it WARM up in Texas for anything to work correctly.

Boomer
 
Let some air of a tire, turn on the hazzards and high beams and unbuckle the seat belt and you'll have 4 more lights!
 
That?s a pretty fancy daily driver then.... automatic transmission and all! This made me laugh at a memory, once upon a time I had a rather non handy friend call me up and ask why the butt-crack sensor was on in her car. It took a bit to figure out she was talking about the tire pressure light.
 
You have 4 sensor lights apparently in good working order. It looks like you have at least 6 sensor lights iinop. I would ground the vehicle until those 6 lights are repaired.
 
From the way I read the original post, DR is challenging people to send pictures of an airport courtesy car that rivals the warning lights on the VAF car.

WELL, I wish I had a picture of the courtesy car at Castroville Muni (KCVB). It?s an old Ford Crown Victoria with a previous life in law enforcement. Ran great but really looked bad withs lots of warning lights on. Brother in law laughed his **s off when we drove up. Even suggested we park it in a dark alley with the keys in it.

Can?t complain though. Got to use it three days for free and it always started. They even hangared my aircraft for free and provided truly superior services. Fuel was reasonable. Great little friendly airport for visiting San Antonio Texas.
 
My favorite was a former police cruiser that they did not re-enable the rear passenger interior door handles or the rear windows.

The people in the back seat got the felon treatment :)
 
Daily drive

Courtesy Car? Heck that is better than my daily driver. Hope mine makes it to Osh and back!
Rather have a new lyc than a better car.
 
Pre-warning lights and handheld gps.......

Several years ago my brother and I rented a C150 for spring break, we were forced down to 1500 AGL by clouds where the VOR was pretty weak. We knew roughly where we were but had to flyby several water towers to find out exactly, we ended up stopping by Red Oak Iowa for gas (back then gas prices were a surprise too!) and food.
FBO manager advised ?keys in the visor? as we headed out, unfortunately the ol? hatchback Bonneville had seen better days. Several iterations of cranking and pumping the accelerator didn?t fire a single cylinder. I headed back inside to advise them it wouldn?t start, he sadly advised me to ?floor it and keep cranking till she starts, don?t worry she?ll start but please take it easy on her as she?s on her last leg.?
Back in the Bonneville I mashed the gas and hit the key for what seemed like an eternity, she started barking to life about half as fast as a flooded Wright Cyclone. Sevearal minutes of pumping the accelerator had the ol? Bonneville purring?-Er?-Chugging well enough to get us into town. I had my brother order for me (to go) as I was busy keeping the Bonneville running in the parking lot, I really wasn?t certain it was going to start again.
I?ve had vise-grips for door handles and really slippy transmissions in old cop cars but that memory tops my list!
 
I flew my daughter into Logan, UT several years back. Our courtesy car was an ancient (80's) Mazda 323 sedan. The mouse-track seat belts didn't work. They warned us about the lack of brakes. You had to pump them a lot to get the car to stop. No A/C, window stuck open, etc. We creeped into town, did our visit to the Utah State program she was interested in, and managed to make it back to the airport without crashing into anything. And yes, I recall that the check engine light was on.
 
Griswold Mobile

Heading back from a Caribbean flight with Rosie and company (2007) out of Florida dodging thunderstorms Mercedes suggests to our flight headed west to try Alexander Alabama. Sure, why not at least we can see with a good ten miles visibility in that direction.

We land, tie down and into the FBO. We are given the keys to the Griswold mobile in search for a hotel. Sure enough a station wagon very similar to the Chevy Chase film the manager tells us the car is known around town as just that, ?Griswold Mobile,? suggesting a few hotels we are on our way. Don?t remember if the check engine light was on but it would be the first crew car we drove that didn?t. It took three locations until we found lodging and without fail at each location as we drove in we were hailed as driving the Griswold Mobile. Not a low visibility vehicle.
 
Heading back from a Caribbean flight with Rosie and company (2007) out of Florida dodging thunderstorms Mercedes suggests to our flight headed west to try Alexander Alabama. Sure, why not at least we can see with a good ten miles visibility in that direction.

We land, tie down and into the FBO. We are given the keys to the Griswold mobile in search for a hotel. Sure enough a station wagon very similar to the Chevy Chase film the manager tells us the car is known around town as just that, ?Griswold Mobile,? suggesting a few hotels we are on our way. Don?t remember if the check engine light was on but it would be the first crew car we drove that didn?t. It took three locations until we found lodging and without fail at each location as we drove in we were hailed as driving the Griswold Mobile. Not a low visibility vehicle.

That reminds me of the car we had when our kids were teenagers and driving. They thought it would be fun to paint it "school colors" and it worked out well when they were going places they weren't supposed to. We would see friends around town and they would say "I saw your pimpwagon headed to <insert place here> the other night" and our kids never knew how we found out they were going places they shouldn't!

The new owner lives in Cumming, GA - and I get calls from friends who say "What were you doing in Cumming today?"... :D:D

pimpwagon.jpg
 
Little business trip to Fairfield, Ohio yesterday. Stopped at the Cincinnati Jet at KHAO and they had this sorry excuse for a courtesy car! Look at all those lit up idiot lights!

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Oh, wait, those aren't problems?

Honestly folks, they had the absolute sweetest courtesy car on the planet! This was a 2018 Cadillac XTS with only 10,000 miles on it!

Decent fuel prices and excellent care! My kudos to them!

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Slo

I flew in to san luis obispo with my daughter to tour cal poly san luis obispo. They handed me keys to a brand new bmw x5. I told them i didnt want to rent from on airport enterprise but the nice women behind the counter said that this was the courtesy car today.
When i returned she had gone home so I paid a way below market rate for a day rental.
 
Those who've been to Hulett WY remember the retired police cruiser. :D
Here is my buddy Sibirsky playing an undercover cop next morning...

 
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