Idiot Lights

If car manufacturers are going to put pretty lights in the dashboard they should make them useful. The "check engine" light came on this past weekend while driving home and it wasn't at all helpful or informative.

I checked the oil, the coolant - all that I could check seemed fine, so I hoped for the best and drove it all the way home. I sure as shit wasn't stopping in Weed to have it looked at.

Either give me more information or give me access to the computer that might be able to tell me what might be going on.

Turns out it was a worn "purge valve," whatever that is. I could look it up, but now I'm paying someone who already knows what that is to fix it.

Instead of useless, vague lights, put some effort into it. How about the stoplight system? Green means go, yellow means check it soon but you're fine to limp it home, and red means something might catch fire so you'd better pull over.