Really, I actually left my rental car running outside the Embassy Suites in Flagstaff from around 5:00 pm on Nov 16 to 8:00 am to Nov 17. When we got back to the car in the morning we noticed the car was running and it was comfortably warm inside after a cold night. And the tank that was completely full when we had parked was just below 3/4 full now. It had burned a full quarter tank of gas overnight in 15 hours.

How did I possibly manage to do that?

I have some ‘splainin’ to do:

We rented a 2013 Ford Taurus for a road trip. This car is fully loaded with electronics. That poses a challenge for a rental car driver like me, who really does not have enough time to familiarize himself with all the special features.

Just look at the key:

Note, there is no key. It’s just a remote fob. You start the car not by inserting a key, but by pushing a button. The remote just needs to be near the car.

Clicking the button at the blue arrow twice opens the trunk. Clicking the button at the green arrow locks the car. Clicking the button at the red arrow twice, starts the car remotely.

Yes, you can start this car from outside.  The reason for this feature is obvious: in cold climates you can pre-warm a car that’s outside in the snow or ice before you get into it.

I don’t exactly know how I managed to leave the car running all night.  There are two prevailing theories:

Theory One:

I never turned the car off when I parked it. You turn this car off by pushing the same button on the dashboard that turns the car on in the first place. If you forget to turn it off, it just keeps running. There is no obvious sign that this is going on, like a chime or a bell. I could have gotten out of the car, kept it running, closed the door, walked away, hit the lock button on the remote and — the left the car running for 15 hours in idle.

Theory Two:

I turned the car off when I parked it. Then, as we had gathered our stuff and walked away from the car I locked it by pushing the lock button twice, but I really accidentally pushed the start button twice, starting the car again behind me to leave it running all night. Was it locked? I am not sure. Could somebody just have stepped inside and driven away? I don’t know, without a key? I hope not. I assume the car would not have allowed driving without the key, but I don’t know that for sure.

Either way, this car just kept idling. Good thing this didn’t happen at an airport parking lot before leaving on a flight. The car would have run for days until it used up all its gas.

I also found it strange to deal with the lock. As the driver, the key remote in hand, you can’t really lock the car, since it detects you are near the car and it opens it automatically. You don’t need to push anything. I kept not trusting myself and kept being suspicious about whether the car was really locked, peeking back and looking. So I got into the habit of clicking the lock button again as I walked away, just in case.

There is another problem with a key that’s not a key: You have no place to put it. Where do you keep the remote? In your pocket? I kept dropping it into the cup holder, using up the space for the cup. I kept wishing there had been a place to stick the key in the dash, just to have a place for it, even if there is no functional  key in it.

I think it’s crazy to have a car that just keeps running “by accident.”  I am sure this was user error, my error. I cannot blame the car. But could not have the car realized after an hour that I was not just warming it up, but that I was gone? Could not the car have turned itself off?

I want a car that has a key that I can stick into a slot in the dash. When the key is there, the car can start and run. When it’s not there, it can’t. That not only keeps this fiasco from happening, it also provides a good storage place for the key while I am in the car.

I also want the locks to work like locks. I don’t want the car to be smart and  know what I am doing. I want to make a decision when I lock my car and push something, and I want to make a decision to unlock it,  and push something else. I don’t want the car to guess if I am coming or leaving, if I am in the car or outside of it.

Call me an Automotive Luddite.