A Tale of Two Subarus

A Tale of Two Subarus

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

In 2004, I moved to Connecticut, and for the first time in my life, I needed to own a car. Having spent the previous portion of my life living in or very near to New York City, the occasional rental car had seen me through to that point.

Then I decided I needed a change. In short order, I bought a house in Milford, CT, and then asked my friends Viv and Fred to help me buy my first car. The brand and model were not in question. I had already made up my mind to own a Subaru Forester. I wanted 4 wheel drive, and a small SUV that was easy to maneuver but would hold everything I'd need for my artwork.

I happily drove around in my new car, getting to know the bits of Connecticut I regularly traveled, and basically running a rut between my home and the local Metro-North station, since I still worked at a corporate job in NYC at the time.

I loved my car and took it to be washed on a regular, not-quite-obsessive schedule. One day after getting it washed, I met a friend at our favorite restaurant, one with an outdoor patio. As the sun went down, it became apparent that what I had thought was a reflection of the sun was actually the fact that my car lights were on.

This thoroughly puzzled me because I had learned early on that my lovely car was pretty idiot-proof. One of the reasons I thought this was the fact that once I turned off the car, the lights went off, even if I didn't turn them off using the stem on the steering wheel. So why were they on now, when the car was off?

It was a bit late, but I knew my Subaru dealership was still open, so I called for help. The receptionist didn't know why the lights would stay on, or how to shut them off, but suggested that, if all else failed, I could remove the fuse so I wouldn't wear the battery down overnight. I did that, and then promptly called the service area first thing the next morning, eager for an appointment to fix my problem.

However, when I explained what the problem was, the woman at the service desk said to look at the top of the steering column and to push the button marked "P" on the top to the off position. I did that and the lights went off. I thanked her profusely, but spent the rest of the day trying to imagine a scenario when I might want to keep those lights on when the car was shut off... and came up empty on that.

But - This is a tale of two cars. In 2010, I worked as a crew leader on the U.S. Census. This took me down to the Census office in Bridgeport at least once every day. After a particularly long day, I made one last run to drop off completed questionnaires at the office.

On my way out of the parking lot, I noticed a red Subaru Forester parked at the curb with its lights on. No one was sitting in the car. When I went into the office, I asked around to see if anyone there owned this car, and a young woman said it was hers. I told her that her car lights were on, and she went out to check it. I left the office a few minutes later, and passed her car on the way to mine.

I turned to look at her, and noticed her trying everything she could think of to turn off those lights. Then a light went on for me, and I remembered that time, six years back at that point, when I had the same problem. I went over to her and asked her if she'd checked the button the top of the steering column. She clicked it and the lights went off. I asked if she'd recently had her car washed, and she looked a bit freaked out - as though I could read her mind.

Turns out she'd had it washed that afternoon. I explained that the guy wiping down the interior had pushed the button to the "on" position without noticing, and said to keep it in mind whenever she got the car washed.

Who knew I'd be able to "share the wisdom" from my weird car light moment so far down the line?

In the meantime, neither she nor I could figure out why anyone would want that button, or to leave the lights on when the car is off. I'm not sure if Subaru knows, either, because I couldn't even find anything about this button under "Lights" in the car manual.

For some reason, I found myself telling this story to my fellow Rainers at our mini-AR reunion yesteray, and Dagny had the briliiant idea of writing it up and asking everyong here the following question: Does anyone know of a reason - good, bad or indifferent - for why anyone would want this "feature?"  Nothing I've come up with makes much sense.



A Tale of Two Subarus