I spent all day Sunday making the round trip drive to UCSB to drop off my college student for another term. The weather was nice and traffic was good until I arrived back into the south bay.

I had managed to rent a minivan with a great weekend rate (request Rate Code Y6). The attendant told me I could take any van on the lot, so I grabbed the Chevy Astro since my college student has what appears to be one pair of shoes for each day of the month. I know an Astro van full of clothes, shoes, clothes, books, shoes and clothes doesn't get the best highway mileage so I was surprised to see the gas gauge reading beyond full after we had gone more than 100 miles.

After unloading at the luxury apartment in Isla Vista, I filled up at the gas station before heading back north. The gauge still read about 3/4 full, and I put over 20 gallons of gas in the van. Damn those Astros have B-I-G fuel tanks.

After another 300+ miles of driving I arrived back home and went to the local gas station to fill up before returning the van. Can you believe it only took about 7 gallons to push the needle back to beyond the F mark? Damn those Astros get good gas mileage.

Oh yeah...the outside temperature gauge didn't work either. It kept reading about 9 degrees F lower than the actual temp. ASTRO - Like A Rock!