Urban Legends

The Legend

A couple went to Detroit to purchase a new car and drive it back home to Colorado. It was the sort of thing that young people get into their minds for no reason other than to add a little adventure to their lives.

They picked a car, a beautiful blue coupe, right off the manufacturer's lot and hit the road. With all the time in the world, they took an incredibly circuitous "scenic" route, camped beneath the stars, and had a wonderful time. After driving more than a thousand miles, they began to wonder exactly at what point they would have to stop for gas, since the fuel gauge still read "full".

Worrying that the gauge might be broken, the couple pulled into a gas station to top off their tank and thus see how much fuel they had used. You can imagine the woman's surprise when she opened the door that hid the fuel cap and saw the legend "atomic fuel only."

When they returned home, the couple parked the car in their garage and, with the help of an electrician friend, hooked its engine to a turbine generator. Seven years later, the car was still running in their garage without having been refueled and its "gas" gauge had barely moved. The couple was making a nice living providing electricity to an entire city block with their generator.

Then one night they received a mysterious call from the car manufacturer in Detroit. It seems that they had been mistakenly sold the couple a concept car that was not yet ready for market. The automaker offered them a billion dollars in exchange for the car. The couple accepted, purchased a small country, and is now living out the balance of their lives as comfortably wealthy benevolent dictators.

(variant)

General Motors gave one of their retiring employees a severance package that included his choice of a new car from any model they produced. The employee made his choice and drove off. A few weeks later, he noticed that the car still had not needed refueling. And a few days after that, he was bothered by a foul smell and noticed that gasoline was leaking from the car's gas cap. When he removed the cap, gasoline spurted out under high pressure -- instead of using gas, the car was actually manufacturing it!

Too bad the company realized its mistake and repossessed the car in the middle of the night soon thereafter.