⚡MINI: Hayley Pearson - Running On Empty ⛽

# Running on Empty: The Thrill of Zero Range

Ever felt that heart-pounding anxiety when your fuel gauge hits empty? Host Haley shares her childhood nightmare turned reality when her car's range indicator hit zero miles remaining. What started as a typical day shuttling between Regency Park, Norwood, and Onley turned into a white-knuckle adventure when she realized she needed to transport her kids from her parents' house with absolutely no fuel left. The panic, the Google mapping, the kids' backseat navigation, and her less-than-ideal public appearance all culminated in a surprisingly exhilarating brush with automotive disaster.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
My Heart podcasts here more Mix one or two point
three podcasts, playlists and listen live on the free iHeart app.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I lived out one of my childhood nightmares yesterday at
about five point thirty. Ever since I was a kid,
I was always so terrified of running out of petrol.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
L most kids were having nightmares.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's like, ah, the boogey Man is someone in my
car or baby Hayley's.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Like, no, don't run out of petrol. Oh my god.
Always every time we went on a road trip, I'd
always be having good.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Enough petrol, been close or anything like that before, No.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Because I've always filled up. So yesterday there's.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
A lot going rattling around in my brain at the moment,
extra rattling around in my brain. And so I went
yesterday and I was in Regency Park, I wasn't Norwood,
I was in Onley, I was everywhere yesterday. I knew
that the day started with twenty five ks on my car.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
That's a low start. It's low, I know.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
So I knew that I didn't have much. But then
by the end of the day, I was like, Oh,
gonna go and pick up my kids for my mum
and dad. Then they live up at like pen faults.
So I got in the car. At this point, I
totally forgot about the fact that I need a petrol
So got there, hung out there, got in the car
with the kids, and turn the car on. I was like, oh,
oh my god, I have no k's left zero case.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
You've got a car that says arranged like how far
you can go zero?

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Nothing?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
And I'm like, mom, Dad, where's the closed to servo?
Like how do I get to the where's the servo?
How am I going to get there? What happens if
my car runs out?

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Rah rah?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
And the kids start panicking in the back of the car,
And I googled it and I was like, Okay, I
think it's just over ak away. So I don't know
if I'm gonna make.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
It, because you, having never been at zero before, wouldn't
know that there is a little bit extra that you
can do.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Absolutely no idea guine that once you hit zero you
can't move the car.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
I probably got like four hundred meters.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
So I did the thing where we start going and
it was like mission impossible. Where I'm driving and the
kids are like, no, it's that way, mum. Of course
I'd go the bloody wrong way and I'm like, no,
I know, you get to waste Gay's mom go that way.
So we're driving down Kensington Road and I'm like, how
do I put it in neutral?

Speaker 4 (02:14):
When I've got an automatic car?

Speaker 3 (02:16):
You needs to do that.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
You can still put it in neutral though, hell just
hit it.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
To the end.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh okay, Well I didn't do that because I used
to do that as a teenager.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
I was so petrol.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
That was a purely money saving thing going down the freeway, to.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Roll down the freeway Niss and Pulsar nineteen eighty two
in neutral rolling down the Southern Expressway every day, that's
so funny.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
An extra fag is once a year.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I'm going down Kensington Road. There's like roundabouts. I'm like,
that's going to use extra petrol.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
Put the air con off, like, kids, put your windows down?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Is that gonna down?

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah? I had it down. I didn't realize the drag drag.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I didn't know that you've got to be the most
sleekers as sleek as possible.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Windows all the way up.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I had the kids in the back going mum,
it's like six hundred meters away. It's five hundred meters away.
It's just opposite Romeos on Kensington Road. You're gonna get there,
You're gonna get there. I'm like, what if I don't
get there, I don't have to pull over. And the
worst part was I was wearing two different pairs of socks,
animal print slides, track pants, no unders, no bra, and
a massive jumper and I looked like a bloody hobo.

(03:22):
And then I had to get out and get my petrol.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
But I made it.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
I made it to the service station.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Guys, I didn't die.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
I didn't die. I lived on the edge and I've
never felt more alive in my life.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Oh my god, you are living out the Seinfeld episode
where Kramer gets addicted to this where he goes and
tests the car and he's like, I want to.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
See how far I now.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
I just don't want to ever fill up.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I want to see how far below empty I can
get the gauge.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
It's actually quite thrilling. You should try it one day.