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Be thankful that you just got in your car and it was dead. I learned the hard way that on today's modern cars, the battery can go dead WHILE DRIVING and completely instantaneously shut down the car.
My daughter was driving our 2012 Jaguar XF when it happened (yes, joke about British cars, but I've learned now that it is widespread). Apparently today's auto electrics are so hypersensitive to consistent power, that the change from the battery dying can trigger things to go haywire.
I know. Don't believe me. I argued with the Jaguar dealer when they told me it was a dead battery. What kind of fool did they take me for?! I know full well that when a car is driving, it is on the alternator and the battery is just along for the ride, getting charged. Well, I was ultimately proved wrong and convinced.
The worst thing is that it happened to my daughter in So Cal on the 101 freeway, as the sun was going down. She was going at 65 mph (yeah, now I know you don't believe me - 65 on the 101, yeah sure). Then the dash lights flashed like crazy and the car just shut down. No way to get off the freeway. Emergency flashers wouldn't even work. When the tow truck arrived, they couldn't even get it out of Drive.
FWIW, my Porsche mechanic told me that Porsches have the same problem. He said that Porsche designed the system to try to shut down non-essential systems when it happens so that there is not total shut down. But he said it doesn't always work.
Yikes!
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