2006 Rendezvous Heat Gauge and Outside Temp

[XFenix]

While driving our 2006 Rendezvous on a long run we lost our heat gauge and outside temperature indicator. Also, the vehicle maintenance light with the vehicle and wrench showed up on the dash. Before we had left home the person at the oil change station said we needed some coolant, but made it seem like it was only down a little. Any dealer we called told us we'd need to have the vehicle scanned to determine the source of the problem and wouldn't give us any more information. As it turns out, we had forgotten to check the coolant because we got caught up in packing for our trip and it was a lot lower than the person at the oil change station implied. Fill up the coolant and, voila!, instant gauges .

Just figured I'd post this here for anyone who has this problem so that they could check this before paying top dollar for a dealer to scan the vehicle.