I do that.
And I never thought my OP would lead to any divisiveness/anger/stuff!! I was just curious about the accuracy of the readout.
OK, ketchup browser must be a typo/auto-correct, but for what? 
Feel free to go back and read what I actually wrote before you respond then.
“That circumstance”? As I said, we were exhausted after a long work week, planned on filling up Saturday morning and my baby spiked a temperature (as infants do) in the middle of the night. Damn straight I felt like an irresponsible parent. And that’s why I keep my tank better than a 1/4 full. I’m an adult and make responsible decisions as best I can. That’s what everyone has been saying. Caring about not running out of gas is not unreasonable, and trivializing the impact on other people isn’t nice.
When I taught my daughter to drive, I told her I kept a $20 hidden in my glove compartment for unexpected emergencies. Years later, I was talking with her on the phone and whingeing that I was penniless because I’d forgotten my wallet. She told me to use my emergency twenty. I’d forgotten all about it!
OK, back to bickering.
Stepping gingerly past the recent unpleasantness and returning to our originally scheduled OP …
I have two cars. One is a BMW, the other a Jeep. They are of similar vintage.
In one the fuel low light comes on with 60 estimated miles to empty. I’ve driven it 58 of those 60 miles and then refilled needing a quart more than the owners manual says the tank holds. IOW, it’s pretty damn accurate and I may have had a cup of fuel left to go those last 2 miles, but that’s about it.
In the other the fuel low light comes on with about 20 estimated miles to empty. And 15 miles later the engine quits for lack of fuel with the computer saying there ought to be 5miles to go.
Guess which one is the Jeep?
Yup, car #2.
As to how often to fill up …
Around here during hurricane season (i.e. half the year) the emergency management folks want everybody to always have at least half a tank of gas in each car.
I’m under no illusion that everybody complies. But I do. I’ve seen how much fun it can be to try to buy gas during a mass evacuation.
Nah, I’m all done. I just had trouble wrapping my head around the idea that caring about not running out of gas was something worth criticizing.
You didn’t CHOOSE to do something that made an earthquake more likely. However, you did CHOOSE to do something that made an accident more likely.
I can find dozens if not hundreds of cites for fatal accidents just in the past several years caused by a car running out of gas; how many will it take to concern you? Why would you deliberately put yourself AND THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU in a situation that makes injury/death more likely? (Remember, it might be passengers, children, good Samaritans, or otherdrivers who pay the price for your decision to have a “fantastic” adventure.)
The fuel gauge in my car has been over-reading by about 1/4 tank for about a year now 
I know in most cases my car can easily go 400+ miles on a full tank, so I just fill to the brim whenever I need to, reset the trip meter and make sure I don’t go more than 380 miles or so between fillups. As luck would have it, my weekly commute is around 360 miles, so I generally end up filling up at the same time each week.
When it did work, though (I really should get it fixed, but I’ve kind of got used to it), I found the DTE was pretty much useless when full (it would claim about 550-600 miles - yeah, I wish!), but accurate enough when it was getting empty. When I first bought it the tank was (of course) empty and the DTE read 2 miles. I was in the middle of London with no idea where the nearest station was. I think it took about five miles before I found one, by which time the DTE was reading 0. That was an experience I wouldn’t want to repeat…
I never even think about stopping for gas until the light goes on, and even then I think about whether or not I need to fill it on my current trip or can it wait until my next one. I’ve run out of gas twice in my life but both times were over twenty years ago, when you just had the gauge to go by.
I don’t understand people who fill it when it drops to half a tank. Why stop and fill up twice as often as you have to?
It would cost a zillion dollars.
Mine occasionally drops to empty if I overfill the tank right up the spout, and I lose the litres per 100 kmh/mpg readings, instant and average, and distance to empty.
By making one or two sharp-as-possible turns to the right (not left), ideally as fast as possible in the car’s minimum turning radius, the fuel-gauge needle rises to full and all is well again. I learned this with my previous car, by happy accident after a week of no gas gauge when I made a fast, sharp right turn. When it worked with my present car, I considered making a thank-you sacrifice to Og.
It saves the zillion-dollar cost of draining the tank, removing it and replacing the gas-gauge float that’s probably one piece with the fuel pump because it saves the manufacturer half a cent.
In response to the thread title, Top Gear has done several economy run episodes and in not a single one of them did any of the presenters’ cars ever die when the “miles to go” meter clicked to 0. They were all able to keep going at least another 20+ miles. In one of them, they tried to make it from Basel to Blackpool (750 miles) in a VW Polo, a Jaguar XJ, and a Subaru Legacy on one tank of fuel, none of which should have been mathematically possible based on MPG and fuel tank size. They all made it, and despite Jeremy Clarkson’s Jaguar hitting “Range: 0” somewhere on the M6, he reached Blackpool and it was later determined that there was enough fuel left to do 120 further miles.
And lest you think that was based on economy-style driving that no one actually does, they did a race in Ukraine where they were trying to drive as wastefully as possible so their cars would run out of gas prior to reaching Chernobyl and even then, none of the cars died when the range hit 0. So no, I don’t believe it’s accurate.
I used to be incredibly neurotic about filling the tank when it got below 1/4, but now I usually let it go to 1/16 or when the light comes on. Once the light comes on, though, I head for a gas station immediately, even if it’s going to make me late for wherever I was going.
A parent ought to have a way to quickly get a baby to the hospital. I don’t have a baby at the moment, but if I did, I would certainly keep gas in my car and change a million other things as well.
thanks, chizzuk!
When you live in a part of the world where the next gas station is not on the next block, waiting until the light comes on can leave you stranded. I live in Kansas, and there are places here along the interstate (never mind back roads) where there are 20-30 miles between gas stations; there’s a stretch along I-70 in Utah where you can’t get gas for a hundred miles. If you run out, it’s a long wait or a long walk.
Plus, if you have gas in the tank you are prepared if there is a snowstorm, tornado, or other disaster that makes gas hard to come by. A pipeline accident or unexpected refinery shutdown, e.g., may cause supply disruptions and hence price increases just when you need to fill up; on 9/11, some of the local stations were charging $6/gallon or more, and lines were very long.
Many of them diapers. 
This is pretty much me. And I also like to be prepared for the unexpected.
Now it’s rare that I would fill up at 1/2 tank, but I rarely let it get below 1/4. That allows me to get to work/town, home and to work again, and fill up on my way home. And covers me if I forget to fill up on the way home.
I will fill up/top off at pretty much any level if I’m about to take a trip. When I hit the road, I hate stopping to fill up before getting a few miles on. That’s just my own little quirk though.
I once bought a used car, the previous owner said it got good mileage. Right! for a while. After a fill-up it would go 90 miles before the needle left the peg - but when you got to one-quarter tank you had better know where the nearest station was. I don’t know why the gauge isn’t accurate within one gallon. My father always took a new vehicle out, with a can of gas, and drove it until it stopped, recording the mileage after 0 on the gauge. I understand it isn’t recommended to run a fuel-injected engine dry.
I have a motorcycle with no gas gauge. I live and die (or walk and push) depending on the trip odometer. Around town I’ll go down pretty far. On a road trip, I’m stopping early and often.
I’ve done that walk of shame with only 2 dollars in my pocket. Never again.
On my current car, I got an extra 8-10 miles once after my distance remaining hit 0, all because I didn’t want to have to detour and was pretty sure I could make it. I’ve no intentions on ever trying that again.
On my second car, a 1977 Dodge Charger, which instead of MPG got GPM, I did once roll into a service station as my engine sputtered and died. Fortunate that the Charger had a bigger gas tank than some tanker trucks, because it needed it. Don’t know if I was ever able to fully fill that puppy up - the glory of teenage years and no money.
Who knew Cosmo Kramer had a sister…
Another thought. Are you driving like crazy with high RPMs or sedately. For once I can say without irony “your milage may vary.”