If you have a car that displays an available driving range, based on your gas gage and your estimated miles per gallon, how much are you willing to trust it?
I have a new car, the first one I’ve had with such a display, and have been trying to learn when I really need to buy gas. So far I keep getting nervous while it still says I have 50 or 60 miles available, because a light comes on and I start obsessing about what a pain it would be to run out of gas. Especially because I’ve heard running out of gas on a modern car requires mechanical work to fix, not just putting more gas in the tank.
It appears, though, that this indicator is quite accurate, based on how much gas the tank takes when I fill it, and what the tank’s total capacity is supposed to be. I think if I ran it down to 20 or maybe even 10 miles, I’d probably reliably not run out of gas.
A friend just told me he keeps going until the display stops displaying at 20, and maybe then some. He’s never run out.
Many opine that it’s foolish to go below a quarter tank or so. But the time it takes to buy gasoline represents a significant portion of the total cost of operating a car. My previous car served me for 150,000 miles and I always filled up by 300 miles on the trip odometer, for at least 500 visits to gas stations. That work had to cost me two or three thousand dollars, based on what I make. So, it’s not trivial.
What do you do?
Have you ever run out while your car was still claiming you had range available?
Mine is good for at least 50 miles when it reads empty. I usually fill it up before that, but I don’t get alarmed if it hits zero. It’s a 2014 Mazda 3 and has a 13.2 gallon fuel tank. The most I’ve ever refilled it with was about 11.5 gallons after driving it for a while past empty. It gets 32 miles per gallon on average. Usually, at empty. It’s more like 10.5-10.7 gallons to fill. It’s an extremely conservative fuel gauge. My last Mazda read empty maybe two gallons short of capacity.
So, no, with this particular car, I have absolutely no worry about running out before the range indicator gets to zero.
Plenty of gas now in my car when it’s on E. Bunch more miles to drive before the light even comes on. Back at the dawn of time when I got my first car I ran dry a couple of times, just wasn’t paying attention. Luckily post gas crisis I could afford enough to get home with the change in my pocket.
My range / distance remaining calculator has proven quite reliable. But even before I had a car with one, I’d gotten pretty good with determining range from the guages. I generally get down to 20 miles remaining range before refuelling in areas I know. When in a strange area, I always stay over 1/4.
Anything added up over a huge amount of time comes out to a large number, that’s not a good way to gain intuition into the true cost of something.
On reasonable assumptions on the value of time etc., filling up at a quarter full (vs empty) raises the cost of fuel between 5c and 10c per gallon. I wouldn’t call that a significant portion of the total cost of operation.
I don’t bother with the “Miles to Empty” display - I prefer to monitor my MPG. For my usual commuting, I’ll fill when I’m between a quarter and a half a tank, just because. When we’re on the road, I like to find a station when we’re down to about an eighth of a tank.
Someone I was talking to (can’t recall who) always fills at half because “It’s too expensive if you wait till it’s closer to empty.” Um, OK, maybe it costs twice as much, but you go twice as far between filling. I suppose we all play our little mind games when it comes to spending money.
Surprisingly accurate. When the car was new I purposely ran it to sputtering, while having a jerry can of gas with me, to see how close it was. I had 2 km left on the dial before it started to sputter on the turns and when it hit zero I came to a stop within a km. 2007 Subaru, FWIW.
My Nissan is pretty accurate once you know about its built-in cushion. When it hits zero you still have about 25 miles worth of gas in the tank. More if you are on the freeway.
I was raised in the Midwest where we were taught never to let a tank get below half in winter. I now live in earthquake country where one should never get below half at any time.
I don’t always do. When it get to a quarter, I fill it. I still follow the half tank rule. Allowing your tank run almost to empty can introduce crap that may be in the bottom of the tank, clogging the line or damaging the engine. We recently purchased a new car and the manufacturer’s guide says never run the tank dry. If you do that, it must be towed to the dealer. Just putting a gallon in to get to a station to fill the tank won’t work because it’s highly probable the engine may be damaged.
I usually fill up my vehicles at a 1/4 tank. I don’t apply that rule to my Ranger. It has a small tank and only gets 16mpg so I feel like it has to be filled far to often. I’ve yet to run out of gas. I’ll run it about 40 miles after the E light comes on.
I have a Subaru that has 12 little boxes in a row instead of a dial. I always wait until only the last box is lit before filling up. My husband, on the other hand, fills up his car at anywhere between 1/4 to 1/2 tank. I don’t know why in either case.
2013 Honda Civic. I normally run it down to 60-100 miles on the range thingy, which is somewhat longer than my round-trip commute. I prefer to fuel up in my own neighborhood, where I know the stations and prices.
I timed how long it took to buy gasoline on my way home from work today. I bought 14 gallons, and my time added $6.74 to the cost, so 48.2 cents per gallon.
My range indicator said I had 80 miles range left, and I had driven 388 miles since last filling. If I could reliably refill when I had only 10 miles range left, that would knock about 15% off that cost (I’m simplifying, supposing I could buy 15.6 gallons in the same time I bought 14).
My Kia’s range indicator stops telling me anything at 30 miles; instead of going to 29 it goes to ----. (My assumption is that that’s when the float hits the bottom of the tank, but maybe they just picked 30 because they like the number.) When I see that, I start planning to fill up when it’s next convenient, because they just robbed me of the assurance that I can eke even one more mile out of it.
My commute’s like one mile (well, two right now thanks to some @#$% construction) and I always seem to be near a gas station, so I don’t worry too much about it getting low until it stops telling me how low it actually is.
Probably depends on the car. One of my co workers complained that she ran out when it said at least 20 miles left, but here in my Prius I regularly go below 10 estimated miles left and have yet, in my life, run of out of gas in a car I controlled. Plus I know that if the Prius runs out when the battery is full I can get another mile or so running on electric.
:dubious:
What kind of vehicle is this? Just so I know to not buy one.
I have a diesel engined Volvo which does warn against running dry, but the fuel system in a diesel is different than with a petrol engine and may require assistance to prime it again.
A couple of weeks ago, I came home from the beach (about 120km) in a VW Golf. When I left the beach, the distance to empty said 170km. Going up over the Coromandel ranges, it got down to 110km, but then rose again on the downhill section. Across the Hauraki Plains it was reading about 120km, dropping to 70km as I got into some small hills about 50km from home. As I pulled into the petrol station near home, it was reading about 30km. I filled the 55 litre tank, getting about 49 litres in. So there were about 6 litres left. At open road cruising that’s about 100km, around town maybe 60km. I know how far that car would travel compared to the indicator. Unfortunately, I just traded it for the Volvo and I don’t want it to run out. (See above about diesel engines)