When is tank really empty?

Like others above have stated:

• In-city urban driving = fillup @ one pip.
• Long-distance driving = fillup @ 'flashing' pip.

 

Why do people feel they have to fill up a Prius at half tank?
That's another 250-300 miles you could have gone on one tank.
At one blip I can usually go another 60 miles easy and I have never used more than 10 gallons.
If the tank is 11.9 and you only fill up 9.25 or so that's 2.7 gallons left, that almost 1/5 of a tank left.

 

The damage possible when running out of gas is wildly disproportionate to the time saved filling up.

Especially if the driver foolishly tries to travel further on battery power.


In a Gen 2, I advocated 3 pips if your MIL was in the car, 2 pips if your spouse was in the car, one pip if there would be NO witnesses.

I own a v now and I routinely drive it to 0 miles to empty.

 

I fill up when blip1 starts blinking and I've only had to put more than 10 gallons into the tank a handful of times in the 80k+ miles I've had it. My average fillup is between 8.75 and 9.25 gallons.

I fill up at the same approximate spot because it makes for better tank MPG calculation averaged out over time. it is conducive to my area and travel habits to do this. I am never more than 10 or 15 miles from a 24hr gas station. I have never felt like I was "pushing my luck" because it's fairly easy to time fillups with my regular commute and travel.

I don't even bother with the Miles To Empty display, it's just a formula and more often inaccurate than accurate because it's not doing constant recalculations in real time in relation to speed, terrain, etc. (afaik)

There have been plenty of times where I've filled up sooner, partial fillups, etc. But by and large, I can easily wait until hat blinker starts and do a full fillup every 7-10 days depending on our schedules, and the weather which greatly effects our overall MPG.

In the rare times when I've been traveling out of the area then yes, obviously I make sure my tank is full at reasonable intervals.

 

On my commute home from work couple weeks ago, I saw a silver 3rd gen Prius getting gas from a 2-gallons container from a service/towing person on the side of a freeway exit. As a fellow Prius driver passing by, I didn't quite know what to think. The driver was probably in her late 30's so I wouldn't think she tried to be in the 700/800 tank club. How someone missed a blinking light for +/-100 miles is beyond me

 

Her cell phone obstructed her view of the dash.

 

But wait!
You neglect the entertainment value of driving your spouse to distraction by driving with the last pip flashing for an hour or more!
Just did a 600-mile tank with DW that ended yesterday in the rain-soaked mountains of Pennsylvania, and she was concerned about running out of gas on one of those lonely stretches of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I resisted the urge to stop for gas, and she resisted the urge to strangle me! It brought some entertainment value into a trip of otherwise unrelieved interstate tedium.
I have not tried driving to or beyond the "0 miles to empty" mark, but that might work too.

 

HUMOR:

Q: When is tank really empty?
A: When you nolonger hear the 'Fat Lady' singing (sloshing) in the tank!

 

I usually fill up at 2 pips, but I was coming up from the shore and I knew there was a gas station that I can hit off the exit. Well, the last pip was flashing and dinging, but I wasn't worried, so I got off the exit and headed towards the station, the only problem was that it was closed. There was another station about six miles down the road and the readout said I had about seven more to go. When I filled up, the car took almost 8 1/2 gallons, so that gave my PiP nearly 2 gallons to go.

Right now, I have 548 miles on the trip odometer and the tank is at the halfway mark. Love the PiP, hate the Drake.

 

Just to be pedantic, though it might be important for real juice squeezers, the capacity is actually metric, 45 litres. That comes out at 11.89 to 2 decimals (told you I was being pedantic...).

I've got down to DTE 0 a couple of times to get a 1000 mile tank from my PiP (where the tank is 10.6 US g / 40 litres), I had 2.5 litres, so about 2/3 US g left, on the basis of refilling to 40. These days I fill up at the final pip.