I do not as a rule wait until the last minute to fill up, but I just managed to run out of gas. I put 12.896 gallons of gas into my 2013 Prius Five after running out. Last I checked these things had an 11.9 gallon capacity, at least in the book. Downside of running out was I had to spend $17 for a two-gallon plastic gas can (no one seems to keep loaner cans anymore) and the 1.75 gallons i poured into the car plus the 11.146 I put in at a whopping $1.099 a gallon with a grocery store discount, added up to more than the car is said to hold. I will definitely pay more attention to the flashing fuel light. The light never turned off to indicate I was on fumes, though I should have known it. Anyway, it appears the car will take about a gallon more than what is advertised.
When you run out, you then have no fuel in the fuel lines or over the pump. So yes it will take more than advertised. When the car says it is hungry, fill it up. The flashing pip was your warning that you are running on anything between 2 gallons and fumes
OK Eliot I did not see you on the side of the road, so you could have kept it a secret. Seems to me this is the second report in the last 2 weeks of >12 gal to refill.
Did the blinking bottom pip of the fuel gauge never actually go into blinking mode? Or were you expecting an additional warning light? There isn't another, that blinking pip is the final warning.
You also get a beep at the moment the last pip starts blinking. You get a visual and an audio low fuel indicator.
i never ran out of gas and never managed to pump more than 10 gals in mine, but the low gas level warning is too subtle IMHO. the lone quiet beep can be missed if it happens on start as it could be masked by seat belt or reverse buzzer. The orange low gas lamp in my other toyotas is much better.
There have been people claiming that the blinking PIP will turn off alltoghether (or turn amber or do something else) to indicate that the tank is really, really, REALLY empty. No one has ever seen that happen and this is confirmation that it does not happen.
Bob Wilson (Post #6 above, follow link to his test report) has intentionally run his cars out of fuel many times, for fun and sport, but mostly for engineering curiosity and testing. And he reports no additional warning until the Power Steering light comes on, moments after the fuel tank really is empty. When Bob reports no other warning, then I am very highly confident that no such warning exists.
I eventually found that IF you have the power flow display on, the arrows will go away when the car is finally out of gas. This gives enough warning to use the traction battery to reach a safe place. When the "PS" light comes on, too late. Bob Wilson
I drive at least 20 miles past the "low fuel" warning every tank, and depending on routing and my preference for fat-filled sweet or salty treats, I sometimes drive as much as 50 miles past the "low fuel" warning. At 93,000 miles (roughly 190 fill ups) I don't think I've put more than 10 gallons in my tank more than a dozen times and I've never put 11. #whenlowfuelisnt
I've run out of fuel twice now in the PiP, and have never pumped the rated fuel capacity into the tank. The car seems to shut off about 0.4 gallons short of the rated capacity. The last time I ran it out of gas, it was very out of gas. After coasting to a stop, I would start the car again and build up speed until it cut out again, coasting as far as I could. Then I would repeat about 4 times until it didn't want to go anymore. I came up 3/4 of a mile short of the gas station and had to buy one of those overpriced fuel cans. Seems strange that the standard Prius can take a gallon more than the rated capacity, while the PiP comes up 0.4 gallons short.
