How much gas are you able to pump into Gen3 when empty?

Wait, what? Have I really never noticed this feature? Where is it? I always look at how many miles I've driven and I know how I usually get about 350 miles on 7 gallons.

 

On a Gen 3, press the trip button: Trip A > Trip B > Distance to empty > odometer > blank. Or, on 2012+ the consumption screen on the radio displays DTE.

Since you have a 2008 Gen 2, I don't know if yours displays DTE or where to find it if it does. Try the tripmeter?

 

Gen2 doesn't have this feature.

 

I drive until DTE=0....and then I start thinking about a gas station in the next 50 miles or so.
I do this nearly every tank and I usually pump right at 10 gallons.

My record is probably close to 11.5 gallons....which meant that I still had 20-ish miles left, since the tank spec is 11.8 or 11.9

YMMV

 

Damn, you all like drive on the edge of running out of gas. I start looking for gas station at like 2-3 bars left which usually fills up around 7-8 gallons.

 

I don't apply a lot of analysis to the minutia of definition of what or how running out of gasoline while operating a vehicle either Prius and Hybrid or regular ICE might be, either harmless of harmful.

I default to the Phil Hartman as Frankenstein response.

Is running out of gas bad?

Aaaaargh No Gas Bad!

 

No...not really.
I don't think anybody really likes running out of gas.
In fact I've only done so one time in one of my personal vehicles and that was decades ago.
I ran out in a borrowed pickup with a broken gas gauge but I figure that sorta doesn't count.

In my work car.....day in and day out, I pretty much drive in the same 6 counties all the time and I know where the gas stations are and when they're open and when they're not.
Part of "not running out of gas" is knowing how much bunkerage your car has (11.9 gallons in my case) and pretty much how far you can go....allowing for a tactical reserve.

I've got about 150,000 miles in G3s...more or less.
They always take 10 gallons to fill after DTE=0 plus another 50 miles or so.
That gives me over one and a half gallons of reserve fuel.
It would take an exceedingly stupid....or a VERY inattentive person to run one of these cars out of fuel and between you and me, hauling around a bunch of extra fuel and/or stopping to fill a car when it's only half empty just doesn't seem to be very "efficient", but that's me being me.
That's how I "do it" at work.

On MY time and in MY car (not a G3) it's a little different....
I also know very nearly to the MILE how far my two personal vehicles will go on a full bag of gas, but unless I'm on a road trip I usually keep THEM more or less topped off simply because I only have a three mile drive to work and I'm at a SAM's or Walmart getting other stuff at least weekly and swing by the pumps to top off then.
I also make sure that my CFO's car is topped off, pretty much for the same reasons.

I also have both tactical (lawnmower gas and 1-2 Jerry cans) and Strat fuel reserve (more Jerry cans stashed in the county) because that's just how I roll with food, water, etc, and buying extra of all of that stuff whenever there's a storm in the Atlantic is too big a PITA.

As TEM pointed out above?
If you're not having to call for tow trucks all the time, then you're not really doing it "wrong" for you.

YMMV...

 

My current DTE is 25mi, the commute back is 50 mi tonight. I may be hitch hiking.

 

Only if your car breaks down.

Oh....and if you look anything like your profile pic?
Wear sturdy hiking shoes.

 

Love it when non gen 3 comes in here and confuse themselves

 

You’re an optimist! I’ve driven up to 65 mi after DTE passed 0 before. And I only drive like the person in the avatar

 

On trip segments long enough to need or suggest refills, even if intentionally running down to the last bar or warning, I'm making an approximate refill plan from very the start, either the beginning of the trip, or as soon as the previous refill is finished.

This plan is frequently adjusted based on actual weather and MPG, and on the appearance of convenient cost effective refueling opportunities to be harvested along the way. But because of the frequent long distances between non-tourist-trap pricing along my typical routes in this Western geography, or even any fuel at all, such planning never ever waits until the last several bars. Leave that practice to people in places where fuel stations are never more than 50 miles apart.

Short trips are another matter. When I won't be needing fuel today or tomorrow, then any fuel planning generally gets ignored.

 

It's really hard to get comfortable with driving for 50 miles when the car is telling you ZERO and its cold and dark outside, but everyone's experience is making me feel like "DTE Zero Plus Fifty" is a safe thing (on a flat highway, all things being equal).

At least on the highway I have to travel, there can be a 50 cent discount per gallon between an average gas station at an exit and making it to one of the truck stops. That's $5 per fill-up, which is going to be a bigger savings than any hypermiling techniques you could employ. I'm trying to grow a pair and deal with the car saying Zero for 45 minutes.

 

Didn't have to hitch hike this one out. 63 mpg on the way to fill up, 10 gallons on 1st click. Price of gas could be better

 

Idk, if you have 50 miles between gas stations that's probably necessary. I don't 5 miles have to go to get to a gas station. Usually it's like "oh the last bar started blinking yesterday, let's get some gas".

 

I very commonly drive a section of a minor highway that has 70 miles between fuel stations, though there are several possible detours off-route to shorten the distance to fuel, if one knows where to look. I traveled that section just two days ago.

Ten days ago, I was again on a 150 km segment with no fuel available, but with no possible detours. And it isn't just a minor road, it is the Trans-Canada Highway, the primary road across the continent outside the U.S. And I've posted warning pictures of numerous other highway sections with even longer sections without fuel service in both the U.S. and Canada. My longest such section is 163 miles, but someone else has pointed to an even longer fuel-less segment.

Europe and the Eastern half of the U.S. probably have nothing comparable, but the West has many of these. So advance fuel planning here can be important, especially for people who enjoy traveling away from our Interstate Highway System.

 

Gas stations are at the end points of my commute, 51 miles away because of country side as seen on post above so no chance of gassing up in between.