How far do you go when the fuel gauge blinks?

My 2¢ worth...from 3/29/12 when we took delivery to 3/31/13 we drove 19,360 miles. On average at each fill up we had 120 more miles left in the tank based on actual mileage (not dash indicator). I think you can safely go an additional 50 to 75 miles after the beep. Now don't ask my wife, though.

 

It's always nice to have an auxiliary fuel gauge in the passenger seat. It's voice activated, too !

 

And it has a memory like you would not believe! It will be able to tell you every time you ran out of gas, forever!

 

Not to mention, in addition, it's a hell of a GPS!

 

Sometimes it's nice. Sometimes they start making a very irritating noise. I've replaced mine three times already!

 

Lol

 

Mine was never had the GPS programming applied. I get the "Turn left rite here" message.

 

I almost never look at the "Miles To Empty" display, I always assumed it was just some guess-y algorithm. When I get to 1 blip, I start thinking about where on my travels it's convenient to get gas (best price, etc.). If I get blinky, I know I have to get gas on the way home.

 

Mines blinks with around 2.5 gallons left. Can't wait to try and get 500 miles out of 1 tank. With my average mpg, it will be very close! aahh.. the challenges we set for ourselves in life..

Reading other posts, looks like the sensor is working consistently. That's somewhat crucial as I will use that as reference of when I have 2 to 2.5 gallons left.

 

Hmm....

Now that I own a Prius I think I'd say that part of the problem with trying to answer the question of how far can you go when "The last pip" starts blinking and or you reach 0 on you miles to empty is that we are all driving Hybrids?

It seems to me that there are a lot more variables in play by the very nature of the beast. In other words, on any other vehicle I've ever owned, when the gauge got low, or I got the warning, how far I could go remained pretty constant. Some variables for road conditions or highway vs. City driving, but basically what I had left in the tank translated pretty consistently into a pretty consistent distance left to drive.

Seems to me like Prius or Hybrid thinking is a bit different. I've driven down to 1 blinking pip, and around 30 + or - miles to empty showing. When I filled it was less than 10 gallons of gas. Which would tell me I had near 2 gallons left, despite the beep and the blinking pip.

But the problem with Prius is that 2 gallons remaining doesn't necessarily consistently translate into an exact distance you could possibly continue to drive. Being a hybrid so much depends on the engine, warm or cold, the state of battery charge...high or low, and the remaining "type" of driving you have to do. If all these variables are on the plus side, and I'm driving on one consistent trip...I could have 100+ more miles to go. But if I'm talking about a series of short trips, in extreme conditions, with repeated of continual warm up cycles then those exact same 2 gallons of remaining gasoline will translate into far fewer miles remaining possible. Being a hybrid the extreme difference in what you "could" get with a lessening amount of gasoline is so much different than the same situation in a normal ICE vehicle.

I may be wrong, because I've actually only filled up once (FANTASTIC). But last time I drove until the beep and one pip started flashing. Then without panic, I pretty aggressively looked to fill up. As in, I should now fill up at my soonest possible convenience, but I don't necessarily have to sweat bullets or look for a shoulder to pull of onto.

I may continue to do this, at least on this tank...then I think I might become more conservative. Why not fill up with two pips remaining?

Sure it's fun to try to see how much you can squeeze out of one tank. But it's also fun to "fill up" with only 8 gallons of gas, and get 350-400 more miles of range.

To fill my Honda Fit once the low gas warning light came on, was about 10 gallons of gas, the difference being, I was lucky to show a range driven on that tank of 270 miles.

 

Well if you're pushing the limits, in this case miles per tank, know what your limits are. That's both MPG and fuel left. If you don't know, you really shouldn't be trying. You should also know where the gas stations are..

 

Some of the responses crack me up because they are so true. I never thought I would care about this until I got the Prius. I used to be one of those people that could never let the miles to empty get in the single digits. My Dad seems to be completely opposite in that every hybrid he has had (nearly every single one anyway since he hasn't run out of gas with the C-Max...but give it time ) has been driven until only the battery will work to see how many gallons it really holds. He tried to talk me into doing that on a road trip with my car and I couldn't do it. But, one day, it all clicked that I typically have over two gallons left even when at the 0 miles to empty message. So, I push the limits a little now and still haven't gotten close to having an actual empty tank. Now, I let fuel prices dictate when I fill up. I drive a lot on most weekends traveling to races, so I get a good idea where the cheap fuel spots are. If my car fuel indicator beeps and I know that I am not that far from one of those locations, you can bet I am going to keep driving. The other weekend, the gas stations I passed when the indicator went off were at the $3.35 mark, but I knew that there was a station with $3.09 a gallon. I probably would have run out of fuel to save that money if I had to!

 

Simple, when you hear the beep, you speed up, so you can get gas before it goes entirely empty. Works well for me. Even if a cop stops you, you can easily explain it.

Wait, I thought the thread was on how fast?

 

Why in the world would I continue to drive anywhere once the car warned me I was about out of gas? I am not a fool.

 

My first entry.......... I posted a question to the 'Experts' about making all the doors unlocked when the car is turned off. It is annoying to try to open the other doors or transom to find them locked. I don't want to have to reach in to hit the 'unlock' button. I can't find and don't know where to see the answer. Spose I'll get used to it.

Not to hijack the thread, I had wanted to find out about warnings for remaining fuel; thank you for answering this in the train of discussions!

Seems like a wonderful resource peopled by Good Types!

Thank you,

RM

 

Just reset one of your trip meters and use the MPG and miles to figure out how much remains in the tank. When I get down to one gallon left, I get a little more serious about finding gas at a cheap station. At half a gallon, I'm not so particular about the price per gallon.

Bob Wilson

 

Page 3 of this PDF http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM47668U/pdf/sec_06-02.pdf has a dealer customizable setting:

that defaults to off, you could have the dealer set this to on.

(It seems to imply that if you use the P button to put it in Park, that also unlocks all the doors)