Distance to Empty Help

LOL. That will work just fine on a flat road, but I would hesitate to rely on it on a road going up or down.

 

It estimates based on your last tank. It adjusts as you drive.

Think about it.

Being a Hybrid, that is gasoline and electric powered vehicle, there is no way to accurately and perfectly predict how many miles to empty you might be, because your MPG's are going to be affected by so many possible factors. Outside temperature, how much charge in your battery, the actual physical reality of the environment you are driving.

The DTE can say you have 20 miles to empty. But if you drive those 20 miles, a great deal on electric power, for whatever reason, you are probably going to go farther...

If those 20 miles are uphill on a hot day? The gas engine is going to be on, and you are going to be burning gas.

I use DTE to determine when I fill up. BUT...when I get to the last flashing Pip, I watch the DTE closely. I have found that it can "say" X amount of miles left, and then those miles can either stay, or vanish very quickly and not always in perfect relationship to actual miles driven.

I have had the DTE say, I had 7-10 miles left, only to hit a stretch of freeway or accelerate strongly for a portion and have those miles vanish on the DTE gauge nearly instantaneously and NOT in any real relationship to how far I have actually driven. Conversely, if I am driving frugally and using a greater portion of battery and hybrid propulsion? I believe those miles will stay on the DTE gauge longer.

In short, on a vehicle that blends electric and gas using "synergy"....predicting exactly how many miles you might have until empty is really impossible given the variables nobody or no machine could predict.

My experience is that DTE is a conservative approximation at all times.

 

This problem is not unique to hybrids. Future terrain and conditions and traffic will vary.

 

Do we win a medal for stretching it?

I fill up base on many factors. At home, I fill up when the bar starts flashing because Costco is close to the mall where I walk in the morning. If I'm going on a trip, I top off before we leave and when we get home so I have fairly accurate data for the trip. If I'm traveling, I fill up mostly based on Gas Buddy prices along the way. We stop every 2 hours or so anyway, so if GB says local prices are the lowest for 300+ miles, I fill up. I have gone past the MTE and flashing bar, without getting antsy about it, but have yet to pump 10 gallons.

 

I so resemble that remark.

 

When in an earthquake zone, (which is most of the time) I always try to refill when half empty.

 

With my parent's '58 Beetle, when you saw just an inch or two wet, on the stick dipped into the gas tank (yup, that was it), you got in gear: refuelled.

I can't get in a lather over this, fuel gauge gets anywhere near low, I fill up. Pay no attention to what may or may not still be splashing around in there.

 

I do the same, anytime it's below 1/2, and we're going by our favourite brand. I'm motivated though, don't want anyone else doing unorthodox fill up, ie: $20 worth, or whatever, since I'm tracking mph tank by tank.

 

Reminds me that we had to fill up once in New Jersey on this last trip where you can't fill your own tank. As soon as the attendant walked away after starting the pump, I quickly changed it to the slowest setting so as not to disrupt my normal fill-up routine.

 

Some pumps pump nearly as fast in their slowest setting as in their fastest. Jersey fill-ups are annoying, but not a major problem. I just treat them the same as any other partial fills. Long-term average consumption is not significantly affected if you do the arithmetic.

 

Yes, I know. There's nothing I can do about the difference in pump speeds, etc., but I can at least try to keep things as routine as possible. I don't get anxious about individual fill-ups, I know all that counts is long term data. Still, when I want to compare some variables, like using ECO mode, it's nice to keep things as close to the same as I can.