Actual Fuel Capacity?

I just picked up my 2012 C III, and I am digging it.

I haven't had a chance to drain my tank yet, but I was wondering how much fuel you can actually use...

I had a 2007 Gen II, and although it was a 12 gallon tank, I ran out of fuel 2x with it- once when I had consumed 10.5 and once just below 11.

I have since read about the issues with the bladder tank, and since I libe in San Francisco, shrinkage isn't a problem- I just assumed that it the system was designed to be very conservative about how much fuel was in the tank. But it looks like that may not have been the case.

My ONLY major reservation with the C is the small tank (Why not have a 14 gallon tank and drive 700 miles between fill-ups?!!).

If the car acts like my last one, I will need to fill up after 8 gallons or risk a shutdown (and in SF on the hills, EV doesn't get you far).

So, has anyone run their tank down yet?

And what would it take to replace it with a std Prius tank?

Thanks!

 

Internet Forums. Ask a reasonable question, get berated by a jackass.

Going back to my post, I told you that my 2007 Prius manual claimed 12 gallons in that thing you refer to as a manual. It ran out around 10.5, supposedly with 1 1/2 gallons in the tank and a range of 75 miles to go. That wasn't fun.

I am concerned that I will have the same issue with the new car, and I will not be able to know the TRUE capacity until I actually run out, something I don't want to do.

If the new car has the same issue as the old one, I will run out of gas after 8 gallons, which means that I will need to stop for gas around 7. This takes the trip capacity down from around 400-450 miles to 300-350, which is one-two days sooner with my commute.

Also, what good is it for you to speculate as to whether it's better for me to increase the tank capacity? Do you have any idea what my motivation was for buying this car?

• I will be driving 75-100 miles a day.
• The closest station conveniently on my commute is 10 miles away.
• Even on weekends, I don't typically drive past a gas station.
• Most of the stations near my house and at the "home end" of my commute are significantly more expensive.

Which means that I either have one expensive convenient place to fill my tank or I have to take a 15 minute detour to get reasonably priced gas. So the only significant choice I made when considering this version versus the std Prius was the tank capacity VS ease of parking. We went with ease of parking.

But that doesn't mean I am not sincerely concerned about the tank capacity, and would like to know if anyone else has experienced this problem before I start commuting today. IT also doesn't prevent me from waxing philosophical about why Toyota doesn't realize that many of us would like to see a 600+ mile range on these cars, even at the expense of 1 mpg.

As for swapping in a new tank- did you see that little "wink" emoticon? That means I am not serious about it. Welcome to the internets.

 

Yes, I suppose I could have used better language to ask my question. But I still think my meaning was clear from the rest of the post.

This is not true. Toyota put a 12G bladder tank in the 2007 prius. The capacity of this tank ranged from 9-11.5 gallons depending on the climate in which you filled it. My car would beep at me around 9.5 gallons, and run out at 10.5; which is why I was so perplexed to run out of fuel when I thought I had an additional 75 miles of range (When this happened, I assumed that there was something wrong or just ultra-conservative about the warning beep. I was wrong.)

Toyota can put whatever they want in the car to hold the fuel, but if the spec says 12G and the car runs out of gas at 10.5G, then their "claim" of a tank with 12G is false.

 

Thank you, I had checked into this before buying it. But I was still wary and did not see anyone specifically mention that there was no problem on the Gen III prius. (Back in 2008 I searched for help on this, and came up short).

I really like this little guy, but I drive a lot, and would rather keep my gas stops to a minimum.

On the other hand, I am able to park this thing almost anywhere in the city, so I am guessing I will still come out ahead.

 

I thought about a Golf TDi. $5000+ more and the horror stories of several friends who had to deal with the cost of service on VWs (not saying they all have problems, just saying they are expensive to fix and maintain. The windshield on a Golf is $500 bucks from a third party!)

But thank you for the info. It makes sense, and the Std Prius was appealing. I am unique in that I commute OUT of the city most days.

 

I was never able to get much over 52 on the freeway in my old one (I know that there are people who can drive them up to 60mpg, but I never got close, even when I tried). My commute (I work for myself, so it's not always daily, but can be) runs 40-100 miles round trip. 90% of that is on a freeway, so I won't be doing much better than 50mpg on that (my 2007 got 48-50, today I got 49 after resetting the trip meter once I was up to speed; I will probably be able to improve that a bit after getting back into better Prius driving habits, but not by much- and this one is not as good on the freeway as the std model).

Traffic MPG will be better, when and if I hit some.

But ALL my city driving is on hills in San Francisco. The old Prius was 33-36 on these, and this one looks a little better, as it's 500lbs lighter, running about 38-40 as I run for groceries and drop the kids off. (My Rav4 is 17-18 in this city, 25-27 on the freeway, so i am not complaining- I was filling that thing up every 220-250 miles).

I expect a grand total around 45mpg, so maybe I will hit 400 miles a tank when I have a lot of freeway driving.