Miles left until refill

To me it's about 400 miles left when the tank is full.

 

You do not want to come anywhere close to running out of gas. All kinds of misery lie down that path.*

When miles to empty gets to 10 an orange gas pump lights or the display blinks, depending on which model. Get gas.

* Ran out of fuel AND battery!! | Page 3 | PriusChat

 

Do you have an owners manual ?
The answer to that and many OTHER questions is in there.

A rough estimate of the miles remaining is available on one of the information screens available for display
on the dashboard. Push DISP a few times and study each screen. I think the one that is all text displays the DTE (distance to empty or miles remaining) in addition to the outside temp.

I assume it didn't change from '12 to '13.

And to repeat: That is only an estimate. It is possible to actually run out before that count gets to zero........but not likely based on reports from others on here.

 

I have owned several cars with these estimates and they always under estimate, not over estimate. They don't count for the last gallon or so of gas. The Prius C will get to about 3 miles remaining and then the counter slows way down. It will say 1 mile remaining for like 10 miles on the highway. The real indication is when the last bar on the fuel gauge starts blinking at you, which will undoubtably be after your miles remaining display says 1. At that point you better start looking for a gas station.
My Elantra quit estimating when it got to 30 miles remaining. I believe my Quest does something similar.
On my first two fill ups in my Prius C, the miles remaining display said 30 but there were still to bars on the fuel gauge. When I filled up, it took like 7.3 gallons for so. The Prius C has over a 9 gallon tank so it obviously under estimates the miles remaining.

 

In a test a few weeks ago, I found that my new Forester's range estimate does count the whole tank, including that last gallon.

I was prepared to push it to a complete fuel starvation, but wimped out at the last station before a 70+ mile section of no service, too long for my spare gas can. The engine sputtered to a stop seconds after pulling up to the pump. The 15.9 gallon tank took 15.958 gallons to the first click, surprisingly close.

Despite leaving no reserve, the car still displayed plenty of warning. Two yellow low fuel warning indicators lit up about 75 miles earlier. The last fuel gauge pip disappeared about 50 miles earlier. Like your Elantra and Quest, the distance remaining display blanked out with 30 miles remaining. Because its estimate is always rounded to 10 mile increments, and I didn't have it up continuously, its estimated Zero crossing point was not known precisely, but appeared to be within a very few miles of where the fuel actually did run out.

When the tank is full, I have reason to suspect the displayed range estimate is about 10% lower than the actual range. But I haven't yet had opportunity to better characterize this suspicion, and may never get around to it.

I don't know how many other car models behave more similar to my Forester than to the Prius family. But these differing display behaviors could contribute to the DTE=0 apprehension of some new Prius drivers.

 

That's called the range. To see it hit DISP until you get an info page like this one.




Your cruising range is how far you can go on the gas you have if you cruise at a steady pace. DO NOT LET IT GET TOO LOW!! With regular cars, if you run out of gas it's really bad for the car, well for the Prius C if you run out of gas it's extremely bad, horrible. Never do it.

But yeah, that shows you how much you have left.

 

my prius c level 2 options, will beep and the last section of fuel gauge will blink, at that point the car is telling you to get gas. don't panic you still should have plenty of gas to get to a station. my last tank beep and started blinking at 538.3 miles I drove to 600.5 I was working the mpg like crazy because I wanted to make it in the 600 mile club . at fill up the car took 8.85 gal to first click the same way I always fill the car. I did put a gas can with a gal of gas in the back for the last 50 miles just in case. I usually drive until the beep then get gas within about 20 miles and usually fill with less than 8.5 gal I think the capacity is 9.5 gal

 

Get a ScanGauge. In the fillup dialog it gives an estimate of the gallons used since the last fillup. I've found it to be fairly accurate (+- .1 to .2 gals).

Last time I hit one fuel bar and started blinking the ScanGauge indicated 8.3 gallons used and fill-up was right on the estimate.

 

While the MTE numbers may be entertaining, I wouldn't rely on if for planning purposes.

I picked up a co-worker once, he was stranded on the side of the road. I asked him what was wrong as he got in, and he said he was out of gas. I told him they make a meter for that. He wailed, "But the car said there was over 40 miles left!!

 

Its under display button on your steering wheel, under driving info. What model is your C?