I have had my Prius C for two months now, and my driving routine is the same week after week. I am puzzled with planning my trips to the gas station though, because the gas meter (the 10 bars) doesn't seem to be decreasing in a linear proportion based on the mileage used. I noticed that when I have 9-10 bars, a trip to my work uses less than one bar. At the same time, when I am down to only 3-4 bars, the same trip at the same speed at the same time of day to the same location regularly uses 2 bars, sometimes 3. Is there a non-linear (logarithmic??) relationship? I am trying to understand how to read those bars, and so far I have not figured it out. Any advice?
its the same with a lot of cars i've driven. the first half always last longer than the last half. *shrug*
The gauge is not linear, not zeroed at the bottom of the tank, not 'F' at the top of the tank, and noisy. I.e. not materially any different than the analog gauges on my past cars. (Actually, this gauge is noticeably better behaved than the others were, though still far short of my desires.)
Forget the fuel gage. I don't drive the C-type...but if it's anything like the adult sized Prius, the gas gauge is not only non-linear but there's a very big difference between their idea of DTE (distance to empty) and the real-world definition. When DTE=0 in the Prius world, you still have almost 100 miles until you suck your tank dry out here in the real world. The gauge will tell you that there's fuel in the tank....and it works fairly well at doing that. As far as 'planning your fuel stops' is concerned...that should be fairly easy as well. The fuel gauge may be pretty wonky but the odometers are fully functional. Use them. After you've run a few dozen tanks through your car, then you'll be able to correlate miles driven to fuel state. I find that I usually don't even look at the fuel gauge until the Dizzy-Whiz MDF beeps at me telling me that (it thinks) I'm down to my last 20 miles. Usually I drive at least 50 miles after that...or until I get close to a gas station with fresh coffee. I've probably loaded fuel well over 80 times in 42,000 miles and I have yet to be able to squeeze more than 10.5 gallons into an 11.9 gallon tank. TIFWIW...
