......option on the Prius to where you can show or display the range in miles, like an approximate amount before running on E? I noted in many other vehicles that you can display that information to know how far you can possibly go before you have to refill. I would be kinda surprised that the Prius would not have this function. Kinda like a range of miles where it shows an estimate of miles after a fill up and goes down as you drive. I know some SUV models had that feature.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hopeful Future Prius Owner @ Oct 11 2006, 11:23 PM) [snapback]331543[/snapback]</div> Not that I've seen on an '05 or '06. The 'consumption' screen will show you how far you've gone and your mileage since the last fill up if you don't reset it, so I normally go by that.
It's great that they didn't put that or else many of us would PUSH our cars to the limits (and a few of those many will end up with dead batteries).
Yeah, the problem with the Prius (over other cars) is the wide variability in the mileage. Imagine getting home with it saying you have 10 miles left (based on your average mileage of 50MPG). In the morning when the car is warming up and you're only getting 25 MPG, your range is greatly reduced... however the previous evening the car didn't know that, and you may be in for a bit of surprise when the car runs out of gas. More traditional cars gennerally don't vary as much. for example, a truck, which may have such an indicator, May be limited in the 8-13 MPG range, so saying there's 10 miles left will be a lot more accurate than it would be for the prius.
Has something to do, too, with the design of the tank and the bladder and how the car never really knows exactly how much fuel is in there in the first place...doesn't it...?
John1701a suggests doing the math using your current average mpg and assuming a 9 gallon total capacity. This will give you an idea how much gas you have left. The caveat, of course, as Eagle points out above, is that conditions cause large swings in mpg. So knowing how much gas you have left is not the same as knowing how many miles you can drive. Are you headed up into the mountains? Are you coming down out of the mountains? Is it 40 below zero or 80 above? Etc. I just fill up whenever the last pip blinks, or sooner if convenient.
It would be a nice feature!Maybe then i wouldnt be so chicken and try for the 700 miles a tank club without running out of gas :lol:
