This subject gets me worried, really! Because with this bladder that can expand/contract, if you put less gas in when you fill up then your previous fill up, then your mileage calculation is skewed. It is very hard to believe what the gauge reads, lucky for me my gas bill speaks for itself. While I distrust the gauge and the tank, seeing how much I pay in gas vs my last car keeps me VERY happy.
First and only tank so far, first pip not gone at 130 miles, thought it was broken. With the last pip was blinking (empty), 1.7 gallons left.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(remaxmanager @ May 15 2006, 06:43 PM) [snapback]255915[/snapback]</div> Some time ago someone here provided an Excel spreadsheet that compared MPG and calculated savings in relation to car previously owned. Compared to the Lexus I gave up along with premium gas, my fuel saving came to about $1000 the first 12 months. That doesn't include monthly payment savings either, just gas.
The guage...... Last weekend I drove my family to the coast which was about a 94 mile ride (one way). I left on a full tank and when I got there I still had a full tank. Driving back my guage went down three blips?????? I didn't have any extra weight or anything. Only difference is I can recall is that my drive to the beach the temp was in the 50's and my return the temp was in the 80's. I think I may have run the AC sparingly so I'm not sure what happened. For me I only get 250 miles @ half a tank. b
I had one tank right after I got the car that went 211 miles before the first spot dropped. I was starting to get worried that the bloddy thing was broke
In my 2004 Prius the gas gage was predictable and went down fairly consistently. When I hit the last mark I always had about 2 gallons left and would drive up to 30 to 40 miles before filling. In my 2006 Prius the car goes forever on the first blip and goes down fairly quickly. Unfortunately on my first tank I ran out of gas about 7 miles after I got to the last blip. Now I start thinking about filling up shortly after hitting the second blip. I figured after a couple of years and a lot of Prius on the road Toyota would figure out how to make the gas gage work. I also miss very much my very accurate distance to empty display on my old Dodge Caravan.
Well, I'm only at 99 miles on my Prius. At 93 miles, the first pip was gone. I don't know exactly when it happened. Through the first 99 miles, I'm at 48.0 MPG. I even had a 5-min 95 MPG segment this morning.