How much fuel do you keep in your shite?

[Father Ted]

The old Micra had a fuel gauge that lied to me - it never read full, even when petrol was pishing out over your shoes from the rusty filler neck, and read 1/4 full when it was in fact totally empty.With this in mind and the fact the new micra stinks horribly of petrol inside the car if I brim the tank I keep maybe £20 worth of petrol in it - this is about 2/3 of a tank according to the dial, or enough to keep me in trips to work for about 3 weeks.The Zafira seems to permenantly have a orange light and chimey thing going on, but thats the wifes car so I dont care.

[Calum_B]

When I'm just using the A40 for day to day duties I usually just put £10 in when it's needed. Only holds 6 gallons as it is, but thanks to its frugal engine and carb setup it goes quite far on that!

[myglaren]

My Xant would happily cover 60 miles once the warning light came on. Got caught out when it was replaced with an Accord. 5 miles!

[VWPowered]

still in the red

[strangehighways]

I usually fill my tank to the brim for a couple of reasons:-- As I am driving an insanely economical car, it is interesting to see how many mpg I can get (or not get) out of it. Best is 76.2, worst is 55.- It gives me a warm feeling inside when I know that my car has a full tank of derv. I have no idea why. Maybe I imagine that there will suddenly be a strike and no one will be able to get juice, or a virus will spread killing people and I need all the derv I can to get to a remote part of Scotland!

[Andrew353w]

I do 15-20,000 miles per year, so am on Christian name terms with most of the petrol station staff in my area! I run down to the yellow light, then fill up to 1st click, knowing I can then squeeze up to 2 more litres in. I always stop at a round number of litres and do the MPG check, just to see it's running O.K. I generally get 38-40 mpg, and I don't hang about. The only factor that alters this is if I'm running through Watford, where fuel's still 1.04.9 and I've anything less than half a tank; I'll always fill up then-worth it, just for the saving!Incidentally, my Wartburg's just passed the MOT and does 31-34 mpg. It's done 5,000 miles between MOTs-not bad for a 40 year old 2-stroke! I have to fill that in 20 litre increments, or I get the oil ratio wrong!

[warren t claim]

I must be doing something wrong! How do you all manage to get such fantastic MPG figures? Driving smoothly I can only get 32MPG out of a 998cc Micra! Even a Chevy Matiz only managed 37MPG driven normally in my tender hands.

[Andrew353w]

Warren, Your Micra must be ill! Those cars use so little fuel they bring tears to a petrol salesman's eyes! I service a few of these for customers in my area and I'm pretty sure they get more than you do!Happy to suggest a solution if you want some help....

[Father Ted]

I must be doing something wrong! How do you all manage to get such fantastic MPG figures? Driving smoothly I can only get 32MPG out of a 998cc Micra! Even a Chevy Matiz only managed 37MPG driven normally in my tender hands.

Dear gods, the best I got from my Micra was 48 and the worst was 40. And Im no slowcoach.And it has to haul my lardy arse around.

[scruff]

Usually run it pretty empty, I can normally squeeze a week's commuting out of £35 of diesel. SWMBO's Rover however requires a tenner more and it lasts two weeks and does double the mileage

[warren t claim]

Warren, Your Micra must be ill! Those cars use so little fuel they bring tears to a petrol salesman's eyes! I service a few of these for customers in my area and I'm pretty sure they get more than you do!Happy to suggest a solution if you want some help....

Of course!!!!I will admit I do a fair bit of motorway mileage, cruising at 60 or so! I really don't understand it. Most cars I have owned have never done a good MPG figure even though I am a reasonably careful driver who is used to driving trucks with up to 16 gears and keeping the revs "in the green". In fact the only ones I thought that gave a decent figure were a 3 litre Omega that did 24 mpg and a Montego diesel that achieved 42 mpg.

[dollywobbler]

I must admit I'm confused about the 'round number of litres' thing. Surely the only way to get accurate mpg is to fill until the click? I tend to do two clicks and to cause further annoyance, the BX rarely drops below 50mpg, the 2CV generally does 45 and the Mini tends to sip at 50 plus. Don't think the Renault will match that and the Bond certainly doesn't! (not worked it out, but not far off 20mpg I reckon, from a 1.6!)

[ChinaTom]

I can get 30mpg out of my old 180k 528i on a mixed run of 20% city, 20% country road and the rest on the dual carriageways. Squeezed 36 when I filled up in Alnwick and drove all the way down the A1/A14/A11 to home. However, I rarely get more than 40 in small engined hire cars (Fiestas and Corsas) even on the motorways.What pisses me off is the optimisic trip computers that tell you you're getting 38 average, with 60 extra miles than normal on the range setting. It's never true!

[Rusty Pelican]

Last check i did on my now poorly Imp Van / estate was from York to Somerset , 48mpg , well chuffed as i built the engine from various dead ones lying about at the time , always keep half a tank at least in everything

[ChinaTom]

here are 2 on my 528 - one I leave alone, and the other I use to compare each tank. My average over the last 12k (Consum1) is 29.7, and the tank average (Consum2) ranges from 24 to 33. Petrol pumps and visa statement say very different - my wallet totally disagrees with 29.7, and the range will drop like a stone after 85 miles shows regardless of how you drive.

[Mash]

I only ever tend to put £20 a time in whatever my daily is, I can usually get a week out of that which suits me. It probably makes more sense to fill it up each time but the thought of spending 40 quid or more on fuel in one go would give me sleepless nights I'm notorious for letting the gauge get far too low though. I'd brim a car if I was going on a long journey but for day to day I don't bother.On a similar note we still have an attended pump garage in the village where I live and to be honest it's only about 2p a litre more than the supermarkets these days so I like to go there and keep them going. They do get a bit confused me turning up in all sorts of different cars with filler that are on odd sides or difficult to open and so on. The tank on the Datsuns are horizontal behind the seat so you can't stick the nozzle in too far or it keeps cutting out - one day she'll ask me to do it my bloody self!

[Guest]

I usually put £20 a time (of Sainsbury's posh 97 octane brew) into the Amazon every 100 miles or so. On Friday it spluttered to a halt. I had run out of petrol!

Turns out my fuel gauge is only good for determining variations between 'Lots', 'Some' and 'Are you feeling lucky today, punk?'

No worries since I had a spare can, but a lesson learned....

 

I think I'm going to get very friendly with petrol station staff with the Royale though....

My Amazon runs a dynamo rather than an alternator, so the fuel gauge boings up and down quite a lot when it's running.

 

You know you're about to run out when it's near the 'E' and it wibbles less than normal. If you're very low it will spring over to 'F', jiggle like crazy and then arc back under the 'E' stop. Then you have no engine and the whole of Washway Road thinks you're a bastard.

[CIH]

I usually put £20 a time (of Sainsbury's posh 97 octane brew) into the Amazon every 100 miles or so. On Friday it spluttered to a halt. I had run out of petrol!

Turns out my fuel gauge is only good for determining variations between 'Lots', 'Some' and 'Are you feeling lucky today, punk?'

No worries since I had a spare can, but a lesson learned....

 

I think I'm going to get very friendly with petrol station staff with the Royale though....

My Amazon runs a dynamo rather than an alternator, so the fuel gauge boings up and down quite a lot when it's running.

 

You know you're about to run out when it's near the 'E' and it wibbles less than normal. If you're very low it will spring over to 'F', jiggle like crazy and then arc back under the 'E' stop. Then you have no engine and the whole of Washway Road thinks you're a bastard.

Hell yeah. It took 30 minutes to get from Peugeot to Cresta Court yesterday morning Grrrr....

[ChinaTom]

here are 2 on my 528 - one I leave alone, and the other I use to compare each tank. My average over the last 12k (Consum1) is 29.7, and the tank average (Consum2) ranges from 24 to 33. Petrol pumps and visa statement say very different - my wallet totally disagrees with 29.7, and the range will drop like a stone after 85 miles shows regardless of how you drive.

Leaving the range issue aside, 29.7mpg is not far off the average of 24-33mpg. The trip in my old Range Rover just gave me a sub-50mile warning...

The maths will obviously work out, but I doubt the accuracy of something more fundamental. The tank including reserve is 18.5 gallons and I am very lucky if I get 460 miles to a tank without having to put 80 litres back in. That means just under 26mpg when the fuel computer is showing more often than not 29-30.

[Cavcraft]

I vary from like £3.00 to about £25.00.Thing I find is that if I stick a few quid in the daily I tend to go faster and take longer un-neccessary trips.