Well, I was tricked, bamboozled, utterly misled. Both times it happened during my recent 7500+ mile cross-country trip. I was getting very good at judging just how much fuel I had left after the MTE hit 0 (that much driving and that many fillups back to back will do that).

The MTE counter usually reaches 0, on mine at least, with about 13.5 gallons used. Then it just stays at 0, no negative numbers. I then still have a good 40+ miles left.

The first time it happened, I was heading west on I-80, coming off the great salt flats of Utah and heading into Nevada. I'm at 17MTE when I pass by a gas station, seeing the sign that says "Next Services 31 miles." No problem. Well, I have to go up into the mountains and over a pass, which eats up some gas... but I also noticed something when heading uphill the MTE counts down super fast (much faster than actual gallons being burned). I think this might be due to the angle and where the gas tank sensor is. I'm not worried though. I'm at 0MTE quicker than expected, but about 20 miles past 0, I see the exit coming up, and the sign that says "ALL SERVICES - gas, food, phone, lodging." Great. But something doesn't feel right. I pull into a ghost town... complete with an actual tumbleweed rolling through. I see the gas pumps and a flicker of hope arises as I see they're somewhat modern pay-at-the-pump stations... but they're shut down. The map shows 27 miles forward to the next town, or 31 back. I figured I probably wouldn't make it either way so I went forward and you know the rest.

Second time was in south Texas where I was on a highway with gas stations every few miles or so. By this time I was in the habit of filling up right around 0MTE to be safe. So with about 20MTE the gas stations disappeared, but I figured another one would be along soon. No signs warning of no services for close to 100 miles. About 70 miles later, it happened.

Getting back to the MTE countdown... I did notice once that the calculations seemed off, like a glitch in the computer, and at around 0MTE it took 14.5 gallons.... also my Average MPG reading was way off on that tank because of this. So the computer isn't 100% reliable, though I think Ford intentionally made it so that it would hit 0MTE very conservatively, just in case something like this happened. Now I fill up right around 0 and don't try to push my luck.