Cruising Range Cushion
 

Hey All:

Has anyone figured out if there is/how much of a cushion there is in the calculated Cruising range?

Mine tends to average 495 miles per tank total, and even the way I drive (almost all highway, 75 MPH or higher which gives me about 35-36 MPG), I figure even only using 15 gals of the 17+ gallon tank I should get about 510.

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

The cruising range gives you about a 2 gallon reserve. Unless you are going up hill the whole time, I would say you have a 50 mile cushion. My range hits 0 miles almost exactly when the gas gauge hits the empty mark.

FYI, I've driven over 700 miles on a few tanks; but my cruising range is often 660 miles or better after a fillup.

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

Thanks!

As you can tell from our relative MPGs, I'm not focusing on MPG based driving as much as some, so I don't think I'll see any 700 mile tanks tho.

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

The wired thing is when mine hits 1/4 tank it says I have a cruising range of about 65 miles. I have put 450 on the other 3/4 tank. 450 divided by 3 is 150 yet the last quarter only gives me 65. When it hit E and 0 miles to E I put about 13.5 gallons of gas in.

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

A 3 Gallon cushion sounds about right. 2 Gallon actual cushion + 1 gallon for the gas the fuel pump will almost never get (and you don't want cause thats where all the crud settles).

One thing I have noticed on every car I have ever owned is you get more miles from F to 3/4 than from 3/4 to 1/2. My guess is that the gauge is calibrated so that there is a little pad above F equal to the pad below E.

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

I know that when the warning light comes on I have 3 gallons still in the tank, never really used the RANGE LEFT for anything

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

Why do the salesman warn you never run out of gas, and if so you need it towed to dealer? Or are they afraid you will drive too far to a station and overheat battery?

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

Why do the salesman warn you never run out of gas, and if so you need it towed to dealer? Or are they afraid you will drive too far to a station and overheat battery?

Old threads discuss the owners manual warning to not drive the TCH out of gas. A couple of poster did this just to verify the tank capacity issue. They were "lucky" to be close to a station in one case and the other I believe had a can of gas.

The hybrid is not designed to run without the ICE having fuel.

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

Thanks Joe!

Re: Cruising Range Cushion
 

I actually went unintentionally 15 miles past the "0" and took less than 15 gallons.

I don't worry about going empty, but I would advise every new owner to take theres down close tio "0" just to feel comfortable with the capacity of their specific tank. From what I've seen it's pretty consistant but I would want to know before I started down a road on empty.