Ray,
Love your column and learn a lot of important information. Also feel a tie as my son graduated from MIT and also followed an unconventional career.
I read your column in Allentown PA’s Morning Call.
I live in Pennsylvania and buy my gas at a Giant food store because I receive gas points from shopping at Giant that are probably equal to $.50/gallon. Giant also is at or near the lowest price in the area.
The problem is I suspect that Giant’s gas pumps are wrong and dispense less gas than is shown on the pump. Probably around 6% less.
First of all, when I pump the noise sounds like air is getting into the gas. Second, when I am near empty, I end up dispensing over 19 gallons of gas at a Giant store but only 18 gallons elsewhere. (I have 21.7 gallon tank with my 2012 Nissan Murano.) Third is that my miles per gallon reading on my dash when I fill my tank is always higher than if I calculate it by dividing my actual miles driven since the last fill-up by the amount actually dispensed. Over time, I would think these would average out.
The clincher was that I was in New Jersey and the dash said I only had 29 miles left before empty. I went to a gas station there and the pump automatically stopped at 17.976 gallons. I do not recall whether the person who pumped my gas topped it off. (It is illegal to pump your own gas in NJ.) The next time I needed gas the dash said I had only 30 miles left until empty. I filled up at Giant. The pump automatically stopped at 18.881, 0.881 higher than in NJ. I topped off the tank since I was getting $.90/gallon off. The next time the pump automatically stopped was at 19.112 gallons.
Do you think the Giant pump is reading more than the amount of gas being pumped?
Should the pump automatically go to 18.881 gallons versus only 17.976 in NJ?
Shouldn’t the miles per gallon on my dash over time equal the amount calculated from actual miles driven and gas dispensed?
What is the legal amount the pump reading can be off?
What can I do about this?
Thank you.
Ed
Ed Galla, Philadelphia, PA