irlandes: I certainly agree with you. I wasn’t trying to be critical, just pointing out that refilling often pays a price, although small. I think the cost of stoping at the gas station (time, gas, wear) is the predominant factor. But you are free to refill as often as you want.
My previous car, a 03 passat, when the light came on, I had about 3 gallons remaining. If I ran down the “miles remaining” to zero, I still had about 1.5 gallons. Present car, 15 Forester, when the light comes on, the “miles remaining” is about 60-80, and seems pretty accurate, as far as I can tell.
I didn’t know about the overheating fuel pump problem/possibility. But any good engineer would be sure it is low enough that it is still cooled until you were down to the last gallon. Wouldn’t he/she? On the other hand cars are full of poor design decisions.
Such as the gas cover release in the floor? or the three heater/AC controls without any indicator? or the “select” stalk to the right of the speedometer that has no function?
I live in Tornado alley so power outages are common. So having enough fuel to get out of this area is a good practice. As for fuel mileage and wear and tear on vehicle the weight of 1/4 tank of fuel is nonsense.
Agree with Volvo. In Minnesota you never know when severe weather or an emergency will hit. That’s no time to be trying to find a station with power or sit in line like they did in New Jersey during the flood. First aid kits, food supply, emergency plans, are just common sense. I think you can save as much money by laying off the doughnuts for a while as reducing gas station stops and the extra weight of gas.
I live in a relatively dense metro area and gas stations are never far away so I usually run it down until the gas light comes on (unless I’m on my way out of town and am running low). I like to see how far I can stretch a tank, but the comment about wearing out the fuel pump prematurely may have me rethink this. The only time I’ve ever been worried about running out of gas was driving through eastern NC on the way to or from the beach. It can be very sparsely populated out there and I went several miles with “0 miles remaining” before I came across a station. Didn’t run out though!
Let me emphasize the emergency preparedness aspect of keeping gas in your tank again. Not many gas stations have emergency power to power the pumps if there is a wide-spread power outage. If you need to evacuate due to a rail accident or whatever event in the middle of the night, you may not have the opportunity to stop at a gas station. If you need to get a family member to the hospital quickly, you may not want to stop for gas first. If its 10 below out and your heating source fails due to natural gas interruption, furnace failure or whatever, your car may be a reasonable source of heat. Ever get called back to work in the middle of the night for an emergency? Sure, maybe its never happened to you and maybe never will, but if it ever happens once, you’ll never run down to the low fuel light again, fuel pump damage not withstanding.
In Feb we just got back from Florida so I drove down to top the tank off, get milk and bread, and pick up some fast food. Yep, a transformer blew and the whole side of town was without power including the gas stations and grocery stores. Its a small town. Doesn’t happen often but it does happen. We made do for the night.