Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim968
Your analysis is flawed. If you drive the same number of miles, getting the same MPG and pay the same price per gallon then your total cost will be the same no matter when you fill up. If your total cost has changed then one or more of those three variables has changed.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jd10013
it's either in your head or your numbers are wrong. filling up less often will not increase your MPG. if your MPG's are staying the same, then your spending the same amount of money. so long as your doing the same amount of driving. you may fill up less often, but your spending more when you fill up. the only way you would save money by filling up less often would be if you could somehow buy 18 gallons of gas for the same price as 14 gallons.
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I recently had an incident which made me think that the average MPG may not be linear as you drive the car. What I mean is that I had one week where I filled up with half a tank just to "top it off" and my MPGs for that fill up were only 16mpg, yet I average in the 20's.
Maybe the affects of letting the car warm up (decreasing MPGs) is greater noticed when you're filling up half a tank instead of at my normal fill up point. Otherwise I can't understand the drastic drop in MPGs - I fill up at the same gas station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisBlair
re: running the car out of gas- there's always water in your tank.
re: this situation with a Camaro- my car does not display a low fuel warning light at 85 miles' range remaining. I believe this is a dynamic function of your average MPG more than simply gallons of fuel remaining
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Agreed. On the 4th gen Camaros, running your car out of fuel was a surefire way to make the fuel pump fail. Dropping the gas tank out to get to the fuel pump is not fun - which is why most 4th gen owners cut a hole above the gas tank to make a trap door for accessing the fuel pump.
I don't normally let my car get that low, but every now and then I just can't get to the gas station before the "Low Fuel" warning comes on. For me it comes on around 50 miles remaining, but what I think is the biggest issue is that when I'm low on fuel and have a heightened need to know how many miles I have remaining that I can't. Really damned annoying.