How low on fuel do you let your car get before refuelling?

[Bald Rick]

It

Just be glad that it’s not a van that you are filling up. From empty to full is well over £100…

It’s only in the last few weeks that my car has cost less than £100 to fill up, compared to most of last year when it was over (sometimes substantially so.)

 

[Shrewbly]

Well, I like to make sure the tank's empty before I fill up. I normally fill up when distance to empty is below 20 (my lowest has been 3, which was admittedly a bit nerve-wracking). One, I don't want to carry extra weight around; two, (this may be nuts but...) if there is rubbish at the bottom of the tank maybe if I suck a tiny bit through every time I won't block anything up*. Oh and three, I just don't like filling up!

*It seems to have worked so far. I've run my last 3 cars to over 160,000 miles each and apart from a fuel filter that fell apart on one due to corrosion (and that was my fault for forgetting to change it at the correct interval), haven't had any fuel problems.

 

[Peter Sarf]

It


It’s only in the last few weeks that my car has cost less than £100 to fill up, compared to most of last year when it was over (sometimes substantially so.)

Should have kept that Fiat 500 .

 

[Bald Rick]

Should have kept that Fiat 500 .

It wasn’t a 500

 

[Huntergreed]

I’ll always seek out the next (well priced!) garage after I get to 1/4 full.

I always tend to fill up by a set amount (such as £30 or £50) as opposed to just filling to full. Not sure why, just always have done!

 

[Peter Sarf]

It wasn’t a 500

Oh yeah, my bad. Small Fiat then. (I suppose a modern Fiat 500 is no longer 500cc ?).

My only time:

Aged 17, out late one night, me in my 1 litre Fiat, friend in his 1972 Land Rover. He runs out about 2 miles from home. Spare can - empty. I tow him back .

 

[Annetts key]

Well, I like to make sure the tank's empty before I fill up.

I trust you brace yourself against the car when removing the filler cap, to prevent yourself getting sucked in due to the vacuum…

 

[Ladder23]

Don’t think my car is ever above half a tank even after I fill up.

I do £15/£20 depending how fast the pump is, if it’s slow I do less.. I have no patience, I hate fueling up and would gladly pay for pump attendance like some country’s have to save me doing it.

 

[Bald Rick]

Don’t think my car is ever above half a tank even after I fill up.

I do £15/£20 depending how fast the pump is, if it’s slow I do less.. I have no patience, I hate fueling up and would gladly pay for pump attendance like some country’s have to save me doing it.

Given that a fair portion of the time filling up is getting to the petrol station, possibly queuing, unhooking / rebooking the pump, paying, and leaving, you’d spend much less time doing it by filling up from empty to full each time.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Don’t think my car is ever above half a tank even after I fill up.

I do £15/£20 depending how fast the pump is, if it’s slow I do less.. I have no patience, I hate fueling up and would gladly pay for pump attendance like some country’s have to save me doing it.

But I will fill up to the brim so as to reduce how many times I have to do the whole task (and to monitor fuel consumption). The bit standing there with the trigger squeezed is not terribly time consuming. It is driving to the petrol station, queuing for a pump and queuing to pay that dominates the time it all takes.

 

[Cowley]

Given that a fair portion of the time filling up is getting to the petrol station, possibly queuing, unhooking / rebooking the pump, paying, and leaving, you’d spend much less time doing it by filling up from empty to full each time.

Must admit that I only put around £20 in the tank usually. That lasts me about three days if I’m not going up to Dartmoor (which is a silly fuel eating hilly place ) to work.

Our nearest petrol station is also the nearest shop so I’m in there quite often anyway, although I also don’t like carrying extra weight in fuel when I drive up silly big hills.

Not sure if the weight actually makes a difference though (probably not I’d assume)?

 

[bramling]

It’s only in the last few weeks that my car has cost less than £100 to fill up, compared to most of last year when it was over (sometimes substantially so.)

Same. Mine’s still over £100 if I use 98 grade petrol, which I tend to.

It was notable that during the height of the higher prices last year, the A1(M) was conspicuously a much nicer place to be. Personally, I’d have kept the high prices as a trade-off for benefiting my stress levels.

 

[bspahh]

Must admit that I only put around £20 in the tank usually. That lasts me about three days if I’m not going up to Dartmoor (which is a silly fuel eating hilly place ) to work.

Our nearest petrol station is also the nearest shop so I’m in there quite often anyway, although I also don’t like carrying extra weight in fuel when I drive up silly big hills.

Not sure if the weight actually makes a difference though (probably not I’d assume)?

It makes a difference, just not a very big one.

If your fuel tank holds 50L, and you fill it with at most 30L of fuel, then on average you are carrying 10L less fuel, which weighs 7.5kg for petrol or 8.4kg for diesel.

Modern cars weigh a bit over 1000kg (~900kg for a basic Hyundai i10, 1200kg for 2022 Ford Fiesta, 1300kg for a 2022 Nissan Qashqai), so the weight saving from carrying less fuel would be less than 1% of the kerbside weight. The increase in economy would be less than that.

 

[Ediswan]

That lasts me about three days if I’m not going up to Dartmoor (which is a silly fuel eating hilly place ) to work.

I have to agree. Been to Dartmoor many times, from Hertfordshire. No matter how delicately I drive, the cumulative trip mpg plummets once I hit the local hills. In principle, EVs with regenerative braking should be a lot better.

 

[bramling]

I have to agree. Been to Dartmoor many times, from Hertfordshire. No matter how delicately I drive, the cumulative trip mpg plummets once I hit the local hills. In principle, EVs with regenerative braking should be a lot better.

Isle of Wight is another place where fuel economy drops. Many of the roads there are horrible to drive on as they’re busy, so it’s constant slowing down and speeding up which doesn’t help when this doesn’t coincide with the gradient profile. Only the south-western corner of the island offers a respite from this.

 

[alxndr]

My mother had a huge shock moving from Suffolk to a pretty hilly part of County Durham! Her commute in to work has gone from 325ft up and 275ft down to 725ft up and 1000ft down. The mileage is almost exactly the same, but she reckons petrol lasts her half as long. Doesn’t help that she can’t cycle in any more either now.

 

[Eyersey468]

I fill up each pay day and before a long journey, or if the fuel light comes on.

 

[InkyScrolls]

My mother had a huge shock moving from Suffolk to a pretty hilly part of County Durham! Her commute in to work has gone from 325ft up and 275ft down to 725ft up and 1000ft down. The mileage is almost exactly the same, but she reckons petrol lasts her half as long. Doesn’t help that she can’t cycle in any more either now.

Interestingly I notice a significant difference in fuel consumption whether driving towards the West Country, or away from it: From the Dales to Dartmoor I usually average 65 mpg, but coming back just 58 mpg. Maybe I'm a bit keener driving back to Yorkshire. . ?

 

[Hadders]

When I had a diesel car I'd normally let it get to the top of the red and then fill up. Frequently it did go lower then this, my record was arriving at forecourt with 2 miles left on the display!

I know drive an electric vehicle and that's a different ball game! Declared range when fully charged is 280 miles but this can go higher in hot weather (highest I had was 330 miles in the heatwave last summer) but on a cold day it drops (250 the lowest this winter). Turn on the heating or air-con and then there's a drop of 30-40 miles! Pootling round town is good for 'fuel' economy, motorway driving less so.

I try not to charge en-route as it's 3.5 times what I pay at home and there's a time penalty but sometimes it's unavoidable. Lowest I've been on arriving home is 5% and the car was starting to load shed, turning all on-essential stuff off, even the stereo!

 

[gg1]

Usually when it drops below a quarter of a tank (around 100 miles of range), always fill to the top each time.

 

[gswindale]

But I will fill up to the brim so as to reduce how many times I have to do the whole task (and to monitor fuel consumption). The bit standing there with the trigger squeezed is not terribly time consuming. It is driving to the petrol station, queuing for a pump and queuing to pay that dominates the time it all takes.

Queueing to pay? What's that?

I put my card in the pump, enter my PIN, fill up and go. Seems much less hassle to me.

On some occasions I've noticed that I've pulled up at pretty much the same time as the car in front or next to me - they've put a small amount in (£20 or something) and gone to pay in the shop - I've filled up completely and I'm away as they're just leaving the shop (with what looks like only a receipt in their hand).

 

[Dave W]

Pootling round town is good for 'fuel' economy, motorway driving less so.

This is also my experience with an automatic hybrid. I can get serious numbers in urban areas - upwards of 80mpg depending on if I go up Muswell Hill or not! But the motorway efficiency is comparably less efficient than the previous petrol model (45-48 vs 50-53mpg). I know it's a necessary evil of a hybrid, but the way the engine kicks in at unnecessarily high revs really winds me up, especially because - as a tightwad - I drive as efficiently as I can.

 

[Speed43125]

Interestingly I notice a significant difference in fuel consumption whether driving towards the West Country, or away from it: From the Dales to Dartmoor I usually average 65 mpg, but coming back just 58 mpg. Maybe I'm a bit keener driving back to Yorkshire. . ?

I find I use less fuel when on the return journey back up the M6-M74 to the central belt when I'm less worried about when I get there. Not getting anywhere near either of those mpg figures though!

 

[nlogax]

Around the 90-100 miles from empty mark. For whatever reason I don't like letting it get low enough where the fuel warning nagging starts.

 

[PF19]

I never let it slip below the 1/4 marker - always like to have enough "Emergency Fuel" left in the tank incase you have to make a urgent trip somewhere so I'm not inconvenienced with having 3 miles on the range!
Also keeps the tears from filling the eyes when seeing the ticker go over £100

 

[InkyScrolls]

Queueing to pay? What's that?

I put my card in the pump, enter my PIN, fill up and go. Seems much less hassle to me.

On some occasions I've noticed that I've pulled up at pretty much the same time as the car in front or next to me - they've put a small amount in (£20 or something) and gone to pay in the shop - I've filled up completely and I'm away as they're just leaving the shop (with what looks like only a receipt in their hand).

Many petrol stations, especially in rural areas, only have 'pay at kiosk'.

 

[gg1]

I never let it slip below the 1/4 marker - always like to have enough "Emergency Fuel" left in the tank incase you have to make a urgent trip somewhere so I'm not inconvenienced with having 3 miles on the range!
Also keeps the tears from filling the eyes when seeing the ticker go over £100

My logic for keeping at least a quarter of a tank, especially in winter, is so I can keep the engine running for heat if I get caught in major holdup lasting a number of hours. Not a common occurrence admittedly but it has happened to me a few times over the years.

 

[Annetts key]

This is also my experience with an automatic hybrid. I can get serious numbers in urban areas - upwards of 80mpg depending on if I go up Muswell Hill or not! But the motorway efficiency is comparably less efficient than the previous petrol model (45-48 vs 50-53mpg). I know it's a necessary evil of a hybrid, but the way the engine kicks in at unnecessarily high revs really winds me up, especially because - as a tightwad - I drive as efficiently as I can.

My hybrid typically does around 50MPG around town and for mixed driving. Around 55 to 60MPG when cruising on motorways at between 60MPH and 70MPH. Similar or slightly better at 50MPH to 60MPH on good A roads.

The best that I have had, not including going down hills or instantaneous readings, was after being on a motorway for enough time for the battery to fully charge, then after coming off at the junction onto an good and straight A road, I reset the trip, when I next looked, it was saying that the MPG was in the mid 70s (can’t remember the exact number).

With a range of typically greater than 430 miles (according to the cars trip computer) that’s good enough for the vast majority of the long round distance trips that I sometimes make. The tank capacity is I think 45 litres, but normally I only mange to put in around 35 litres.

I don’t notice most times when the petrol engine starts and stops while moving at any significant speed. It’s only really noticeable when stationary or when moving at a slow speed.

 

[PF19]

My logic for keeping at least a quarter of a tank, especially in winter, is so I can keep the engine running for heat if I get caught in major holdup lasting a number of hours. Not a common occurrence admittedly but it has happened to me a few times over the years.

Absolutely, also these you never know where you might get stuck & for how long... Especially some of the roads I travel along

 

[RailWonderer]

I fill from empty to full, so £110 for my 70l tank on premium E5.