Congrats on the "long" tanks - for me what is impressive is consistantly beating the 40mpg EPA fuel economy tank after tank.

If you are at 45mpg in a TCH you are already doing as well as half of the prius and hch2 drivers out there!

 

How accurate do you think the "cruising range" is? I've got 18 miles left on my cruising range with a 25 mile drive home from work. Think I'll make it? My gas light is on but I haven't hit E yet.

 

You will easily make it

 

It's somewhat accurate in how many miles until the Gas Gauge shows E. It has a tendency to suddenly go from 10 miles to 0 miles due to hills, acceleration, etc. (in my opinion) causing the gas to slosh around in the tank.

Also worth noting, I find around 2.5 gallons is still in the tank at Empty (0 miles "cruising range"), and often go 40 or more miles past E without problems. You could easily drive home and fillup, finding the TCH only needs ~14.5 gallons to fill out of 17.2 of the tank capacity.

 

Yeah, you should have gallons left. You can even do the math of your displayed FE value and the distance you've traveled on the tank to estimate how much gas you've used. Odds are it's around 14 gallons.

 

I am personally comfortable going 100 mile past the cruise range showing 0, but I am in a flat area of the country and don't mind the risk. Also have plenty of gas stations around.

 

Well, I have to report success in making it home last night. I went only 15 miles past the 0 cruising mile mark and then went to gas up and only filled 14.2 gallons! I was so mad to find out I had 3 gallons left and I had been sweating it. The good news is that my Camry is learning because after I filled up, the full tank cruising range was now 5 miles greater than any other time I had filled up. Good to know that it's that smart.

 

Didn't I say 14 gallons?

Yeah I regularly find myself calculating it out when I think I'm running low... But you also have to estimate your FE is lower than the car says to be safe. One of my lowest tanks turned out to be 2 mpg lower than I thought so I was a lot closer to empty than I'd expected.

 

I did it...and on my 5th tank of fuel since owning the car.

710.1 miles then filled up tonight. It took 15.8 gallons...that's 44.9 mpg! The display read 46.1 for the tank.

Anywho, I'm stoked that this car is beating more than half of the prius owners. If I can do it, anybody can. So let's all join the 700 tank club.

 

Nice going! Yeah I just passed 600 on my current tank with the gas gauge at about a quarter tank and the nominal FE at ~48.5 (right now it's 48.7, bops around between 48.6 and 48.7 after each commute). Which reminds me... I'm going to have errands to run this weekend, which will hose my FE. Doh. Maybe I'll just have to take the very scenic route to the laundromat, lol. I'd love to make the 800 mile club but not sure if that's likely to happen.