Digital Fuel Gauge – Does anyone think these are a good idea?

I have a digital gague on the Prius, and it makes no difference to me. Why would you be concerned about 8ths of a tank? You know when it’s low, fill the damn thing.

On the subject of car fuel foibles, I had a Seat where it would emit a pleasant gentle bing for such things as the ice warning, or lights left on, but an sudden earsplitting BEEEEEEEP when the gague went just below 1/4 tank. OMG there is only like 150 miles left! Aaargh!

I once ran out with a big queue behind me…

On the up ramp of a multi story. I wasn’t very popular.
APF

Why would you be concerned about 8ths of a tank? You know when it’s low, fill the damn thing.

Round some of these here parts (and probably similar in Scotlandshire) it might be over 100 km to the next fuel station and with a significant price difference between them, you want to know whether you’ll make it.

Not everyone drives a Prius and lives in civilisation, not everyone wants to.

“significant price difference between them, you want to know whether you’ll make it.”

Price has nothing to do with it. If your in the arse end of scotland and your on 1/8th of a tank and dont know if youll make it to the next …..you stop and you put in some fuel. You dont have to fill it… But 10 quid will see tou make it to the next station unless your in a v8 or a sports bike.

Cheaper than the aa call anyway.

molgrips – Member

On the subject of car fuel foibles, I had a Seat where it would emit a pleasant gentle bing for such things as the ice warning, or lights left on, but an sudden earsplitting BEEEEEEEP when the gague went just below 1/4 tank. OMG there is only like 150 miles left! Aaargh!

Ha! My Ibiza does this.
Cold weather…..bong
Handbrake left on…..bong bong bong
Lights left on….bbbeeeeee
35 miles of fuel left…….BEEEEEEPPPPPP

Never ceases to make passengers jump and ask what the hell that is! 😆

My car has a digital fuel gauge that gives you the fuel tank content in litres. Which is accurate until it gets to below 11 litres and then just displays EMPTY, at which point I have to reset the trip meter and do no more than 50 miles before filling again.

Never understood the determination of drivers to have the minimum amount of fuel in their car as possible before filling to the brim.

Never understood why anyone would visit a petrol station more often than they need to.

Nothing more annoying than being behind a queue of drivers who’ve taken the car out for a spin and are topping off with about £3 worth of petrol.

Frankly, I think it’s an accomplishment to turn up at the station with the needle bent over the little peg that it rests on and the engine misfiring slightly. Have only managed to achieve the perfect balance of actually running out of fuel as I rolled up to the pump once, however.

I’m just happy to put more in the tank than it officially holds. A regular occurrence in my old 406, but I’ve not yet managed it in the Mondeo – I think it has a bit more range when it says 0 miles to go than I dare risk.

We have an MX5 with no low fuel light. We were driving from Plymouth to Bere Regis on the last quarter of a tank, about 100 miles and were thinking “this is getting VERY low” on the fuel gauge, but there were no petrol stations on that route open at 1am.

Got home thinking the fuel light was broken and had a google to find it doesn’t have one- as quite a few people online had found out! Straight to the petrol station half a mile up the road in the morning and lesson learnt.

As for digital gauges, my Skoda has one and it’s fine. It tells me how much fuel there is, it also tells me how many miles are left which over reads until you get to the last 150 miles when it gets really pretty accurate. Had it as low as 5 miles once and spent 2 miles shitting myself but that was my fault, not the car’s.

Round some of these here parts (and probably similar in Scotlandshire) it might be over 100 km to the next fuel station and with a significant price difference between them, you want to know whether you’ll make it.

Still don’t see what difference being able to split 1/8ths of a tank makes. Just fill up earlier.

PS thanks for the extra value judgement you tacked onto the end of your post – you didn’t have to, but it really helps spread the happiness around! I appreciate it!

“Frankly, I think it’s an accomplishment to turn up at the station with the needle bent over the little peg that it rests on and the engine misfiring slightly. Have only managed to achieve the perfect balance of actually running out of fuel as I rolled up to the pump once, however.”

ever removed a fuel tank …..

the innards and gizzards on the bottom of the tank aint pretty – its quite a course strainer on the pick up – all that shits now in your filter.

Earlier:

Still don’t see what difference being able to split 1/8ths of a tank makes. Just fill up earlier.

1/8th of a tank is enough to get to work and back before having fill up. If you use a tank every 5 days then only using 7/8ths of the capacity means filling every 4ish instead. That’s a lot of extra trips to the petrol station every year. Stopping early isn’t always feasible either. What if you’re in a hurry?

Obviously it’s not the end of the world but it’s still inferior to a proper dial in every way.

I generally know how far it’s been since it dropped a notch. Of all the things in my life that are an issue, this doesn’t even register. And I’m a fussy bugger.

Perhaps my ‘issue’ gague is digital and doesn’t have fine enough gradations?

My old Landrover S3 ‘lightweight’ had a non working fuel gauge, in typical LR style. Luckily the tank was filled by pulling the drivers seat squab’out and unscrewing a big bung directly on the top of the fuel tank. As long as I could see an inch sloshing about in there, I was happy I had a good 50miles. Always carried a Jerry can though…

Had a ‘snatch’ LR with a v8 petrol in it at work a couple of years ago. Always ran a bit lumpy as it wasn’t looked after well anough to my shame, was in a disused quarry at the end of running a 24hr long airsoft game when it ran out of fuel, in the middle of the biggest, muddiest puddle on the site. The fuel gauge had dropped like a stone from half full to red light in and needle flopping about at the bottom. They left me there for 2 hours until they decided to send the second snatch in for me, got soaked fitting the tow strop as bumper was under water…

Not bothered personally digital vs analogue gauges,GF has Yaris which is 8 segment digital, my Peugeot is analogue but beeps when low along with a flashing icon. I always seem to get to drive to fill up the Yaris as gauge is flashing so not sure how low petrol is!,it can have been driven last with 2 bars showing…then up pops the flashing bar!!. Hmm…