Ferrari328

The stereo shuts off. It just happened to me, and I was rebooting the MMI to no avail. Then, I noted that the mute symbol was on. Got gas, and everything went back to normal.
I thought I had a 17-gallon tank and was a bit miffed that the car said empty so early. Turns out I have a 15.3-gallon tank, and I usually fill up 14+ gallons. Way less leeway than I thought. I did read the manual, but still got the size wrong.

JohnEnglish

That's never happened me even when the distance to empty was "0".

Nikon1

Personally— I’m refueling the tank when the gauge shows 1/2 left. Running the tank dry was something I was taught 50 years ago not to do. Old lessons die hard.

— John

B7Quattro Pete

I’ve not experienced that either…interesting.

Zombie5150

I’m right there with ya. I’ve determined that the car always runs better when it’s clean and has a full tank of gas.

CKinLA

I've noticed on my 2018 S5 SB, even if it has a 15-gallon tank, I can never get more than around max 13-13.5 gallons in there. And I've only once or twice been even that close to empty... I think the "wiggle room" / "dummy factor" in our cars is quite generous - meaning, it shows the final 1 red bar in the fuel gauge (and we get the warning to fill up soon) when it still has a decent amount of gas in it (feels like 3-4 gallons?). I typically fill up 10-11 gallons each time, and I tend to fill up when I'm around 1-white bar before the final red bar. Given I avg. 15-17mpg (as my daily driver, most of my commute to work is in traffic / local roads), I basically tend to fill up around the 200 mile mark +/- on each tank (I reset the trip odo each time I fill up). The relatively small fuel tank is probably my only real gripe with this car - I basically am filling up once every 4-5 days...

On a related note, I'm also off the camp I never want to push it that close when it comes to gas. Anywhere under 1/3-1/4, I start thinking about filling up, and try to time it where it makes sense in my schedule, and to the gas station I like to go. I basically find that the "time" to go is really the limiting factor. If I let it go too low, more often than not, it can coincide with a time in scheduled where I'm running late / don't have time to fill-up gas, or at min, have to go to a gas station that I don't like / overpriced. As I live in Los Angeles, our gas prices are one of the worst in the country! Even moreso there's a benefit to plan ahead and not let it fuel get too low.

icepickjazz

Chucking on this one. Ours is house divided. My wife is of the same mindset as John. I'll run it down to fumes.

Nikon1

As always, “YMMV!”

When I met my (now) wife 25 years ago her idea of car care & maintenance was “Lease & Return.” Never even got the cars washed! After 25 years, she has adopted most of my car care rituals including getting her just purchased 2023 Acura RDX ceramic coated with a new 7 year coating. I’ve even convinced her to gas up at the half tank mark. Thankfully, NJ does not allow self-service pumping … yet.




— John

Mythdoc

Filling up at 1/2 seems a bit OCD. Kinda reminds me of the way I buy more tortilla chips when we’re down to only two bags in the cabinet.

JD15

I fill once per week, which normally equates to half a tank. Running the tank too low puts increased stress on the fuel pump and could clog the fuel filter with sediment. No reason to do so when refilling takes so little time.