As gas gets more and more expensive and drivers become more and more afraid of trips to the pumps, more people than ever have found themselves stranded on the side of the road with no gas in the tank. Trying to push it way past “E” is something I’m familiar with, but after hearing about this, perhaps I’ll be a little more careful.
According to the AP, there is a growing national trend of drivers putting less gas in their cars and then trying to drive as far as they can. Getting better gas mileage is definitely worth doing, but you’re going to get the same mileage whether you fill up all at once or in thirds…and running out of gas isn’t exactly the quickest way to get somewhere.
In Philadelphia (my hometown) alone, calls to AAA from drivers in need of some extra gas have doubled since 2007, a trend that they say is mirrored all across the country. Over the entire Mid-Atlantic region, AAA fuel calls have only increased 15%, but the summer driving months are just starting to settle in, and that number will likely increase in the coming months.
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Well that migth be higt in the US, but here in Denmark Europa we pay 8,7$ pr Gallon of Gas.
And that is around that price over the most of europa
So welcome to the rest of the world.
Now lets look at some more full effesion cars, and some hybrit/Electri cars.
“Getting better gas mileage is definitely worth doing, but you’re going to get the same mileage whether you fill up all at once or in thirds”
You should actually get better gas mileage when your tank is empty rather than full because you are carrying less excess weight… but I don’t think this is what most drivers are going for
In the UK diesel is almost £6 per gallon, which is almost $12 !
“you’re going to get the same mileage whether you fill up all at once or in thirds…”
Not true, you get better mileage without a full tank. Having your tank filled completely means more weight (some cars have some pretty hefty tanks) which means less mpg. I know for a fact having a couple of extra passengers can make a huge difference to the cars performance and mileage, the same is true for the amount of fuel you have. If you keep it below half, you will get more milege.
“..but you’re going to get the same mileage whether you fill up all at once or in thirds…”
Incorrect!
Less fuel in tank means less weight in vehicle, thus equals better gas milage.
Simple really.
“but you’re going to get the same mileage whether you fill up all at once or in thirds”
This is untrue. A full tank of gas adds considerable weight to a car. The more a car weighs, the lower its fuel efficiency.
I plan on investing in a siphon to siphon gas from others… just kidding! I actually looked at a small yaris with envy the other day.
That isn’t really true that there is no difference in gas mileage if you fill up all the way or in thirds. If you fill up all the way you are adding more weight to your car. More weight means the engine is going to have to work a bit harder, which in turn means using more gas.
You will not “get the same mileage whether you fill up all at once or in thirds”. Gasoline is 6-7 lbs per gallon. Depending on the size of your tank, a full tank of gas can be like carrying an extra passenger (albeit a smaller one), which certainly reduces your mileage. Your point is still well taken however- the extra savings are probably not worth the risk of being stranded.
This is getting ridiculous. This past weekend, I drove from Newport Beach to City of Industry, CA. on “E”. Thats about 40 miles. I was having a good day and didn’t feel like having it ruined by gas prices.
I usually only fill up 1/2 a tank or so. Less weight and I only work about 5min. from home so it last me till the weekend.
Actually, in theory it should make a difference whether you fill up all at once or in thirds. When the tank is full, the car is carrying more weight so it should get less gas mileage than when the tank is empty. However, whether this effect is significant, or if the gas expended in going to the gas station more often outweighs the benefit, is a completely separate question.
That is true. I wonder why people a lot of people partially fill up, only to constantly come back.
Yes, they run out of gas while going to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks to get their coffee!
Well what can I say, I always find it amusing when Americans think they are having it tough, $4 a gallon that’s nothing !!. Here in Britain we pay £1.30 a litre for Diesel – But guess what, we generally don’t run huge gas guzzlers !!
The lesson for today is – You are not allowed to moan if you are running Cars or Trucks that do less than 35 to the gallon – which is pretty much all of your vehicles.
No Global Warming in America then?
Well you think you got it bad in Philadelphia, come too sunny uk where we have to pay £1.29 per litre fro deasel and £1.14 for unleaded petrol..
i filed up today for £20 and just got over 15 litres
15 litres = 3.3 Imperial gallons = £20 = 39.04 $
and it seems too be going up each week..
Actually, I heard that the amount you fill up your tank does have a difference on the cost of the gas (and accordingly the mileage) and these people who are filling up from the empty-end are doing exactly what they shouldn’t be…
Gas evaporates more quickly the more air it has in the tank. Thus, we should keep our tanks as full as possible, generally re-filling when we hit the half-mark. This improves the bang for your buck on the life of a fill-up.
The one downfall to this strategy in times like these is the chance of that full tank being siphoned.
Also, when filling the tank, you should use the lowest speed to fill the tank. A similar principle applies, but more nefarious. Filling at a faster rater increases the amount of air-bubbles found within the gas and effectively causes you to pay more for the displacement of gas with air. I think this may be a nominal effect, but I fill my tank as slowly as possible.
One last gas saving gem for you is to consider trying to fill up at the start of the day. Gas expands as it rises in temp. If you get gas before temperatures have a chance to warm the underground gas, you will effectively shave the cost of your fill-up.
Bonus: I’m a bit of an environmentalist, but I question what value there is in keeping oil in its natural state. Moreover, I have no love of the oil industry. Our government seems to have no desire to limit their profits, so I’ve decided to play their game. The only way I can envision forcing us to move into a more reliable, renewable resource, is to use up all the gas. It could be difficult as consumers, because we’re taking the biggest hit financially, but if you all want to keep driving and want to help become oil-independent, then we either have to stop purchasing gas (for long enough to have an impact on oil profits) or use up the resource. I’m beginning to believe that we’ll be able to use up the oil before regulations encouraging alt. energy are in place.
So, let’s go! Have as many packages as possible shipped to your home, take as many roadtrips as possible and avoid flying until we can suck the texas tea dry!
American fuel is cheap at $4/gallon – in Australia we pay $1.70/Litre in the cities, and I have been quoted $3/Litre for Diesel in remote areas
the weight theory doesn’t really make sense to me since the gas you save by having less weight, is offset by the cost of driving to the pump more often..
UK prices are over $10 USD for gallon.
The prices rise almost daily too.
To those that laugh at our increase of gas and compare it to local prices….
It is NOT just about the gas. It is just an increase of cost of living on top of every other increase, along with an inability to get good paying jobs that is putting a pinch on lower middle-middle class people.
Here we go, an example. I am a computer repair tech in Columbia, SC.
I make 1600 a month before taxes. Since I am a contract worker, my taxes arnt taken out of my pay. Realize MOST people have close to 15-25% taken out to cover tax related stuff.
Rent-575 a month for an apartment
Car- 160 a month for a 2004 pontiac grand am (37 MPG.. note financed through the company i work for!)
insurance-80 a month ( again, through company)
Water-50 a month (and going up)
Electricity-150 a month (and going up)
Cable TV/Internet-130 a month ( my only vice)
Food-310 a month (only 5 dollars per person per day for 2 people)
And my gas bill.. a fill up a month, cause I live 5 minutes from work… 52 dollars
Grand total of 1507, leaving me with 93 dollars to put aside for taxes/emergency (which isnt enough to cover the estimated taxes!)
twice a year I get an “extra” paycheck of 800 dollars which does nothing more than go to paying off debt accumpiated not able to pay bills.
Laugh now
I think we need a few more people tell us about not filling the tank all the way.
And here in the US we all feel entitled to cheap gas because it was always cheap.
OK, a little clarification here. If you are worried about evaporation in a fuel tank of your car, please don’t lose sleep over it. Modern cars have a closed, non-vented fuel system. BUT, if they were vented or you could run around without a gas cap, it is the surface area of the fuel exposed to the air in the tank that is the significant determination of how much gasoline evaporates. Since fuel tanks are rarely narrower at the top, the surface area of the fuel remains pretty constant no matter how much fuel is in the tank.
Also, I sold gas for years at a station with underground tanks. They each held 7,000 gallons and the top of the tanks and the pipes were at least 3 feet underground. The level of the fuel would normally be much deeper into the ground. Fuel was taken out fron the bottom of the tank where it is coolest. As anybody who has or sells heat pumps using well water for heat exchange will tell you, temperatures underground don’t change very much or very quickly. I’d even bet a 7,000 gallon above ground fuel tank wouldn’t change much in temperature from night to day unless it was mostly empty.
Thus there is no advantage to filling up in the morning and the only advantage to having a half tank of fuel is the savings in not hauling all that extra weight around.
The Europeans can tell us that we don’t have it as bad as they do as far as prices, however the majority of their cities are built around public transit, biking, or walking. The majority of our country is all highway land so we depend on our cars for almost everything – even dropping off the mail at the post office. For me…it’s not right up the street. It’s across a highway.
One way to avoid the high pump prices is to shop online. A survey by iCongo and Harrison Interactive in April discovered that 33% of adults in the US are more likely to shop online as a way to avoid a trip to the mall (and the pump).
The amount of fuel you carry as far as excess weight. . .is negligible.
Your car(Mine is pretty light at 2400 lbs with me in it) weighs more than 1 ton. The extra 30 lbs of gas is utterly irrelevant as it induces as worst a .3% decrease.
If you consider how long your car is running to pull your car next to the pump and then pull out of the filling station I’d wager you use more than a few grams of gas. A few grams of gas is all you save by not filling up all the way. You definitely burn at least that much navigating into and out of the station.
Fill up all the way and save gas. Also most cars have a slightly pressurized tank. Maintaining the pressure after purging to allow the fuel nozzle in requires more work with a half tank than a full tank.
3rd factor is you don’t know when you will be filling up so if you have to deviate course anymore than maybe 2-300 meters its not worth it. Plus consider the navigating the station with slow speed and wasted idling fuel.
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