Much of our modern world is dependent on inventions created by brilliant minds eons ago. The traffic light, the seatbelt, and the practical gasoline engine changed the world. But not every important car invention needs to be as impactful as those to earn a place among essential automotive innovations.
Last week, Jason finished the week with a story about Jim Moylan, the man credited with the invention of the little arrow that tells you where your car’s fuel door is. It’s so small, but big. Speedway Sammy:
We’ve got Duntov cams and MacPherson struts.
I think as a fitting memorial this needs to be termed a Moylan indicator.
Ash78 gave a counterpoint that ended with this line:
You know another fuel feature I find useless? “Miles to empty.” It seems like a great idea, but if you think about it, it’s really condescending to our math skills (why not show “true gallons to empty” or “reserve gallons remaining”?). And it also tends to be inaccurate due to a built-in reserve capacity, so once you realize that zero isn’t really zero, you’re just going to Kramer the car as long as you’re comfortable.
Which led to an incredible response by Captain Muppet:
Hi! I was the designer responsible for the fuel level gauge for four different OEM fuel tanks.
I wouldn’t trust the fuel gauge to be even remotely accurate at low readings. The tolerance on the bent steel float arm is enough to be half a gallon out all by itself. Once it’s assembled in to a tank and maybe bent a bit during assembly it’s anyones guess how much fuel is left.
The car doesn’t have the data required to be accurate.
Miles to empty is particularly useless though, because whatever data it uses as a prediction is entirely invalid because normal humans change how they drive when the warning light comes on.
My whole world of fuel estimation has been shattered.
Our final COTD goes to Brett Stutz, who commented in the Morning Dump to alert us that the New York Times loved a sentence that Matt wrote:
Congrats to Matt on NYT’s Frank Bruni selecting this as one of the best sentences of the year:
“You don’t buy a Subaru so much as you ascend into your final form as an outdoorsy Subaru owner when a ray of light beams down from the nearest REI, and all your clothes vanish from your body and are replaced by Patagonia.”
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Yay! I got a mention!
“You don’t buy a Subaru so much as you ascend into your final form as an outdoorsy Subaru owner when a ray of light beams down from the nearest REI, and all your clothes vanish from your body and are replaced by Patagonia.”
I have recently moved to New Mexico. This is 100% true. Now if you’ll excuse me, the end of year REI clearance has started.
Damn, Matt! You’re in very good company on Bruni’s end-of-the-year list. Well done!
about 20,000 days ago, an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show revolved around him getting a sportscar (the “spider”, IIRC) that he ultimately got rid of because the fuel gauge was accurate and it ran out of gas and stranded him when the needle reached empty.
Can you give that to me in hours? I don’t think I quite understand how long ago this episode aired.
How about miles to empty? I think that’s only valid for the Smothers Brothers, though.
My dad drove nothing but air-cooled VWs in the 60s and 70s, switching over manually to the reserve tank was always a tangible reminder that the car was truly almost out.
There was an AWD 911 some years back where Porsche forgot to account for the reduced tank size, and had to to a recall/campaign to have the gauge reprogrammed. I know this because I still have the gas can in my garage I bought to bail a friend out.
There’s a reason why EV fans call the range estimator the “guess-o-meter”.
And the EV range estimator has better data than the fuel tank one (simply due to limitations in how we monitor fuel levels), so the gas guesser is making even less of an educated guess.
Call me crazy – I like Miles to Empty.
When I’m running low, I know whether I need to stop on this trip or it can wait for the next time I go out.
Then when the readout drops below 20 and the car throws up the “Refill now” graphic in lieu of a number – it keeps me on the prowl for a reasonably priced gas station…
…even tho I know I still have another gallon in reserve.
*insert shoutout to the Gas Buddy app*
Yeah, I know once I hit zero km to empty, it actually means I have 10L (and ergo 100km) left, so I just don’t fill up until I hit that zero.
Plus, there’s that whole thing about the fuel pump needing to be submerged for cooling purposes, which I assume the reserve takes care of.
Or apparently not, if it’s my Focus. After occasional random shutdowns during beastly hot weather that I couldn’t figure out, it dawned on me the common denominator was less than 1/4 tank at the time. I’d initially rejected vapor lock b/c it’s not a car from the 70s, but then realized the pump must not be low enough.
There’s that (I have been stranded by a car where empty was a bit more empty), although the last 3 or 4 cars I’ve had have all been about 10l left. Every first couple tanks have been a bit careful to confirm, but once it’s established I have that reserve, it’s consistent.
When my ’99 Grand Cherokee hit E, it was E. I once coasted into a filling station at a highway exit after the engine cut out on the ramp.
Must be a Mopar thing, I’ve owned several Cudas, Chargers, Challengers, Darts and various others. When the needle was on “E”, it stopped. Empty means empty
My Equinox changes to “Low Fuel” under something like 30 miles and stops giving you a range estimate. I think 30 miles is generous, but it’s certainly not any further than that. First car I’ve ever run out of gas in.
Miles to empty isn’t a horrible thing, just as long as you know the limitations of it. I’ve met some people who took it as absolute truth and that is a little concerning (mostly in that they don’t understand that different driving styles/conditions will change that number faster or slower than they anticipate).
My girlfriend was concerned that her miles to empty was broken because it changed too quickly during the first tank in her brand new car. I also had to explain to her that it’s normal to add air to your tires in winter, and that the low tire pressure light means she should definitely do that. It gave me significant concerns about how she dealt with things in her previous car.
I sure hope she’s
an exalright.I have educated her. She even tries to show me interesting cars she sees. And she’s often almost right about what they are. Like the “PT Cruiser pickup” she found. She knew it looked like someone built it themselves. It was an HHR someone grafted a bed onto, but she was right that it was interesting.
Bahaha, that’s exactly what I thought. (Especially having an ex that argued with me, how do you know that this oil (spilled from a lawn mower) isn’t gas? It could be gas couldn’t it? How can you be sure it’s oil and not gas?)
Fellow GasBuddy user and contributor here, and also the one responsible for the offending comment 🙂
My only beef with Miles to Empty is that it’s basically the car equivalent of Nigel Tufnel’s amps that Go To Eleven.
If zero truly meant “get to a station NOW” and not “depending on manufacturer, you have 20-50 miles left” then people might take them seriously. I just think it’s devolved into a convenience masquerading as accuracy which — as Captain Muppet pointed out — is trying to show inaccurate info using a very precise measurement metric that also changes base on your habits.
I’d like to propose maybe three universal measures that can be tweaked based on cultural norms. This would be my 15yo’s settings:
YO TIME TO FIND A STATION
IF YOU PARK, POINT CAR DOWNHILL
DUDE, SRSLY THO, I’M OUT
That’s gas yo
My Toyota Hybrid seems pretty accurate. It actively monitors all inputs and updates real time. I’ve pulled into stations with almost no stated miles left and filled up over stated tank capacity.