For those of you that are as broke as this mother’s son. (me)

We’ve all been there. You’re driving down the highway, miles from the nearest gas station, and your car’s fuel gauge is quickly approaching empty. Is it time to panic? Or is there still some gas sloshing around at the bottom of the tank that can keep you in motion?

Last month, I ran a test. I bought a spare can of gasoline and set out on a road trip—a trip that started with next to no gas in my minivan’s tank. When I left New York City, the car’s gas light was on and the needle on the gas gauge was near “E.”

Luckily, my car has a feature that seems more precise than the needle: a digital read-out. It said that I still had 25 miles to go.

If that’s true, what does empty really mean? Is it when the needle hits “E”? Is it when the digital read-out hits zero? I kept driving. Would the car stop moving when the read-out hit zero?

It didn’t.

My car still kept going. And going, and going, and going.

Of course, I wasn’t the first person to test the limit of a car’s gas tank.

Last summer, when computer programmer Justin Davis was traveling through Canada in his Honda Civic, he found himself close to the border with a near-empty gas tank. Canadians pay more than double the gas tax that we do in the United States, so Davis wanted to try to get to a U.S. gas station, but he chickened out.

When he got home, he started a Web site called TankOnEmpty.com in which he asked “How far can you go after the gas light in your car has gone on?” More than a thousand people posted their stories on his site, giving Davis data on how many miles they were able to go after their car’s gas light came on.

The results? According to Davis, most cars can travel an additional “30 and 40 miles after the gas light is on.” He reasons that most of these drivers probably get scared and don’t push their car to its true limit. Nevertheless, he says, some brave drivers drove as far as a hundred miles after the gas light came on.

So why do cars say “empty” when there’s still gas left? Ford said it’s about providing a “comfort zone” for the driver—you don’t want to have the light go on and all of a sudden, you’re dry. GM said that customers in the United States want that reserve, and they provide it. Chrysler said some drivers, German customers, for example, want to know exactly how much gas is in the tank, but Americans like to have a buffer.

I learned that my van has quite a buffer. After the digital read-out hit zero, I thought I might be able to travel a few miles until the car gave out, but my car kept going for 40 more miles before running out of gas, and that was 65 miles AFTER the dial said “Empty”!

So the next time you panic at the sight of a gas gauge on “E,” remember that you probably have enough gas to make it to the next station. “E” doesn’t really mean “empty,” after all.

ABC News’ Andrew Sullivan contributed to this report.

LINK

I have run a few vehicle out of gas in the past.  Most of the time they went an extra 50-60 miles before the car stopped vrooming.  The longest I had was in a 1981 Chevy Suburban. 87 miles past empty. (And 1 mile short of a gas station outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming.  I had to walk in the dark and snow on that one…)

Hmmm.  I just may have to run a test on this this month.

I know my car has a 13 gallon tank, but I am well into the “E” and I fill up and it only hold 11 gallons.  So there is a 2 gallon buffer, which will take me 60 to 75 miles depending on various factors.

Reminds me of that Seinfeld episiod.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dealership

I should know this.  When me and my sister get together we alway have car trouble.  Either running out of gas or have a car litterally fall apart from under neath us.

I wish my car showed the exact amount of gas in the tank. I guess Canadian cars got that stupid “buffer” too. I actully find it to be annoying. Even my ‘88 had that “buffer”. Damn you Chrysler. Bad enough I cannot trust Chrysler cuase their electronics can be pretty bad sometimes. Thats is why I cannot trust when any of the lights come on in my 2000 Impala. My ‘88 5th avenue, damn that car was realiable. Chrysler builds good cars, but their electronics stinks!

That ‘buffer’ or more commonly called reserve, was originally intended as an emergency supply.  The idea was that people would fill up when the needle hit the E but that the reserve gave you enough gas to be able to make it to a station if it hit E in the middle of nowhere.  Nowadays with electronic readouts and such that are a lot more accurate than the old needle used to be it has become somewhat redundant but the idea behind it is still just as valid.  It’s a lot more preferable than the alternative which is the car stopping dead when the light comes on because you ran out of gas.

I like the idea of the “low fuel” light coming on with plenty of fuel to spare, but I’d like for the actual dial or read-out showing how much fuel is left to show the actual amount.

I have had to rely on my own two legs and feet to get me anywhere at all for nearly 2 decades.  So, when my ‘fuel gauge’ says ‘E’, I doubt I could even get those 40-60 extra miles.  I haven’t personally owned a car for MANY years because I can’t afford to buy one, could not afford the insurance, nor maintenance and gas even IF the economy was excellent. 

Erik’s car is a Honda Fit stick shift -so I couldn’t drive it even in an emergency- (considered the top most economical pick of the year).  I’m thankful that we selected it over others when we looked this year.  Even when parked beside other tiny cars, it’s even smaller and were it not for the burnt-orange color, would be difficult to find in parking lots.  It would be interesting to see how much further it could go after the gas light says ‘fumes’, but I’d rather not test it and have to depend on my two feet again!

I have never actually let my car get to the point where the fuel gauge comes on. As soon as I hit a quarter of a tank I fill up. I do this because my car manual tells me to. ‘Apparently’ (and my hubby tells me there is only a slight possibility of this happening) if your car runs out of fuel completely you can cause damage to your catalytic converter and that’s why they put that recommendation in your manual.

Christian as you can see holds no sway by this and so he has let his car hit empty numerous times. He also has a Corolla which has a 50 litre fuel tank and after his fuel light has come on he’s driven about a hundred k’s

Little point: not all injection systems are happy when you run them dry. Might be a costly test to really empty your tank ... getting a guy out to nowhere to bleed your fuellines of air.

And if your car runs on diesel, it’s a really bad idea.