Well!, after driving for almost 20 years (4+ years Dodge Colt E & 15+
Years Toyota Camry Dx 1991 - 238,000+ miles!) I have finally ran out
of gas for the first time while driving, In our New Prius no less!

This happened at the 901 odo mark (2nd tank of gas for new baby) while
on way to home from grocery shopping. Took the Scenic back roads to
avoid very heavy traffic on Highway and Secondary road route (only
needed to go about 5 miles). While passing the Pelham Public Golf
course that very RED triangle with the exclamation point lit up the
dash.

Unfortunately, the battery reserves where only about 1/4 to 1/3 and we
were able to get maybe less than a mile further along. Got on the cell
and called 311 to ask for assistance. A police cruiser came by at the
same time and offered assistance. The police asked "Is that a Prius?"
and then chuckled.

He asked if I could position the car more onto the meridian but I
could not move the car (lock down mode? - need to ck the manual). I
got in to close the windows and once the key fob was in the dash the
engine kicked on! (residual gas, hmm...). I backed up the car until it
was completely on the grassy area and the engine shut down and would
not move again.

The police were nice enough to drive us to a gas station in City
Island where I got a gas container & purchased 2 gallons of gas. The
cruiser drove us back to the Prius and we thanked the officer for his
help ( I bet passing motorist were getting a chuckle watching me gas
the Prius!).

Drove a couple of miles to the Shell gas station near our abode and
filled up with about 8 gallons of gas so the car got it's full 11.9
gallons.

My wife was not too upset with me at the time (although she did not
pack any chips to go with my sandwich for lunch today - she did pack
hers, thought!) and the people at work were having their little laughs
- the women did not show me ANY sympathy (sigh).

So, I learned my little lesson, and will gas up the Prius when it
first starts blinking that last gas icon on the dash and not wait a
couple of days (It was flashing at me last Friday!).

Now, the strange thing about all of this is that when I got the
blinking icon from our first tank (and ALSO waited a couple of days to
fill up) the odo was around 494 miles. I gassed up and the pump
stopped at 7.5 gal of gas. This showed that I still had over 4 gallons
of gas left in the tank so I was very impressed when I did the math
(over 65mpg in mixed highway/local driving). The dash, thought, did
not show this figure. It was showing about 49.5mpg at the time
(hmm...).

Driving on the 2nd tank of gas the #10 gas icon on the dash blinked
off almost immediately. The gas gauge icons continued in this fashion
of rapid gas usage (even thought the mpg average being displayed on
the screen was showing 51.5mpg on average for this 2nd tank of gas). I
ran out of gas before reaching 400 miles on the trip odo so that would
make the mpg be around 33.6. Weird

I will continue to monitor the Prius Gas usage over the next 5-10
tanks of fill ups and may post a follow up report.

Vic

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:35:22 -0400, Vic <vvelez@newsguy.com> wrote:


Almost forgot:

Our New Prius:

Born: July 22, 2006
Model: Prius 2006 Classic Silver w/pkg #3 + some extras
Beginning Odo: 10 miles

In article <glf4e2tf4e0tnpcibp02jh3iii2nplpj8i@4ax.com>,
Vic <vvelez@newsguy.com> wrote:


Ah, a blast of nostalgia. I'm a Bronx gal.

--
Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush.

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:12:03 -0700, Michelle Steiner
<michelle@michelle.org> wrote:


Happy to hear you are from da Bronx! I have really enjoyed your posts
and banter since I have been visiting this newsgroup lately..

Vic

In article <tq35e2h5f58eirvv9vui0j3puihnvq2kpl@4ax.com>,
Vic <vvelez@newsguy.com> wrote:


*blush* Thanks. Always good to see another homey.

--
Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush.

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:14:46 -0700, Michelle Steiner
<michelle@michelle.org> wrote:


The lez got lockjaw and hid at the sight of my post that will reveal
even more about her sick personality. I guess she figured her sailor
mouth wasn't winning her any friends and turned off a lot of people
who didn't ask and didn't want her to tell. Either way, I won.

You were lucky: two gallons is not always enough to make the computers
realize that gas has been added, in which case they still won't let you
start the car.

The underlying cause here is that the bladder inside the tank has a
variable capacity, and is usually less than the nominal 11.9 gallons.
Therefore one cannot assume that one knows how much gas is actually in
the tank at any moment, except that when the last pip starts to blink it
really does mean that the tank is close to empty.