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Charles C. Shyu - 24 Sep 2005 08:49 GMT

'05 325Ci here. Was running low on gas today and didn't have time in the
morning to fill up, so I drove all the way to work anyway. On the way back,
I hit MAJOR traffic (damn Deegan Expwy), and the gas light was on for over
an hour while I was idling and occassionally accelerating in first gear. I
watched the "miles remaining" counter go from 30 all the way down to 1
before I finally reached the service stop that in reality was only a few
miles away from my workplace.

So I was wondering if BMW has purposely "built in" a safety buffer telling
you you have x miles to go but in reality you have x + 20 miles to go. I
know the miles is based on gas remaining multiplied by some average MPG
based on recent driving habits, but maybe BMW engineers purposely makes the
final number a bit lower to scare you into getting gas before you actually
run out? Has anyone ever hit 0?

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Charles C. Shyu
http://home.earthlink.net/~shyuc/shyu.html

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Grant - 24 Sep 2005 11:02 GMT

> Has anyone ever hit 0?

I've driven 10 miles or so a couple of times after the display started
showing '---'.

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Pete - 24 Sep 2005 13:03 GMT

> So I was wondering if BMW has purposely "built in" a safety buffer
> telling you you have x miles to go but in reality you have x + 20
> miles to go.

Yes. I think most trip computers are set up that way. In my A4, once
the display showed "0 miles to empty", I could still go another 20-40
miles depending on driving conditions.

Cheers,

Pete

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Dori A Schmetterling - 24 Sep 2005 17:13 GMT

Yes, in my Merc I, too, have several times run beyond the '0 miles left'.

A bit of a nail-biter, though.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

>> So I was wondering if BMW has purposely "built in" a safety buffer
>> telling you you have x miles to go but in reality you have x + 20 miles
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Pete

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Tom Smith - 24 Sep 2005 19:49 GMT

I'm having the same problem. Can you send me the answer when you figure it
out?

Tom
tomsmith@postmasternetworks.com

> Yes, in my Merc I, too, have several times run beyond the '0 miles left'.
>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> >
> > Pete

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Pete - 24 Sep 2005 22:26 GMT

> I'm having the same problem. Can you send me the answer when you
> figure it
> out?

I think your problem is something else.

Pete

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Jeff Strickland - 26 Sep 2005 21:56 GMT

No, they do not build in a fudge factor. They calculate the remaining range
based on the average overall fuel consumption rate based on a long period of
driving. When you started out, you had enough gas to go 30 miles, but as you
sat and sat in traffic, the gas was consumed while you went nowhere. By the
time you finally bought gas, you had enough in the tank to go another mile.
Basically, you were close to walking.

> '05 325Ci here. Was running low on gas today and didn't have time in the
> morning to fill up, so I drove all the way to work anyway. On the way
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> the final number a bit lower to scare you into getting gas before you
> actually run out? Has anyone ever hit 0?

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