Do you fill up your car or do you put $XX of fuel at a time?

[sergei]

The question is straight forward, I am interested how many people actually fill up and how many do $20 at a time (or whatever the amount).

[wde_bdy]

I tend to do a couple of $40 fills (for the AA discount) and then fill right up (redeeming the AA discount). Will also put $40 in the wifes car if the fuel light comes on when driving it.

Callum

[Alex B]

^Accountant.

When i was poor I would do $40 at a time, but just fill up these days. Do people really value their time so little they want to do more trips to the peddy station than required.

[GDII]

I fill up one car once every 2 weeks and the other only gets feed $30 at a time as it doesn't get used much.

[Grrrrrrr!]

Accord gets filled up, except if I cant find a station with 98, then its $20-$40 95 to get me to somewhere with 98.
Mr2 gets whatever it needs to get me to the event and home again, should cap that pipe that used to go to the charcoal canister.

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I strictly only ever put in $20 at a time, mainly because the less weight you have to haul the less gas you'll use, and by consistently putting in the same amount I can see if my fuel economy ever changes by seeing how many km's I get before the fuel light flashes on again.

[GDII]

I strictly only ever put in $20 at a time, mainly because the less weight you have to haul the less gas you'll use, and by consistently putting in the same amount I can see if my fuel economy ever changes by seeing how many km's I get before the fuel light flashes on again.

Do you have to go out of your way to get the $20 each time or is the petrol station always on your route from home to where ever? I used to do the same thing as you do but that was only because the petrol station was at the end of the street and if I had to go anywhere I had to pass it. Also $20 used to go a lot further than it does now.

[Lloyd]

$20 is less than 9L. So basically 100km between fills. Seems like a waste of time.

The mighty diesel just gets filled when it needs it, which tries to be just after the credit card ticks over for the month most times.

[sergei]

I strictly only ever put in $20 at a time, mainly because the less weight you have to haul the less gas you'll use, and by consistently putting in the same amount I can see if my fuel economy ever changes by seeing how many km's I get before the fuel light flashes on again.

That is very innacurate way of measuring fuel economy. To start with I could make fuel light come on with 1/4 of tank on AE101. Second problem $20 every time does not equal same amount of fuel. Third the weight of fuel makes very little difference.

The 50L of petrol weigh about 39kg. your car weighs about 1200 at best, we are talking about 3% difference. double that to 6%, and it will account to 0.5L/100Km in worst case scenario (having 8L/100km as base fuel consumption). Remember the weight only affects fuel economy when you are accelerating and driving uphill. While going steady speed on flat, the weight will not have much effect (margianlly increase rolling resistance of wheel bearings and tyres). So that loss from full tank would be a lot less in real life.

What you are not accounting for is:
Fuel lost from evaporation and spillage because you are doing extra 4 fuel ups.
Fuel lost from evaporation due to extra space for fuel to evaporate into ($20 buys you ~8L, adding 5L what is in the tank you are only use 1/4 of the tank).
Fuel lost from stop/starting because you are doing unnecessary 4 stops at petrol station.
Fuel lost because you have to go out of your way to fill up (extra distance travelled).

I think all these things will add up to more than 0.5L/100km.

But what is worse, is that you are wasting extra hour (4x 15min fuel stop) of your life on some mundane stuff, that is easily avoided (unless you like hanging out at petrol stations?).

[Grrrrrrr!]

$20 is less than 9L. So basically 100km between fills. Seems like a waste of time.

^ So much of this.

Even an ae101 has at least a 45L tank, so you are making 5 stops vs 1 stop. You are going to burn the gas sooner or later so why not minimise wasted time in the gas station.

Also hilarious argument about minimising weight for fuel economy in a car with every JDM gadget known to man.

[MAC_HATER]

I fill mine whenever possible, it means less trips to the servo, and with consistent fill ups to full, I can keep an eye on the fuel consumption, so if im filling it all the time, and reset the trip meter each fill, the next fill i can weep quietly as I see that I used 28L for 170km of stop start city travel etc

if im really short on cash i will fill what i can manage, but otherwise brim it

[Lloyd]

Also hilarious argument about minimising weight for fuel economy in a car with every JDM gadget known to man.

I thought this also

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Do you have to go out of your way to get the $20 each time or is the petrol station always on your route from home to where ever? I used to do the same thing as you do but that was only because the petrol station was at the end of the street and if I had to go anywhere I had to pass it. Also $20 used to go a lot further than it does now.

Na, there are gas stations within a stone's throw of each other where I am, so it's just a matter of pulling in for a couple of minutes to chuck another $20 in.

$20 is less than 9L. So basically 100km between fills. Seems like a waste of time.

Maybe down in Dunedin it is, but where I am 95 is always around the $2.16 mark per litre, which is 9.25 litres. I don't think I've ever put $20 in and got under 9L. I get 120km per $20.

That is very innacurate way of measuring fuel economy. To start with I could make fuel light come on with 1/4 of tank on AE101. Second problem $20 every time does not equal same amount of fuel. Third the weight of fuel makes very little difference.

To be fair, I never said it was an accurate way of measuring fuel economy . It just gives me an average idea of if something's wrong or if I've been a little heavy footed. I can get the fuel light to come on with a quarter of a tank too if I'm going down a steep hill, but in normal circumstances it comes on about the same time, give or take a few km's.

Also hilarious argument about minimising weight for fuel economy in a car with every JDM gadget known to man.

Haha, can't argue with that! . To me it's also more of a psychological thing. If I only put $20 in and want to give the car a quick boot every now and then I don't feel as bad as I would compared to if I had just filled the tank.

[1I1]

Would normally chuck about $40-$50 worth of 98 in the Corolla. Daily Galant gets a full tank of 95 each time. Aint nobody got time fo stopping at the petrol station too often.

[rodstr]

I do $40 at a time at bp using AA smartfuel card and get 4c off or whatever promo theyre running.

Ill accumulate the savings, If the cents expire at the end of the month or I need to fill up, ill fill it up right to full.

example of my old reciept

[Boosted_162]

I fill it up once it gets to half empty. 75 litres @ $2.30 odd = far too much so half a tank hurts less

At $2.30 a litre, $20 would get me 68km! But they are 68 of the most comfy and best sounding km's

[loudstealthGT-Four]

I just chuck $40-50 in once a week. Only gets filled up if I'm going on a long trip.

[Bling]

Always fill it, better things to be doing.

$20 made me laugh. Ok I guess if you dont value your time and dont want aa fuel discounts.

[Pelo]

When I worked at a Mobil, 2001ish, fuel was around $1 a litre. Plenty of young guys would put $5 at a time in their GSR/GTX/Legacy, then choo-choo their way down the road See you again in a few hours...
I've always filled up from fuel light to full. Time spent at the gas station is time wasted!

[Leon]

Empty to full every time, unless I'm doing an economy test, in which case I might do Wellington - Taupo, and fill up at Taupo regardless of petrol level.