Fuel Range/DTE 10-mile increments

[ZDan]

Just discovered this as I ran out my first tankful last night. 50 miles, 50, 50, 50, then 40? WTF? 40-40-40-30, Ohhhh, WTF?! Is there *any* way to change this? GR86 apparently has 1-mile increments.

Combine that with, instead of an almost continuously decrementing fuel gauge of my old '17 (gotta be at least 64 little needle jumps from F to E), now there are 12 big fat discrete blocks that go out one by one.

So now I have way less precise info on how much fuel I have left and how far I can go before having to fill up.

The old dashboard/infoscreen is WAY better than the new one. It's like it went from 64-bit to 8-bit. Also everything being white is not a great look either.

[AK2112]

The distance to empty isn't perfectly accurate in any car, so limiting it to 10 mile increments makes fine sense.

It's a largely useless, redundant feature anyways. Just use the fuel gauge and common sense.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by AK2112

The distance to empty isn't perfectly accurate in any car, so limiting it to 10 mile increments makes fine sense.

It's a largely useless, redundant feature anyways. Just use the fuel gauge and common sense.

Of course it's not perfectly accurate, but when you look down and see "10 miles" in the *old* car, OK, it's reporting 10, not 9, and not 11, so I know I have 10 miles + whatever safe "reserve", +/- "error". In practice, safely you *know* you have at least 25 miles to get fuel with margin for error.

New system, look down and see "10 miles", it's not telling you nearly as much info at a time when it would be *very useful* to know whether it really means 19 miles, or 5 miles (+ safe "reserve" +/- error).

Accuracy is one thing, precision is another. It has taken away precision by a factor of 10x or more, for *no reason*.

10 mile increments makes zero sense, taking a formerly somewhat useful feature and *making* it useless. Combined with the new far worse fuel gauge, it's mildly infuriating. The old gauge had much much finer resolution, and continued to decrement past "E", new one with 12 massive blocks, each representing upwards of 30 miles. Combined, the new setup gives you *way* less info about how much fuel and range you have left. Stupid, senseless changes.

[vindiesel]

I have always been weird and never ran any of my vehicles to the fuel light or under 50miles to empty....potential starvation of fuel pump or having all the gunk concentrated in the fuel pump basket or an emergency that requires me to not stop at a gas station.

[dragoontwo]

I just think of each bar as 1 gallon.

[foshjowler]

In my experience, when the gas light comes on there's still 2 gallons in the tank. The most I've ever put in the car at one time was 11.5 gallons, and that was 2 autocross runs and about 5 miles after the gas light came on and there were "0 bars" of gas left. There's a lot of margin for error on these cars, I'm not the only one who's experienced this on both the BRZ and GR86.


As far as 10 mile increments, I think that's just a Subaru thing.

[Dzmitry]

Originally Posted by ZDan

Of course it's not perfectly accurate, but when you look down and see "10 miles" in the *old* car, OK, it's reporting 10, not 9, and not 11, so I know I have 10 miles + whatever safe "reserve", +/- "error". In practice, safely you *know* you have at least 25 miles to get fuel with margin for error.

New system, look down and see "10 miles", it's not telling you nearly as much info at a time when it would be *very useful* to know whether it really means 19 miles, or 5 miles (+ safe "reserve" +/- error).

Accuracy is one thing, precision is another. It has taken away precision by a factor of 10x or more, for *no reason*.

10 mile increments makes zero sense, taking a formerly somewhat useful feature and *making* it useless. Combined with the new far worse fuel gauge, it's mildly infuriating. The old gauge had much much finer resolution, and continued to decrement past "E", new one with 12 massive blocks, each representing upwards of 30 miles. Combined, the new setup gives you *way* less info about how much fuel and range you have left. Stupid, senseless changes.

I understand your thoughts here as I would feel the same haha. It's just a small feature I don't like is all. I don't own a second gen, but my mom and dad have a 2019 and 2020 Impreza and Crosstrek, both with a 10 mile increment fuel estimate. Not only are they more annoying to gauge fuel by, but they seem less accurate overall. I will literally see times when I go down 10 miles much quicker than the last increment, with no change in driving style. I will also see it go up 10, or even 20 miles at times as if I've all of a sudden gained fuel?? Horrible gauge, I hate it. Love my 2018 BRZ gauge of fuel. Of course it's not perfect, I've gone to 0 before and after filling up, I learned I still had a gallon left. But it's just nicer, feels more accurate, and gives a better idea of fuel left over. As you say, it just doesn't make sense to downgrade from such a gauge on a new generation vehicle. I don't disagree that we can all live with it and we can all gauge our fuel regardless. It's just a silly downgrade.

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by vindiesel

I have always been weird and never ran any of my vehicles to the fuel light or under 50miles to empty....potential starvation of fuel pump or having all the gunk concentrated in the fuel pump basket or an emergency that requires me to not stop at a gas station.

Same here. It's too often to get random traffic backups and stuff here, so I don't want to be idling on fumes hoping I'll make it to the next gas station before running out.

I typically fill up any car once I hit 1/4 tank.

[ZDan]

If you fuel up at 1/4-tank or 50 miles *indicated* remaining, you are refueling about 33% more often than you need to. For peeps who do this, the "new" setup with 10x less precision on *both* the fuel gauge *and* the range/DTE meter, not an issue at all.

Me, I like to run it down as near to empty as I safely can, with some reasonable margin. EASY with the old car reporting range all the way down 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1---. Where the new car is just gonna go from 10, to -- (I guess? Haven't been there yet). And while the old car's fuel gauge would tick down in tiny increments all the way to E, and beyond, giving useful info all the way, the new one is gonna have a giant 1/12-tank block that disappears and that's it. Like 25-30 mile resolution where the old one it's something like a couple of miles per tick IIRC.
Both are particularly galling because in the range, there's a digit that just stupidly stays at "0". And for the fuel tank the LCD gauge could be more continuously variable using more pixels like the voltmeter and oil temp gauges do, but NO, giant 1/12 blocks. Ditto the coolant temp with it's huge increments. Why?

FWIW here's some of my fillups from fuelly ranked by most fuel per fill. Never ran it out of fuel...

[WNDSRFR]

So you like to keep your car as heavy as possible? Do you keep your windshield washer full too?

Sorry just being a smart ass.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by WNDSRFR

So you like to keep your car as heavy as possible? Do you keep your windshield washer full too?

Sorry just being a smart ass.

By running all the way to nearly empty on the street, I'm on average running *lighter* on fuel than those who refill at 1/4 tank!

At the track I ran with a full tank +40 lb. ballast in the trunk with the '17, with empty washer fluid reservoir and 5 lb. Li battery, to meet my minimum weight for time-trial class with best weight distribution.

With the new one I'ma hafta run with full tank, massive stock battery, transplanted spare tire, plus another ~90 lb. in the trunk!

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by ZDan

If you fuel up at 1/4-tank or 50 miles *indicated* remaining, you are refueling about 33% more often than you need to.

I explained why I do it. Just yesterday going to meet a friend for lunch. About 11:10, random 10 minute highway stoppage at the I-40/I-44 junction. Sure idling doesn't use much fuel, but I see no point in running the tank as low as possible.

But I drive so little I really don't care if I'm filling up 40 miles too soon nor is the 3-4 minutes it takes a big deal. I've had the car since Sept 3rd and it still only has 1650 miles on it. And 250 of that was a trip to Tulsa two weeks ago to see a friend of ours.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by OkieSnuffBox

I explained why I do it. Just yesterday going to meet a friend for lunch. About 11:10, random 10 minute highway stoppage at the I-40/I-44 junction. Sure idling doesn't use much fuel, but I see no point in running the tank as low as possible.

Yup, our usage cases are very different!

But I drive so little I really don't care if I'm filling up 40 miles too soon nor is the 3-4 minutes it takes a big deal. I've had the car since Sept 3rd and it still only has 1650 miles on it. And 250 of that was a trip to Tulsa two weeks ago to see a friend of ours.

Yeah, I put a lot more miles on mine. Daily-driving/commuting, and also long trips. I do *not* want to stop 33% more often than I need to!

I *used* the much-greater range and fuel-tank gauge accuracy in the '17 PP. And I will most definitely *miss* getting to-the-mile range estimate *and* ~10x finer resolution fuel gauge with the new one's big clumsy 10-mile and 1-gallon increments

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by ZDan

Yup, our usage cases are very different!



Yeah, I put a lot more miles on mine. Daily-driving/commuting, and also long trips. I do *not* want to stop 33% more often than I need to!

I *used* the much-greater range and fuel-tank gauge accuracy in the '17 PP. And I will most definitely *miss* getting to-the-mile range estimate *and* ~10x finer resolution fuel gauge with the new one's big clumsy 10-mile and 1-gallon increments

I need to fill up now. I'll be curious to see what the mileage looked like. The trip to Tulsa was 240 miles roundtrip of which about 200 was the turnpike between the two where people drive FAST.

I was doing 85-95 on the way up most of the time a few times above 100. On the way back I was able to just set the cruise at 85. IIRC I have two bars and only about 270 miles on the trip meter.