How far can I go after range gets to 0 miles? (1.0 TSi)

[DriverofaVWPolo]

I need to drive 29 miles and my range is showing 30 miles. Will I be able to make it for sure?

[SRGTD]

There’s no one simple answer to your question as lots of factors affect mpg and range - e.g.;

• Traffic conditions, time of day, volume of traffic, type(s) road you’ll be driving on. You’re much more likely to get better mpg at a steady speed on an A road or motorway when abiding by the speed limits that you will driving at peak times in a built up area in stop start traffic with a high volume of traffic

• Starting your journey form cold - your mpg will be lower than your long term average until the engine’s fully warmed up, which may mean your true range will be less than 30 miles if that 30 mile remaining range was calculated by the car’s fuel computer following a journey where the engine was up to normal operating temperature.

You may still be able to drive a short distance once the range is shown as zero. However, I’ve never tried it so don’t know what that short distance may be.

With the current problems of actually being able to get petrol, I think I would put off making the journey if at all possible or consider the alternatives. Is public transport an option? Diesel trains and buses are probably not affected (or not as severely affected) in the same way as the private motorist is, as they may their own fuel storage tanks at the rail / bus depots - if so, then their supplies won’t have been depleted by the stupidity of the panic buyers. Electric trains should also be running normally.

[lancslad1985]

When I used to buy from Lookers the test drive cars regularly said 0 miles and would happily do 5/10 mile test drives. Apparently most VWs have 5L of their fuel as reserve fuel, so I’m guessing it reads zero at 5L before empty.

I wouldn’t recommend it though as you’ll pull all the crap through your engine. As SRGTD said, put it off or find another way would be the best thing. You don’t want to run out of petrol and I’ve seen a lot of empty cars last few days.

[Johntheo1]

I need to drive 29 miles and my range is showing 30 miles. Will I be able to make it for sure?

What was the gauge indicating with that range of 30 miles?.

[Andy Beats]

When I used to buy from Lookers the test drive cars regularly

I came across this recently, I will never understand dealers who give people test drives in cars with no fuel.
Just instantly gives the driver anxiety and takes away from them enjoying the drive.

FWIW electric cars will also often go miles after the range says zero too, CARWOW do tests where they drive them until they literally stop.
30+ miles isn't unusual.

[Harrihealey02]

When the odometer says “0 miles remaining” you are guaranteed 10 miles at least. I’ve travelled 25 miles after it read “0 miles” on the remaining fuel level and I filled up at the petrol station and it filled around 38 litres out of a 40 litre tank. So I could have gotten a full 40 miles.

In my Ford Fiesta it was a different story, only managed to get 10 miles after “0 miles remaining” and had to get it towed.

[Johntheo1]

"0 miles remaining" on my first car meant just that, the engine stopped, it didn't even have a petrol gauge but did have a reserve of 5 litres which you obtained by turning a c/o cock (close to the dimmer switch) with your foot.

[silverhairs]

Why let your petrol get that low in the first place?
When the tank is near on empty, and during the warm days and cold nights, this can form condensation, and the more surface area exposed, the more condensation can form. Water and engines don't mix very well.
There are many people who say "why drag around a full tank of petrol, it will effect your MPG", but on the other hand you won't be on here asking "How far can you go when the gauge reads 0?"

As for petrol shortages in my area, the forecourts were full for the first couple of days, everybody stopped panic buying, but after that, back too normal.
Myself I wasn't really bothered because my Polo's third birthday is one month away, and I've only got 7900 miles on the clock, and with the shutdown, I visit the pumps every three months, and I had just over 3/4 of a tank, and I've still not purchased any fuel.
Looking at the news, the main shortage was in London, but then again, what else do you expect? And before you start about me talking about the London population like that, I come from London!

[SRGTD]

Why let your petrol get that low in the first place?

At the height of the media-created fuel shortage last week, it was unavoidable for some car owners to run their fuel tanks lower than they normally would, especially if they needed to use their cars for work or other essential journeys and couldn’t replace the fuel they’d used. The location forum member (@DriverofaVWPolo) who started this discussion thread is London, and as you’ve acknowledged, London was particularly adversely affected.

The selfish panic buyers who caused the filling stations to run out of fuel were probably the same selfish panic buyers who cleared the supermarket shelves of toilet rolls, pasta, sanitizer and other essential supplies during the first Covid lockdown last year.

Hopefully fuel supplies are getting back to normal in most parts of the UK, and those areas that still have shortages will hopefully also soon be back to normal.

[Andy Beats]

Why let your petrol get that low in the first place?
When the tank is near on empty, and during the warm days and cold nights, this can form condensation, and the more surface area exposed, the more condensation can form. Water and engines don't mix very well.
There are many people who say "why drag around a full tank of petrol, it will effect your MPG", but on the other hand you won't be on here asking "How far can you go when the gauge reads 0?"

As for petrol shortages in my area, the forecourts were full for the first couple of days, everybody stopped panic buying, but after that, back too normal.
Myself I wasn't really bothered because my Polo's third birthday is one month away, and I've only got 7900 miles on the clock, and with the shutdown, I visit the pumps every three months, and I had just over 3/4 of a tank, and I've still not purchased any fuel.
Looking at the news, the main shortage was in London, but then again, what else do you expect? And before you start about me talking about the London population like that, I come from London!

Retired man that does bugger-all mileage can't understand why someone would have an empty tank in a fuel shortage.
Imagine that.

[monkeyhanger]

Retired man that does bugger-all mileage can't understand why someone would have an empty tank in a fuel shortage.
Imagine that.

18 months silence and then...did someone say "Beetlejuice" 3 times?

[Leif]

Why let your petrol get that low in the first place?
When the tank is near on empty, and during the warm days and cold nights, this can form condensation, and the more surface area exposed, the more condensation can form. Water and engines don't mix very well.
There are many people who say "why drag around a full tank of petrol, it will effect your MPG", but on the other hand you won't be on here asking "How far can you go when the gauge reads 0?"

As for petrol shortages in my area, the forecourts were full for the first couple of days, everybody stopped panic buying, but after that, back too normal.
Myself I wasn't really bothered because my Polo's third birthday is one month away, and I've only got 7900 miles on the clock, and with the shutdown, I visit the pumps every three months, and I had just over 3/4 of a tank, and I've still not purchased any fuel.
Looking at the news, the main shortage was in London, but then again, what else do you expect? And before you start about me talking about the London population like that, I come from London!

Retired man that does bugger-all mileage can't understand why someone would have an empty tank in a fuel shortage.
Imagine that.

That is a complete misrepresentation of what he said.

Where I live, East Hampshire, the fuel shortage is real. We’ve had a juniors hockey tournament cancelled. It means I get cheap ice, and there’s extra public skating, but I’d rather the tournament went ahead. The fuel shortage is a nightmare, most petrol stations are empty. We had congestion due to long queues at stations, with roads blocked, and massive waits for traffic trying to get past the queues. I’m due a courtesy car when mine is repaired, I only hope it has fuel, and I’m going to photograph my fuel gauge when it goes in. I know someone who filled up his diesel with A-1 jet fuel!

[monkeyhanger]

Why let your petrol get that low in the first place?
When the tank is near on empty, and during the warm days and cold nights, this can form condensation, and the more surface area exposed, the more condensation can form. Water and engines don't mix very well.
There are many people who say "why drag around a full tank of petrol, it will effect your MPG", but on the other hand you won't be on here asking "How far can you go when the gauge reads 0?"

As for petrol shortages in my area, the forecourts were full for the first couple of days, everybody stopped panic buying, but after that, back too normal.
Myself I wasn't really bothered because my Polo's third birthday is one month away, and I've only got 7900 miles on the clock, and with the shutdown, I visit the pumps every three months, and I had just over 3/4 of a tank, and I've still not purchased any fuel.
Looking at the news, the main shortage was in London, but then again, what else do you expect? And before you start about me talking about the London population like that, I come from London!

Retired man that does bugger-all mileage can't understand why someone would have an empty tank in a fuel shortage.
Imagine that.

That is a complete misrepresentation of what he said.

Where I live, East Hampshire, the fuel shortage is real. We’ve had a juniors hockey tournament cancelled. It means I get cheap ice, and there’s extra public skating, but I’d rather the tournament went ahead. The fuel shortage is a nightmare, most petrol stations are empty. We had congestion due to long queues at stations, with roads blocked, and massive waits for traffic trying to get past the queues. I’m due a courtesy car when mine is repaired, I only hope it has fuel, and I’m going to photograph my fuel gauge when it goes in. I know someone who filled up his diesel with A-1 jet fuel!

I thought it was afair representation. He doesn't understand the logic of running a tank so low. When you do a normal mileage, many fill right up and then refill when the car gets right down, but they do that and then the shortage is announced and they're stuck with a low tank. The whole thing about condensation has been a moot point for many years since car manufacturers switched to plastic tanks.

The shortage seems to be a non issue in much of the North after the first few days when the panic buyers filled up at a rate that bucked normal demand. locally at Newcastle and then auditing around Doncaster and Hull this week, no shortages. My Dad, who lives in the Fawley area of Southampton has no bother getting diesel currently either.

I suppose it would be almost a non-news event nationally if only the North had supply issues, but London is always big news.

Wasn't an issue for me as my car runs on the flow of electrons.

[Leif]

Retired man that does bugger-all mileage can't understand why someone would have an empty tank in a fuel shortage.
Imagine that.

That is a complete misrepresentation of what he said.

Where I live, East Hampshire, the fuel shortage is real. We’ve had a juniors hockey tournament cancelled. It means I get cheap ice, and there’s extra public skating, but I’d rather the tournament went ahead. The fuel shortage is a nightmare, most petrol stations are empty. We had congestion due to long queues at stations, with roads blocked, and massive waits for traffic trying to get past the queues. I’m due a courtesy car when mine is repaired, I only hope it has fuel, and I’m going to photograph my fuel gauge when it goes in. I know someone who filled up his diesel with A-1 jet fuel!

I thought it was afair representation. He doesn't understand the logic of running a tank so low. When you do a normal mileage, many fill right up and then refill when the car gets right down, but they do that and then the shortage is announced and they're stuck with a low tank. The whole thing about condensation has been a moot point for many years since car manufacturers switched to plastic tanks.

The shortage seems to be a non issue in much of the North after the first few days when the panic buyers filled up at a rate that bucked normal demand. locally at Newcastle and then auditing around Doncaster and Hull this week, no shortages. My Dad, who lives in the Fawley area of Southampton has no bother getting diesel currently either.

I suppose it would be almost a non-news event nationally if only the North had supply issues, but London is always big news.

Wasn't an issue for me as my car runs on the flow of electrons.

I think you have both misread his post, however we are going to disagree on this I think.

Down here the shortages were made far worse by panic buying. I saw people with a car and jerry cans. And I am sure people with a little used second car were filling both up. Plus big SUVs were filling their tanks, even when they did only local trips.

When panic buying started, the fuel stations here had long queues for days. Normally they just have a few cars at a time. Roads were blocked, I had to go cross country to avoid one half mile long tail back. I couldn’t get into Morrisons thanks to the congestion. Hardly surprising they sold out.

The result was that all filling stations were empty. Would there have been shortages had there been no panic buying? I don’t know, perhaps,perhaps not, but not such that all five garages I passed on a recent 15 mile journey were out of fuel.

Bracknell is still in trouble, a friend in Bucks cannot find fuel. East Hants is improving. It’s not just London, but yes London does grab the news.

[Andy Beats]

So, does anyone believe the 'conspiracy theory' that it was all a rouse to sell ageing petrol before it went off?