Running out of petrol

[jmh740]

So after a discussion with Oh yesterday can I ask how many times you have ever run out of petrol and how many years you have been driving.

Person A run out once in 25 years of driving.

Person B run out 4 times in 30 years of driving.

Person A thinks B is irresponsible and most people have never run out. Person B thinks 4 times in 30 years is not much.

46 years, never. But I was on a National Express coach once that ran out of fuel.

Never ever in my cough 25 years of driving, but it got a bit touch and go a few years ago when people were queuing out of the petrol stations because of supply issues. Not let it get under 1/4 of a tank since then.

I also am trying to remember if petrol stations were quite so frequent back in those days? I do remember doing longer drives in my home country and sometimes starting to get a bit nervous when realising that the distance between towns/petrol stations were pretty hefty. But these days, with most cars getting pretty good milage and a petrol station on every street corner AND cars with beeps and flashing lights when you are getting low... there's just no excuse.

29 years driving and I have never run out of petrol but have been close a couple of times.

Once in 35 years. In my defence the gauge was broken.

It was years ago so had no phone or breakdown cover. On a busy B road. A motorist stopped and I had to give them my boyfriends phone number and ask him to come out with some petrol. Amazingly it all worked out, I didn't even know if he would be at home.

28yrs and never. Although I've ran on fumes on more occasions than I care to admit 🤣

Once when I bought a car.
They claimed it had enough fuel in it to get to a petrol station. They lied it ran out in half a mile, which was about half a mile from the petrol station.

30 years, never run out of fuel.

I somehow managed to fill a diesel car with petrol once, I'd owned the same car for 10 years.

25 years of driving, never run out. Get antsy when I'm under a quarter of a tank to be honest

Once in 20+ years. It began juddering on the retail park where the petrol station is located so I pulled over safely into a parking bay and was back with a can 10 minutes later.

I don't like going to red and I normally fill up in passing when I'm approaching that zone but just hadn't co-ordinated doing it very well that time over a series of short journeys and ended up going lower than usual. I didn't know the warning light flashed at critical. Fortunately that was as I was turning off the main road into a safer area.

I have memories of a family holiday as a child of running on fumes on a Sunday in France desperately trying to find an open petrol station so we could fill up before going to catch the ferry 2 hours away. We made it, but it cured Dad of not filling up soon enough.

Never run out. There's no excuse for it, there's a gauge and a warning light in your car. In Germany, and possibly other countries, it's illegal to stop on the Autobahn. Which means you get fined for running out of fuel because it's preventable.

37 years and only came close once.

30 years and never run out. My DH likes to moan about how driving the car when the petrol is very low is bad for the engine so I try not to let it drop below a quarter tbh. Something about sludge, I don't know, I didn't listen.

20-odd years and my light came on twice.

Lol yes.
The first 2 times were in my first couple of years driving and I was really poor and was trying to stretch money out.

My petrol gauge doesn't show how many miles I have left. The other 2 times I've run out on the way to the petrol station last time I was literally 10 feet away from the station.

Oh has only run out when he was a teen and living in the Highlands.

Older cars fuel gauges weren't nearly as comprehensive.
In our 56 plate that died recently, a clio, it was just four lights. Being on the last light meant 100 miles left!

No but I have come close on a couple of occasions. I would not judge anyone that did. If you are distracted or have a lot going on then I can see how it might happen.

My father taught me to monitor my mileage. So even if my gauge was broken I'd know beause I'm always keeping an eye on the mileage (also, it would never happen now because my car uses so much more petrol once it drops below half that I try to fill up at th ehalf way point).

37 years never ran out

DH 43years ran out once on the M4 when the kids were a baby and a toddler. I was absolutely bloody fuming. Fortunately it was in the days of the RAC attending within about half an hour of your call.

22 years. Once, when the petrol gauge broke and it looked like I still had a 1/4 tank left but it was empty.

An interesting thread!!

32 years of driving here and have run out 5 times - to be fair the last 4 times have been in the past few months as the fuel gauge was no longer accurate after some work was done on the fuel tank, and no warning light ever came on. That car is now no more.

My DH would be person A!

it would never happen now because my car uses so much more petrol once it drops below half that I try to fill up at th ehalf way point).

Eh? How would that work? Your engine doesn't care how much fuel sits in the background. If anything you should be using less fuel because you don't have to use energy to move the weight of the fuel. You need to get a garage to look at your fuel gauge.

Over 30 years and never.
Stretched my luck a few times though 😬

DH- 50 years and ran out once when he was 18. Never run out since.

Me- only when we lived overseas, 12 years and never ran out due to DH’s habit of filling up before down to 1/4 left. Made sense to me so I did the same.