£10 for 30 miles??

[patooties]

I’ve just put a tenner (bang on a tenner) worth of unleaded fuel into a 1.5l car. It was reading 55 miles left as I did it - after £10 of fuel it rose to 86miles.

does this sound like the petrol station is stealing - or is that really how many miles a tenner of fuel gets? I don’t have that setting visible on my cars dashboard.

WIBU to go back to them or report them or something?

£10 will get you about 5.8 litres of fuel.
my car is a 1l Corsa and does 10 miles to a litre, so I’d expect 50 miles.
I’ve worked this out over time, no gadgets on my car.

The unleaded last night was £1.749 so times 4.55 equals £7.96. So you bought roughly 1.25 (one and a quarter) gallon. Which means your car is saying it does 24hours to the gallon, which for stop/start local stuff isn’t unreasonable/unrealistic.

That should be 24miles to the gallon.

£10 so just over a gallon ?

30 to 50 miles per gallon Depending on the car and how it’s driven?

it would be trading standards to report but it doesn’t sound off particularly

add in the approximate reading from a petrol gauge I doubt they are fiddling the pumps

1.79 per litre 4.546 litres to a gallon = £8.13 per gallon

so 1.23 gallons

Honda 1.4 = 46 to 52 mpg (depending on drive style)

= between 56 and 63 miles

So as said many times 30 is likely a bit too low - because you're using the wrong measure 'miles left' is not accurate.

Where did you fill up? If it was a mainstream petrol station then I highly doubt there's an issue with the fuel or pump.

Putting such a small amount of fuel in your car will barely register on the gauge. If you're going to complain to anyone, the thing likely at fault is the accuracy of the gauge/ the car manufacturer.

I think you are just massively overthinking this. I don't even look at the miles left on my car because it's not very accurate.

Op on the basis you’ve said it’s not your car, is the issue that you’ve borrowed or hired a car and put £10 in thinking that would replace what you’ve used? As others have said, £10 is nothing these days and the miles left gauge is always going to be a rough guesstimate and not based on actual driving conditions.

In the extremely unlikely scenario the garage was on the fiddle, it would only be a tiny amount that would be missing (pennies worth). Certainly not enough to make a difference to the predicted mileage.

You do realise the miles left on the dashboard is an estimate the cars computer makes based on your driving style? The fuel dial showing full / quarter / half is what matters.

😁😁😁 I wish there was still a laughing emoji … here with the popcorn too, wish I could be there in person 😁😁😁

The Fuel Police.

If you really think there's a fraud and it's nothing to do with average journeys and increased pricing which means your £10 doesn't get as much fuel, please do report.

But don't forget that taxpayers money will be used to investigate and so IMO you ought to be a bit more responsible and at least know the make and model of the car and be prepared to actually be helpful with exact dates, times, receipts to show price and fuel purchased etc, otherwise you're just shouting off and creating admin which will take up someone's time and resource so if you CBA to do a good job of helpfully reporting it then please don't- I would be appalled if resource went into looking at a complaint from some randomer who couldn't provide basic information zand just wanted to shout "fraud!" because they have a hunch that fuel is expensive for a car they don't normally drive.

5 litres is about a gallon so it's possible with a 1.5l SUV and some kinds of driving that you'd only get 30 miles out of it. Given that the 'miles left' thing isn't that accurate, I certainly wouldn't go back and complain! (Unless you want to give them something to laugh about.)

How many litres of fuel did you put in? Does it tally with the price displayed? That's all you need to know. The "miles left" function can never be accurate (on any car) because it depends on so many variants. I think you would very probably make yourself look silly if you made a complaint purely based on what you have said here. Try filling a can, which is a designated amount, and see what you get.

I never ever look at the 'range' left. Not accurate, at least in my car.

This is insane it may have only increased by 10 miles but in reality as you start driving it will either go up further or do 50 miles before dropping 😆

The only reasonable thing to report would be getting less than you have paid for. You have no way of telling that this is the case as the measure you are judging from does not just relate to amount of fuel.

I'm glad somebody understands this. If you crunch the numbers OP the car is essentially estimating that you'll get a shade under 25mpg. That'll presumably be because the last few miles you drove before sticking the petrol in were at around that level of fuel economy, which isn't at all unusual around town in traffic. Reporting the garage off the back of it is absolutely mental but I'm sure it'll give somebody somewhere a good laugh.

And ... fuel gauges like this underestimate the distance to be travelled so you don't run out of petrol!

When my fuel dial shows empty the car still goes?

That may not be accurate reading? My car takes 51L of fuel and does 400m per full tank. At current prices that is 21.5p per mile - so £10 fuel will do 47 miles. That’s still seriously hideous though.

There are things you can do to improve fuel efficiency though: make sure tyres are not worn and are fully inflated, drive and 50-59mph on the motor way, avoid rapid acceleration, and make sure you have as little excess weight (ie unpack unnecessary stuff in the boot), remove roof racks if you aren’t using them, and avoid using the air con etc. ie, drive like my PiL!

If you park on a slope the fuel dial shows more or less than there really is depending on the direction of the slope. The dial measures how deep the petrol is in the petrol tank. (at one end)

Once I've fueled up my range goes up when I start driving, it’s based on average of how it’s been driven up to refuel if then how you drive after refuelling.

This reminds me of a young woman that was interviewed for the tv news about the rising fuel costs she came out with "well i dont think the price has gone up, i always put £20 of fuel in and it is still costing me £20 so it hasn't gone up"

My car is a basic old little runabout with just a guage showing how full or empty the tank is - that's all I ever go on. It doesn't tell me how many miles are left. Did your fuel tank display change? Is that still a thing!?

If I do a long run my miles left goes up! As it re calculates based on the economy of the drive, it is highly inaccurate and subjective. Did you look at the number of litres dispensed? Or at your fuel gauge? Mind you £10 doesn't buy a lot of fuel these days, how much a litre was it?