has anybody ever checked how many miles you get per tank (not the well i avg 30mpg so....)really gone on a long trip and checked how many miles per tank you were getting

 

Unless you run the tank to empty, I don't think it will be the same measurement every time. I don't fill up my tank at the same point each time. The best way to do it is to take your distance travelled on your trip meter since your last fillup, then divide the number of gallons it takes to go back to full on your next fillup.

 

That is it............

 

Lets see...

In April, I remember gassing up in Yreka, CA. I then drove all the way to Portland OR, ran around town for a day and a half, and then got about 20 miles into WA state before filling up again. Which THRILLED me because it meant not having to suffer some pump jockey trying to fuel my vette, you know because Oregon apparently feels its citizens are incapable of understanding the workings of the typical U.S. gas pump. But I digress.

I figure that was an EASY 400 miles, and I only needed 15 gallons. I'm sure that if not for 100 miles of in-town driving with Portland traffic, I could have gone 500 miles but the tank would be damn near dry by then.

 

what i did is fill the tank, reset the tripmeter drove the car to work and only to work (everyday78 mls a day,all highway w/ no more than 10 seconds to worm up)at a 65-75 mph pace and the car was avr 26-28 mpg the whole time,the thing is after puting 315mls the car was telling me that i have 40mls to empty and the check gauges light was on, so lets see 315+40=355miles to the tank but i was avg 26-28mpg on a aprx.18gal.tank so lets do the math.
car said im avrg 26-28mpg so i should had put at least 468mls before empty, but in reality im only getting 355 miles to the tank which means im really avrg.about 20mpg
the reason i posted this is that many people here said they avr. 28-33mpg but that is what the car said but most people have never really checked if that is true

 

I grew up in the points ,condenser and coil ignition era,,my first car was a 59 VW bug .The old bugs did not have gas gauges(just a manual reserve lever,like motorcycles used to have) I developed the habit back then of keeping track of my mileage.(useful inf to estimate when you were going to hit reserve and or when mileage started to fall off a tune up was due) T this day I keep a note book in each vehicle and record the date/odom. miles/trip meter miles/the gallons/and on the vet I note the DIC average and calculate and notate the actual MPG. So when I say I'm getting in the low 20's in the city that's the actual "Do the Math" MPG.I fill the tank at the slower speed then do a few extra click off's to mac sure it is topped off pretty tight. I've only had her out for 1 240 mile trip that still had around 4o city miles and got an actual 28 mpg ( I will be taking a trip from the St.Louis area to Atlanta soon and will get some all highway #s soon) Reseting all the DIC functions each time I have found the DIC average MPG is pretty consistently around 1.2 to 1.4 MPG "happy" but it is still a good indicator as to how you are driving!!

 

That's the best way to really get the actual milage. The DIC is generous BTW the DIC gets its number from Injector Pulse rate and time and mph etc..

 

I'd read something about the fuel pump overheating and wearing out faster if you run too low on fuel so I never go below 1/4 tank. My average on 3/4 of a tank is 240 miles and my best was 325 miles. I got 26 mpg on that tank.

Also, the C5 has three different low fuel indicators. Reserve Fuel will appear when you have about 3 gallons left. Low Fuel will appear when you have about 45 miles left. And Low Range will appear on the miles remaining indicator when you have about 30 miles left.

 

Ive gone about 415 miles on one tank before. They were all highway miles though. I think I had probably about a 1/8th of a tank or a little less left when I filled up.

 

I went as far as 450 miles on a tank of gas in my '00. But it was getting pretty low on gas. Most of the time I filled up when the gauge read about 1/4 tank left.

 

I made the 420 mile trip from Athens, OH to Niagara falls. I filled up just a few miles before Buffalo. but only because I wanted to fill up in the US, not Canada. I still had a ways to go before empty. Funny thing is, the few miles from there to the hotel(after running around trying to figure out where the heck to go) took almost a 1/4 tank.

 

Dang, I've gotta read that manual someday! Nice to know, but after all the decades of wildly inaccurate GM gas guages, I won't trust it that much! Besides, after 325-350 miles on the road I gotta have coffee.

Interestingly, the DIC is usually off by 1.5 to 2 mpg. On a 4,500 miles trip the wife's Impala was totally accurate on each tank and overall. Wonder how the General missed on the Vette but got it right on the Impala?

 

One can do 500 miles but in trying it began to sweat after 475 so I gassed up. It would not be fun to run out of fuel in one of these buggies.

 

I have an '02 vert with six speed and on 91 octane gas (the highest octane I could find in Missouri) I went 498 miles and it only took a little over 15 gallons to fill it back up. I was amazed at the mpg I got that day driving from Branson, Mo. back to just south of Jackson, Mississippi.
Many of those miles were on two lane hilly roads up in Mo. and Arkansas and I had to use fourth and fifth gears quite a bit.
If anyone is interested in buying my '02, I have it listed in the C5 for sale section with photos and complete description. I have just reduced the price to $28,500.
The only reason I am selling it is because I have a bad left knee and can't do the clutch anymore.

These cars are great for long trips (500-600 miles in a day)

Sanford in Saraland, Al.

 

I have gone 496 miles in mixed driving. When I filled up it took 15.8 gallons. I try to get all the winter gas that is mixed with stay-bil out and fill it up fresh.

 

I bought my 2002 6 speed vert in Redding CA. Filled it up there and headed to Washington state. Low fuel light came on as I crossed the border into washington and I gassed up at a Chevron. Took 15.33 gallons and I think I had about 470 miles on the tank and it worked out to 30.6 MPG. Man I love this car.