When your fuel light comes on, how many miles does your tank have on it?

[Crossover37]

So my mpg is bad and I am annoyed with it but I'm hoping that it will get better. I've heard you need to drive a few thousand miles before it's broken in but that wasn't the case with my brand new Altima when I got it in 2007. It had great mpg right away for the most part.

I'm keeping a log of my miles on the tank once the fuel light comes on so I can see if my miles per tank is improving with each fill-up. Last week the fuel light came on and my odometer showed 360 miles with 660 miles total on the car. I drive 70/30 city/highway and my 2002 Civic LX Couple gets around 300-310 miles once the light comes 50/50 city/highway (but I floor it a little more) on it and has a 13 gallon tank compared to the 18.5 gallon tank on the Optima. I drive the Optima like a grandma by the way.

What are your numbers? Please specify your city/highway breakdown and how many total miles you have on the car along with your car trim.

[lineonemightyfine]

2012 SX
85/15 (highway/city)
Just bought it last week, I've only filled it up twice. I assume the first tank had top tier gas in it since it was full when I bought it.

My fuel light came on this morning - the car estimated I had 62 miles DTE. I filled up shortly after with 16.079 gallons.

This fill-ups stats:

* miles driven: 468
* mpg: 29.1
* drove in ECO mode 99% of the time

Previous fill-up:
* 11.767 gallons
* miles driven: 401
* mpg: 34
* drove in ECO mode 99% of the time

One thing of note, the first time I filled up I used a non-top tier gas station, so that may explain my mpg drop-off from 34-29. I drove basically the same way. Avg around 65-70 mph on the highway, with several short bursts to 75-80 mph.

I've refueled from a top tier gas station and driving with ECO off to see what I get out of it. Right out of the gate, my mpg went up to 33 mpg, so I'm hoping the top tier gas made a difference so I can drive with ECO off all the time. I'd prefer to do that given the sluggish nature of driving with it on.

[Black_V!per]

Please do a search as this question has been answered at least 3 times in the last month in separate threads.