Will It Be Enough?

The Fit holds about, and maybe less than, ten gallons in its tank.  I believe that it's getting a lot more mileage than my old Lexus; I can track it on my on-board screen and it says that it has, for the life of the car, been getting more than 30 miles per gallon, which is much more than the 20 the Lexus reached on its best days.

However, it still seems as though that increase in mileage is translating to saving money.  I have traditionally filled up my car once a week.  However, mostly because my commute to work is so gargantuan (even though I am now driving a subcompact), ever since I brought the car out of storage I have had to fill it up twice a week.  Since the tank is so small the amount I have to pay is small too; the gas station I usually go to requires a signature for credit card charges of $25 or more, so I haven't had to do that in a long time.  But since I do it twice, it feels like I'm paying as much as I do for filling up the Lexus.

Since that's a waste of fuel economy (or at least the perception of it) I am doing my best to put in as little as possible that will get me to Tuesday, which is when I usually fill up my tank because the gas station I go doubles discount coupons on that day.  I don't want to run out of gas in the middle of the highway, but every time I do this mid-week fill-up (usually on the weekend) I put in so much that I have enough -- not a lot, but enough -- that it feels like I spent too much money on gasoline I could have waited to pay at a double-discount on Tuesday.

Finding that line, where I put in just enough to get till Tuesday, has become a brain teaser for me.  I panic whenever the gas light comes on, usually when there are only two bars left on the dashboard.  (It has 20 bars total.)  But I get really peeved when there are five, four, even three of those bars when I pull into the station Tuesday night.  I have overestimated the amount of gas "just a little" goes in the Fit; last week I put in $5 and the tank was miraculously half-full.

So on Saturday I put in only $4.50.  The plan was that it was enough so that by the time I had time to fill up on Tuesday, there are no bars and the tank is on fumes.  However, I have deduced that it takes me four bars round-trip to get from work to home.  And this past weekend I only filled it up to four bars.

I looked at the dash a lot closer on Monday.  I really thought that those bars used to disappear much more slowly; it now feels as if the car's getting so old it is rapidly losing its once-touted mileage advantage.  I didn't think I was driving carelessly, either.  But I have lost half of the bars I started with Monday morning.

So I want to see if four bars will take me where I need to go today (Tuesday), and it's not just work.  I want to pick up my dry cleaning from the locker at my shrink's office, then walk to Sports Authority to think about buying shoes at a discount.  I then need to go to the library to print out some stuff for Mother and maybe cut down on my e-mail, which I have let swell up again.  Then, after maybe getting something to eat, I need to start driving back home by stopping to finally get my hair cut.  Then and only then can I go to the gas station to finally fill up my tank all the way.  And I need to run all over the Twin Cities on just four bars.

I have some trepidation, but honestly, I kind of want to know how far four bars on my Fit will go.  If it can get me to the gas station tonight (Tuesday night), perfect, then I will know how economical my car really is on gasoline.  And if it doesn't, well, I have my AAA and can call for help.  Either way, I want to know.