Quick tip on "distance until empty"
 

Zero means zero. I was lucky to find this out stopped at a severe downhill with the gas station on the far side of the light. Were it not for that, would be a pretty embarrassing phone call!

Ha! That's useful info. Cheers.

My engine quit at 32 km remaining on the day I took delivery from the truck here in Europe. Luckily I had some good friends to help and we were only about 300 meters from a gas station!

It's not like an American car where E means you've still got gas!

I always thought there was an emergency reservoir. Well I'm here to say there is not! Hopefully I have saved someone a painful experience.

Thank you for sharing this info. My Lexus has 20 - 30 miles on it when it says zero. Good tip for my European Delivery next month.

On my first test drive the tester ran out of gas while showing 18 miles left. . .my buddy and I took an uber back to the dealership while my sales associate waited for someone to bring gas. As we started the test drive I asked if we should be concerned with the gas light on and the sales guy says "no, it's fine" lol.

Oh, for the "good old days." The first Porsche I drove in 1964 (my father's 356) had a simple fuel valve under the dash that gave you a 1-1/2 gallon reserve when twisted 90 degrees to the right. If the gauge was low and the engine started stumbling, you just reached under the dash and twisted it, then started looking for a gas station before you ran all the way out.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...e7ea349db7.jpg
:)
TT

My dad drove '50s and early '60s VW Beetles. Same thing. He would run it down to empty, switch to reserve and look for a gas station. Drove me crazy, even as a kid. I preached the 1/2 tank rule to my kids - I better not catch them with less than 1/2 tank in their cars, especially in winter. I think it sorta stuck.

My wife's father taught her the same thing--fill up when you hit 1/2 a tank on the gauge, and I agree that's a good rule. He was a career Engineman 1st Class in the Navy, and then taught diesel mechanics for twenty years as a civilian employee of the Navy, so he knew what he was talking about. Other than eliminating the "out of fuel" emergency, it prevents condensation from the air in the tank adding to the presence of water contaminating the fuel load. She now drives an electric car and hasn't been to a gas station in 5 years, so it's not an issue any more (replaced, however, by range anxiety over the state of the battery charge on longer trips).

The other issue with the fuel valve was that you could forget to turn it back to "On" from "Reserve" after filling up, and therefore there would be no reserve the next time you tried to use it. :mad:

TT

Typical German engineering - to be precise about "0."

As the ex-owner of 2x 356s... This ^ ! I'd never remember which was which either... and the petcock would eventually start leaking and smelling inside the car.. and if you never used reserve you never picked up the crud from the bottom of the tank, so the day you needed it, surprise !!! Cool feature though, I liked it.

Also in 981's and 991's When the gas pump 'clicks', IT's FULL. No more rounding to the nearest dollar, it will overflow. Even going .50 causes gas all over the ground. Don't ask me how I know :(

It kills my OCDness.

Might have been the hill - my 991 had about 1.5 gal reserve.

I've run all my German cars to zero and beyond without it dying.