With the gauge indicating less than one quarter or about 40-60 miles remaining I'm able to fill the vehicle tank with 14 gallons consistently. This tells me I have four gallons left in the tank which is equivalent to more than 50 miles.

 

The number of miles you see on the "range" is not an exact number. That number factors in how much gas is in the vehicle plus calculating your driving habits to give you that number. It will always be changing. I normally do local driving, but when I go on the highway and for quite some distance, the miles shown on the range stays the same for a couple of miles.

 

The warnings come early because Nissan does NOT want you running the tank low, because the fuel pump is inside the tank, and depends on being immersed in fuel is order to prevent overheating. Also, if you run out of fuel in this baby, you could ruin your catalytic converter, and, depending on where you get it replaced, you could be talking anywhere from $395 to $895 bucks.

The days of my youth, where running out of fuel meant simply walking to the nearest gas station, are long since over.

 

Also, re-reading this post, I don't see any problems. Your range is showing roughly how many miles you're calculating. So what's inaccurate?

I don't see how running out of gas can ruin your cat.

 

I agree with the mileage changing as you drive. In the beginning i was getting like 22 MPG with the traffic in the mornings. But as I drove it more and now have a better schedule averaging ABOUT 31mpg which also increases my total tank miles. When I was filling it up it said I would get about 450 now its closer to 490 a tank.

 

I don't know the exact chemistry/interaction involved, but that warning was in the Owner's Manual several generations ago, and, not having had time to read through this 8th gen manual completely, I thought that situation probably has not changed. As I recall that situation, the wording in the manual was 'may result in your vehicle catalytic converter not being able to pass emission tests.' Where I live, that means no license tag for the car.

But I have far more relevant reasons for never letting my tank drop below one-fourth full. Service station fuel pumps require electricity to operate. With the increasing violence of the storms we are having with this forty years of increasing temperatures, power outages are going to become more common. The storms in Atlanta yesterday knocked out power to many thousands of folks, including all gas stations, traffic lights, etc, in the areas involved. Flooding can also cause problems in that, even after the water goes down, if gas got into the underground storage tanks at service stations, that gas is ruined. I also am on back roads a lot, especially when out west, and it can be a long way between gas stations out there.

 

From Climate.gov (and that's out of the government's mouth!). Warming, perhaps, but infinitessimal (I think it was something like a quarter of a degree), and a natural cycle.

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Yes, infinitessimally, but scientists say eleven of the twelve hottest years ever recorded on earth have occurred since 1998. And they say that arctic and anarctic ice is melting at the fastest rate ever recorded. And they say that the sea level is rising at a rate faster than has ever been recorded.

I understand there are scientists, especially those associated in some way with energy companies, who say otherwise. But I have seen lots of changes in climate since the 1930s, and I understand we don't know all the reasons involved. I personally think a major cause is the tremendous loss of tree canopy around the earth in the last several hundred years. I'm not trying to be a revolutionary, and I don't mean to make anyone angry. I just think we should at least be considering taking action to help the only planet we have that will support life as we know it. Whether part of the problem is man-made or not, man can certainly work toward helping keep problems from becoming worse than they otherwise will.

But then I have been on this soapbox since 1980, and nobody's mind has changed in the intervening 36 years. This is not the forum for climatology anyway. And my degrees are in engineering and geophysics, not climatology, so I need to keep my mouth shut. I'd rather talk about this 2016 Maxima, which gets very good fuel efficiency for a 3600 pound vehicle with 300 HP. I am ordering black splash guards for my silver Platinum, as they will blend with the black rear diffuser I already have, with the black wheelwell molding I have installed, with the black vinyl I will be installing inside the wheel wells, and with the small, discreet black mud flaps I will add to the bottom of the splash guards. When I finish, I will post photos.