What do you leave your trip computer set to? Distance to Empty? Elapsed time?

rickhamilton620

has a fetish for terrible cars
Joined
Nov 28, 2009
Messages
16,962
Location
Mount Wolf, PA
Car(s)
2023 Mazda CX-5 Premium
VzwlCU3.jpg


My particular trim of XJ doesn't have a trip computer. However when I drive a car with one, I usually have it set either on Distance to Empty or Average MPG.

What do you leave yours on?
 
Instant MPG, or whatever supplementary instrumentation screen is available usually.
 
Acura:
Odometer is useless to me - the maintenance minder tells me when to do things. Once in a while I'll check the temperature or tire pressures. Usually I leave it on average MPG/MPH; when the tank is getting low I switch to miles to empty.

Miata:
What's a trip computer?
 
Distance to empty. My fuel gauge isn't a dial; it's just a thin linear display. Combined with the minimal warning when I near empty, the remaining range display is an important indicator for me.

I don't recall the last time I actually measured a trip distance with the on-board computer. Temperature is displayed elsewhere.

Occasionally I'll use the instant mpg if I'm bored on the highway to see how high I can get it, or do mini experiments...but then it goes back to estimated range remaining.
 
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Average fuel consumption, as combined with the distance since last fuel stop ("Trip A") it's the only one remotely useful. The other options would be momentary fuel consumption, distance to what the car perceives as empty, average speed or preset maximum speed warning.
 
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I want to know what time it is, so I have clock in my trip computer. Or average fuel consumption.
 
Heh...

Polo: "..."
205: *blink blink*
405: digital clock which actually work--- shit, I've jinxed it now
MX-5: an actual clock with hands!

Anyway, the Daimler has a trip computer. Best bet is to keep it in Range.
 
Mustang - When I start the car up, I have it set to cylinder head temp because that gives me the best estimation of coolant temp, and knowing what my coolant temp is lets me know when the lopey idle will kick in :mrgreen:. If I'm driving normally, I set it too the standard quadrant screen with drive time/gal used/tripometer/average mpg. When the fuel gauge drops below 1/4 tank, I switch the screen to distance to empty.
Jeep - ...
Miata - ...
 
Outside temperature, Date, and clock are always there.
I choose Odometer because :shrug:
 
Jeep: outside air temperature. I use Trip A for mpg between fill ups and trip b for oil changes. The oil change interval seems to be dependent on driving style. It's not a fixed interval. I only noticed that once I started using the trip computer for oil change records. More high rev's shorten oil life no matter how much highway driving at low RPM's I do.

Mustang: odometer

Wagon: well, it's got one analog trip "computer" so, that. :D
 
The outside temperature and current song playing (or radio station, HAH!) are always on and in between I usually keep it at distance to empty. Average fuel consumption stopped being interesting years ago as it literally never deviates by more than 0.5l, except on the FG roadtrips, where it's nice for some penis measurements. Sometimes I check out the others, like how long I've been driving or on the ring, where I put it on current consumption, which is fun to watch as even with my car it never really dips below double digits.
 
Distance.
For no other reason than that's what I'm used to seeing there. Just the last three or four of my cars have had other available functions. Before that, trip odometers were analog and were driven by the same rotating cable as the odometer. I usually hit 'reset' when I fill the fuel tank.

SL
 
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I normally have these on:

Time traveled
Distance traveled
Avg speed
Avg consumption
Temperature
Trip

Why choose when you can have them all. :lol:
 
Distance travelled
Average speed
Time travelled
Average L/100km
Actual L/100km
Distance to empty

Don't actually know if I can change it but don't know what I would want instead.
 
Instant G meter. :lol:

tazer_g.jpg


And almost 6k miles later after unlocking the SRT pages I've learned that it won't go higher than 0.99 so it isn't entirely accurate--or I've got REALLY lucky getting 0.99. :mrgreen:

my_gs!.jpg
 
I use the Instant MPG setting. It helps me monitor (okay...guess) if the the AFR is okay (in the absence of an actual AFR meter).
 
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