RECCE ROOM

Most drivers know what the speedometer does. Most drivers know what the fuel gauge does. But one of the most useful instruments in your vehicle is often ignored entirely: the trip odometer. For those unfamiliar, the trip odometer is the mileage counter that can be reset to zero at any time. Unlike the main odometer, which records the vehicle's total lifetime mileage, the trip odometer allows you to measure mileage over a specific distance or period of time. Many vehicles have two trip odometers, in addition to the primary odometer.  While simple, it has a surprising number of practical uses. Measuring Distance The most obvious use is measuring the distance between two points. Want to know how far it is from your house to work? Reset the trip odometer when you leave and check it when you arrive. Want to know how far it is from your home to church, the grocery store, the gun range, or your favorite restaurant? The trip odometer will tell you. Calculating Fuel Economy Long before vehi...

Most drivers know that the fuel gauge tells you how much fuel is in the tank. What many drivers don't realize is that the fuel gauge usually tells you something else as well: Which side of the vehicle the fuel door is on. Take a look at your fuel gauge the next time you're in your vehicle. Chances are you'll see a small triangle or arrow near the fuel pump icon. That arrow points to the side of the vehicle where the fuel filler door is located. If the arrow points left, the fuel door is on the left side of the vehicle. If the arrow points right, like the one pictured above, the fuel door is on the right side of the vehicle. Simple. This feature is particularly useful when driving a rental car, a company vehicle, a recently purchased vehicle, or simply a vehicle you don't drive very often. I first learned this while working in the car rental industry. It saved time, prevented guesswork, and eliminated the awkward moment of pulling up to a fuel pump only to discover the f...

I was recently having a conversation with someone and asked how much fuel they had in their gas tank. They had an understandable amount of difficulty describing exactly where the needle was on the fuel gauge. That immediately brought back memories of my time in the car rental industry. I first learned this in my car rental days. This was a conversation I had hundreds of times with trainee employees and hundreds more with everyday customers, and people since. Once you know the system, it's simple. Until then, people often struggle to describe anything that isn't exactly full, three-quarters, half, one-quarter, or empty. To be fair, most people know those major reference points. The confusion starts when the needle falls somewhere in between. Fortunately, there is an easy solution. Here in America, we commonly think in quarters: 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and full. If you take the halfway point between each of those measurements, you get eighths. That gives us a complete set of reference poi...