I always felt they weight the system underestimate gas amount at the high end and understimate at the low end because people are stupid and run their tanks low.
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026
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As others have said it's surprisingly difficult to measure volume of level in gas tanks for a lot of reasons. So no it's (usually) not a design choice, worse in some, better in others.
My first car had no gauge at all and you had to estimate by distance. Wasn't much of an issue either.
If you google pictures of a replacement gas tank for your car's make and model, the shape of it might explain something. Might also be a failing fuel level sensor.
If I recall right it's some weirdness with how the float bulb in gas tanks, which is used for that display, works.
I don't think I've ever seen an instance as extreme as what you're describing myself, but there tends to be more actual fuel volume at the lowest and highest ends, so the gauge isn't exactly linear. Not sure if it's something that can be compensated for by the manufacturer in the design or not.
IIRC, the guage running from "very nearly empty" to "almost full" is an intentional thing, weirdly enough.
On the upper end, it's because supposedly people feel better if they fill the tank and the needle doesn't start going down immediately.
On the lower end, it's to give people an earlier warning that their tank is (very nearly) empty, so they don't run out of gas on the road.
Because the shape of your fuel tank may not be consistent. Or, you might have an issue with your fuel level sender.
Euro currency is quite metric tbh