Easy Woodworks, I think Hyperion was honestly trying to be helpful. I agree with your position here. The fuel guage should be reliable and predictible and the problems you had are unacceptible.
Hyperion, your advice is poor, at best. The Prius should have a range of 600 miles at 50mpg...I get close to 55mpg and have never gone more than about 525 miles and that was with the guage flashing for the previous 60 miles. One of the best things about the Prius, and an advertised benefit, is the range you can travel b/w fill ups. If I filled up every time I drove 50 miles I'd never run out either...or 25. The point is I should be able to drive 550 or even 600 miles without running out based on fuel economy and tank capacity, but that's been, in my case, unachievable and a real pain.
FWIW, my post-EL010-04 guage behavior.
At first fill up, 5 miles after the last bar started flashing, tank took only 8.3 gallons. 'Bout the same as before the TSB.
My first bar dropped off at 90 miles, second at about 124, third around 160. The 5th bar (1/2 tank supposedly) at 214 miles. There are still 5 bars showing with about 260 miles on the tank. I'm averaging 57mpg this tank.
I'm praying that the second half of the tank the guage behavior will be a bit more accurate/predictible and that I will get somewhere around 10 gallons in when the last bar flashes...that would make me happy. That and getting my SKS working again!!