2012 Kia Optima EX GDI 4cyl. - Mileage well below estimates

2012 Kia Optima EX GDI 4cyl. - Mileage well below estimates of 22-24 city, 34-35 hwy.

Retired couple I know, otherwise thrilled with the car, handling, quality o f interior and exterior.

They actually calculate their own mileage, and claim they consistently get about 16-17 city, and no more than 26 highway. I never made an attempt to calculate my own gas mileage, can't do the math anyway, so I don't know if they're making a mistake here or there, or not.

Acceleration is "peppy", steering feels good, smooth idle at traffic lights , car starts right up, under 30,000mi. Tire pressure is, as typical, set c loser to what's listed on the tire, and this morning was 38-40PSI, well abo ve Kia factory sticker 33PSI(when will people f**king LEARN?!), so that's n ot an issue.

Reply to
thekmanrocks
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Depends on how they drive. One mile to the store and idling for 20 minutes every day will likely get 17 mpg, so 16-17 could be a reasonable city figure. I rent about 6 Optima-Sonatas per year for 1000 miles each time and get about 26-33 mpg. Most of it is highway at at least 85 mph. Wind resistance above 90 mph noticeably reduces mpg, so their 26 highway figure could be reasonable.

Reply to
Paul in Houston TX

Paul in Houston TX:

These are ollllld folks, wouldn't exceed 60 on the highway let alone 80 or

90, LOL!

But yes, a lot of their driving is short local trips, lots of stop signs, l ights, and left/right turns to get around our particular town. The roads here were laid out along old farmers' property lines over the course of tim e, so, very seldom do streets actually meet at intersections.

Reply to
thekmanrocks

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

What is their method?

What is their method?

And when I say "method", I mean "very specific details", not just something like, "they go by the tankful".

Gas mileage calculations are statistical, and when you keep statistics you MUST be precise. Fuel consumption will vary considerably over time and conditions.

If your retirees are not recording exact fillup volume and exact miles traveled between fillups, then they have faulty data and cannot possibly do more than guess as to their actual gas mileage.

Reply to
Tegger

Tegger:

Like I said, I'm 44 years old and I can barely add and subtract, so I do not know their method nor did I ask as I wouldn't have understood no matter how they explained it to me(or how many times!).

Reply to
thekmanrocks

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

miles driven divided by gallons. its not rocket surgery. do it over several fills, and you have a good average figure. KB

Reply to
Kevin Bottorff

That will kill mileage. Toss in the crap that's sold as gas these days and the numbers are probably correct.

Easy method.

Write down odometer reading before filling tank. EX: 1010 miles

Write down the amount of fuel that you put in.

At next fill repeat the process.

Mileage is now 1210

Gas to fill was 10.5 gallons.

So the vehicle went 200 miles on 10.5 gallons.

Divide 200 by 10.5 = 19.04 mpg.

Do this over the course of 10 tank fills and then add the total miles driven. Divide that by the gallons used and you get a good idea of the average combined mileage for that vehicle.

This method assumes no extra idling or "warming up the car" Toss that in and the numbers drop real fast.

Reply to
Steve W.

Steve W: Thanks for laying that out step by step!

Additionally, the wife told me they get about 1-2 extra mpg with Shell gasoline. I told them they were wasting their money, and that Citgo or Gulf were just fine.

Reply to
thekmanrocks

Very possible.

I know all of my vehicles run better on non-ethanol fuel. Not only better mileage overall, but issues like odd misfires and poor throttle response go away on pure gas.

See the same things with small engines as well. The booze makes them run lean which generates a lot of extra heat. Seen many that had scored cylinders and seal damages due to the ethanol.

Reply to
Steve W.

____________

Also Steve, I have a theory that over-inflating tires improves fuel economy up to a point, beyond which it actually starts to go down again.

Reply to
thekmanrocks

Harder the tire is the lower the contact area with the pavement = less friction.

You won't see a decrease in mileage due to over-inflation of a tire but you will see a serious change in handling and tractive force.

Reply to
Steve W.

Steve W:

Actually, yes, you will see a slight mpg decrease with more than 5lbs or so overinflation, albeit not nearly as much as with under-inflation. The tire will bounce more, become airborne more, especially as you apply more gas(l eaving a stoplight, accelerating to pass someone, etc).

Reply to
thekmanrocks

Their problem is stop and go driving. Tell them to take really long trips and their MPG will just hit the roof. Tell them to get an electric car if they want top efficiency.

Reply to
dsi1

I don't have any option to get non-ethanol. The good part about ethanol gas is that I can go one gas grade lower and save a few cents a gallon at the pump on my old truck. That would be the only good part though.

Reply to
dsi1

I hope you don't mean EPA estimates because they always overstate city mileage and understate highway mileage. Use Consumer Reports numbers instead. I think they said the Kia Optima (or Hyundai Sonata equivalent) got about 16 MPG city, and highway was likely around 35-38 MPG.

I think your acquaintances aren't really doing highway driving.

The easiest way to calculate mileage is by zeroing out the trip odometer at the next fill-up, then at the fill-up after that, divide the trip odometer reading by the number of gallons bought to get the MPG. Then zero the trip odometer again.

Anybody who claims that one brand of gas gives 1-2 MPG more than others is probably not a careful enough person to calculate MPG accurately.

MPG doesn't drop if tires are inflated > 5 PSI over recommended pressure but kept below the maximum printed on the tire. OTOH raising pressure a lot makes only a tiny improvement in MPG. It takes something like a 6% decrease in tire friction to raise MPG just 1%. That means radial tires, which caused 5% higher MPG, have 30% less friction than bias tires did.

Reply to
larrymoencurly

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