Kia Sportage--Nice but EPA #'s not good. Anyone getting good mpg with this SUV?

everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
edited April 2015 in Kia
Hi folks. First Kia post. Thinking of getting an AWD LX (Canadian). Demoed it and found it quite nice. Good ride, handling, looks. Enough power for me. But am very concerned about American EPA #'s which are pretty much the worst for vehicles in this category. City 19, Highway 26, Overall 22. 26 Highway! Not good. Just wondering if anyone who has a '14 or '15 Sportage could post what kind of real world gas mileage they are getting? Appreciate we've just come through the winter and city numbers for just about any vehicle in cold weather don't come close to EPA. Under any conditions anyone hitting 26mpg highway and at what speeds.
And, will a normal size set of golf clubs fit in the trunk with the rear seats up? Even with the seats down this storage space seems smaller than my Mazda 3 hatch's.
Thank you for any replies.

Comments

  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    I did buy a 2015 Sportage LX AWD. Haven't had to gas up yet. When I do I'll post my calculated numbers. So far my trip meter, on around 92% highway, is reading 8.8 litres per 100 kilometers or 27 mpg US. Not bad if meter is near accurate. MPG improved on my vehicles as they got broken in. Hope that's the case here. Drove in ecco mode on highway as didn't have many steep hills and had lots of room to pass when I had to. Drove between 62 and 68 mph changing speeds for break-in.
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    This somehow got cut off my post above. Anyone else have real world MPG #'s they'd care to share?
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    1st fill. 24.67 U.S. mpg. 88% highway/12% city. Highway speeds were 62-68 mph with a few 75mph passes. Manually calculated.
    Right around EPA numbers. Not bad.

    2nd fill up. 27.99 U.S. mpg on 87% highway/13% city. Manually calculated, not based on car's MPG computer.. Pretty good but a bit skewered as 130-140 of my 450 highway miles were done at around 50 mph which really increases fuel economy. The other 310 highway miles were at 62-68 mph (speed limit 55).
    ANYONE ELSE have mpg #'s for their '14, '15's?
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    At my first fill-up the onboard MPG calculator said I got 26.14 U.S. mpg. Manual calculations were 24.67 mpg.
    So calculator read 5.96% more mpg than actual or I really got 5.6% less mpg than computer said.-on this tank.
    Didn't realize OB MPG calculator resets on each fill. Had to add a bit of gas to the 2nd tank so mpg calculator for this tank were not available.

    On 2nd fill, guessing I got around 30.5 mpg on highway portion of tank (good) calculates to around 18 mpg for the city portion of tank.

    Should say I'm not a hyper miler but around town do try to time stop lights, coast a lot, turn off engine if I know I'm going to be sitting at a red light for awhile and accelerate like there is an egg under the gas pedal.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    The MPG calculators have gotten better over the years, but it sounds like you need to keep checking manually to verify the numbers.

    How many miles are on your Sportage? I've had cars where it took 1,000s of miles before the mileage started hitting the EPA numbers.
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    stever said:

    The MPG calculators have gotten better over the years, but it sounds like you need to keep checking manually to verify the numbers.

    How many miles are on your Sportage? I've had cars where it took 1,000s of miles before the mileage started hitting the EPA numbers.

    Hi Stever, thanks for replying. Just bot it April 9, 1,050 miles on it so far. Yes, all my previous vehicles mpg got better eventually with break in, new tires wearing down, etc. My 2nd tank was well above EPA course 30% of my highway miles were at around 50mph which helps mpg and which I wouldn't normally do. My first tank was just a hair under EPA. Predominately highway miles on both tanks...I've noticed over the years that my cars routinely exceed highway EPA #'s....it's the darn town driving where EPA #'s are hard to match. And I think, from what I've seen so far, in the real world of city driving the Sportage is going to have a hard time coming close to city EPA #'s in the warm weather and it will not even come close (which I expect) in the very cold winter temperatures we get up here in NW Ont Canada...most years weeks and weeks of -30*, -40* F. Since my last fill-up I've got a few around town, short trip, stop and go miles on this tank. Mpg reading adjusted for error is 12.

    Never had an on board mpg calculator before so am interested to see how close it comes. Would never rely on it though for real mpg calculations. The car manufacturers probably all set them to higher mpg readings than actual to kind of pull the wool over the eyes of people who don't bother checking manually lol.

  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    3rd fill...19.09 mpg on 82% city (a lot of short trips). Actual mpg were 5.07% less than OBC reading. mpg was 6.83% less than EPA. At 17.78 mpg city = 29 mpg hwy.

    </4th fillb>...20.02 mpg on 85.35% city. More city miles than tank 3 but way fewer short trips = slightly better total mpg. Actual mpg was 4.67% less than OBC reading. mpg was 1.52% lower than EPA (not bad). At 19 mpg city = 29mpg hwy.

    Early assessment...going to be decent on highway/not great around town. at 60-65 mph highway speeds it's going to easily beat EPA. Around town going to be tough to match EPA especially for me as I have a ton of stop signs when I first leave garage with cold engine.
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    5th fill....26.14 mpg on 4.86% city. TB return. mpg 4.43% better than epa. Got 3.55% mpg less than OBC reading...getting better.

    6th fill....21.24 mpg on 70.2% city/28.8% highway. +.4% better than EPA. Actual mpg were 6.1% lower than OBC reading. Highway miles done at very low speeds so mpg this tank much better than would have been if hwy portion of tank done at 60, 65 or 70 mph. Probably around 29H/19.25C this tank. To date, on 38% city, 62% highway getting 2.36% better than EPA due mostly to low highway speeds.
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    7th tank...22.75 mpg on 66% city/34% highway. 6.21% better than EPA. MPG OBC reading was lower than actual mpg.---wow

    8th tank...27.22 mpg on 8% city/92% highway. 7.38% better than EPA. Highway speeds were around 65mph.

    Overall to date on 34% city/66% highway actual mpg is 24.2 which is 3.29% better than EPA.
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    Several tanks since last post. To date averaging 25.14 mpg on 74.8% highway/25.2% city driving. EPA for these H/C% #'s is 24.02 mpg. So to date I'm getting 4.66% better mpg than EPA. Yea. If getting the EPA 19.6 mpg city (which I doubt) then getting 27.79 mpg highway. Probably getting 19 mpg city (or lower) then getting 28.21 (or higher) highway. We are getting decent highway numbers because we don't drive fast (60-65mph) as there are no 2 lane highways here with higher than 55mph limits. Coming soon...14-15 mpg city #'s due to short trips and -20*, -30*, -40* F. temperatures.
    To date, when I can track it, we are getting about 3.8% mpg worse than the OBC mpg reading. I do all my mpg calculations by hand.

    Did have our best tank of 30.13 mpg on 12.1% city/87.9% highway. But this was done primarily on a secondary highway with a speed limit of 50 mph so speeds for the highway portion were 53-60 mph.
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    Owned for almost a year now. On 7820 miles to date getting 24.5mpg on 23.57% city miles/76.43% highway. EPA for this city/highway % is 24.145. So getting 1.5% better than EPA.
    Averaging 7.62% lower actual mpg than OBC says.
    WORST mpg TANK and not as bad as I thought it would be...16.63mpg all town in January, our coldest time of year, all pretty much short trips with a driver (not me) who does not concern herself with gas mileage at all lol.
    Cold weather tanks of 84-96% highway are averaging 1.75mpg worse than warm weather tanks (excluding that fluke 30.13 mpg tank). Winter tires and gas, a little more idling I guess.
    I'll take an educated guess that EPA #'s are closer to 27.5 Highway/18.83 City in warm weather. But not that high in cold weather.
    I wouldn't buy this vehicle if doing mostly city driving. Highway isn't bad though for a heavier vehicle with AWD.
    All my vehicles over the years have had better than EPA highway/worse than EPA city.
  • everfebeverfeb Member Posts: 115
    at 9830.5 miles averaging 24.615 mpg on 24.68% city/75.32% highway miles. EPA for this city/highway % is 24.06 mpg. So getting 2.31% better than EPA. On 14 tanks when I have been able to compare OBC mpg vs actual mpg..actual mpg is 6.74% less than OBC reading. Warmer weather here now and winter tires off for last 5 tanks = better mpg.
Sign In or Register to comment.