Fuel Economy Update for February - Benefit of the Doubt - 2016 Kia Optima Long-Term Road Test

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  dg0472 Member Posts: 89

  March 2016 edited March 2016

  Is some of this perhaps due to JRiz's always immediately putting it in Sport (seeing as the EPA tests are ran in Normal mode, which is why it always default to that)?

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  gtalum99 Member Posts: 7

  March 2016

  I was wondering the same thing (Sport vs Normal vs ECO). I'm only at 2 fill-ups so far, but mine is averaging 35 MPG. I always drive in ECO and my commute is 30 miles each way, mostly highway.

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  charlton Member Posts: 21

  March 2016

  ECO is absolutely the 'grandma' mode as described in an earlier post in this long-term review. SPORT is somewhat bearable. Even then my 14yr old creeky and noisy Civic has much much better acceleration. I wonder how some reviews claim 0-60 in 1.6T is almost as good as or slightly better than in 2.0T. I'd like to see it compared to that of a vanilla Civic.
  
  I'm left with no choice but to use SPORT (and have to go thru 2-step startup process) for city driving and some freeway driving too. ECO simply doesn't cut it when you've to drive in SF Bay Area traffic; it's usable only when roads are open and you can cruise freely.
  
  And if there's such a vast difference in MPG in those two drive modes, remind me why I bought 1.6T! I hope the MPG improves as I use my car more.
  
  -BC

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  gtalum99 Member Posts: 7

  March 2016

  Perhaps it's because my 2012 Sorento LX GDI was such an absolute dog, but I haven't been dissatisfied with acceleration even in ECO mode.

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