2017 Kia Niro MPG Backroad/Small-Town Tests in 360º VR
 

The 2017 Niro delivered excellent numbers. I burned through half a tank on my trip out to Pocono to shoot the NASCAR Fuel Economy video before running the backroad/small-town MPG stunt drive test route.

Ran the route 3x: normal - A/C off, counter-clockwise - A/C off, normal - AC on. Temperatures in the low 80s.

https://youtu.be/ZmN6TEUKaHI

This is the second time I've shot a MPG stunt drive with the Samsung 360 camera. It works/looks best on a smartphone with a broadband connection.

Hey, glad to see you kickin' around here. I've watched your stuff for a little while now. I found you originally by your 0-60 IP shots. The Beetle TDI, Prius C and Fiesta 1.0EB videos stick out for me. Slambo is the HX copy of my little silver Civic DX, and we found the same weird seating position issue. I think I've more or less found my most comfortable pose in the car, but it'd be better with a telescoping wheel and a shifter set ever so slightly rearward.

The 360* stuff takes a bit of getting used to, I think I could become a fan. It really plays some tricks on the brain which might be why some people aren't fans, but give it time and I found where my eye liked to fall.

I've heard good stuff about the Niro (though the name brings to mind Nero of Roman fame). I did not, however, know that it was as good as it apparently is.

Hey JCP! B&M short throw shifter and poly bushings are the best bang-for-the-buck mod I've done to the Civic, so far. The car's currently in limp mode - won't rev past 3200 RPM or thereabouts. Error code says crank sensor. Hoping to get that straightened out (finally) this month.

360 is new and different and weird. It'll catch on, eventually. I started testing it in 2016 with borrowed cameras and picked up the Samsung camera this spring, but I've only posted a handful of 360 vids. I'm sitting on some cool off-road footage and a walk through the Indy museum.

Niro's a solid little car. Kia's come a long way.

Aw, sorry to hear about the troubles. Hondas are reliable, not invincible. I have clutch hydraulic issues, so I might use the excuse for the bushings, though I'm ambivalent enough about short shifters that it's not worth the outlay.

Hyundai/Kia has had a long road to hoe and navigated it well. They're piling improvement on top of improvement, showing their motivation and attention to the market. So when I think about it, the Niro's ability isn't that surprising. They're on the upswing, hunting for advantage and marketing, and will be for a while until they hit the complacency that the Japanese found over a decade ago.

Post the 360 stuff! It's a bit different, and different is an edge on YouTube. Not sure you'll want to do everything that way, but folks with the patience for it will find it to be an interesting bonus. I found myself doing the looks down the road for traffic when you were stopped for a turn. It's immersiveness lite.

I replaced the clutch hydraulics this spring. It was easier than I thought! EricTheCarGuy has an awesome D-I-Y video that covers it all. :) Parts were under $30 from RockAuto. I was able to get the job done solo, using a fluid extractor to bleed the system.

I'm going to gather up all of my posted 360º vids into a playlist today. I'll keep experimenting with it.

Hyundai helped kickstart my Ain't Fuelin' project and loaned me an older Sonata to test with, early on. That's the car rolling out of the garage in the intro: https://youtu.be/zFl6n1T1FCw

ETCG's video was great. It showed that simple way I used to determine my clutch master was going. Between him, ScannerDanner, and South Main Auto, there's a lot of good stuff out there that I use. I suspect that Eric will become more important as he's the ex-Honda dealer tech.

Good on Hyundai! They've gotten very keen on moves like that. Between that and the general excellence of their products of late, Hyundai/Kia will deserve every ounce of success they achieve.

Definitely experiment with 360 further. It isn't for everyone. It took me 15 min to sort of get it, so those with short attention spans will not watch. But I kinda like having something different under the sun.

Figures are rather impressive, congrats, man. The video looks great too, though I haven't watched it in full but I surely will :)