Milage question and challange Kia Sportage

[michigandiesel]

Hello,

I am impressed with the great MPG numbers from forum members.

The best mileage car I ever had was a 1986 Mercury Topaz with the Mazda diesel engine and a 5 speed manual. 48 MPG all the time. I once went 806 miles between fill ups. If that kind of car was available, it would be wonderful.

Here is an idea. That was a Mazda 2 liter diesel. Has anyone put on into a Mazda Mieta? Sorry for the spelling. You would have plenty of power for that light car, and with it's small wind profile, it should be impressive.

My current car is a 2002 Kia Sportage. It has a manual but it is geared very low, the car is heavy and it sits up tall. I had hoped that with a small engine and a 5 speed, I could get in the high 20's MPG. The best I have gotten is 24 on the highway and around town it says around 20 MPG. Plus it is very low powered.

Does anyone have experience with improving either the mileage or the horse power for a non typical high mileage car? Thanks, Paul

[tumnasgt]

Have you read the Hypermiling Tips page? There's a lot of things in there which might help

[tumnasgt]

Also, 24MPG is 25% over EPA (19MPG combined), which is pretty good. I'm amazed how much gas that small SUVs use to be honest, though competition like the RAV4 quite a bit better (EPA of 24MPG for 2WD, 22MPG for 4WD).

[michigandiesel]

From what I saw looking under a Honda CRV, these Kia Sportages are built much heavier. Even the drive shafts look spindley on the Honda.

The hyper mileage section is very helpful. Thanks for recommending it.

[driverdude]

Recently I did three things to improve mpgs: inflated my tires 3 psi above recommended; got a K&N performance air filter installed; and changed to sythetic oil in the engine (found a place that by signing up for their credit card the oil/filter change is about 22 bucks! Cannot beat that by buying oil/filter myself). After monitoring my car went to 33.8 mpg from 31.0 Not much but I will take anything. Still looking for ideas myself. Good luck.

[michigandiesel]

I had a couple of other thoughts on this subject. My Kia at best gets better mileage than the Ford Escape, another small SUV. The Kia Sportages with automatic transmissions have a bad reputation for needing to shift alot, raceing the engine and still getting poor milage.

Has anyone on this forum been able to explain this reality: I have had GM Olds Cutless Cruiser station wagons deiver 28 mpg fully loaded, going 70 mph with the AC on. I now have a Buick LaSabre with the famous 3.8 engine. It has amazing power, 6 big comfy seats, goes 80 mpg all day with the AC on and still gives well over 25 mpg. Something is wrong, but if you own the car, the irony is delicious.

My cousin once stated to me that he traded cars with another guy, so take over payments I guess. He let go a Geo Metro, and got a Monte Carlo. He gave up 1 mpg.

But, taking the train, and bus is much more interesting than driving yourself, plus you can use your laptop and get work done. Hang in there everbody. Paul

[Weather Spotter]

Take a look at this page in our wiki:
Car MPG Efficiency Modifications Main - EcoModder

Lots of good Mod ideas for you to try, with real world data.

[michigandiesel]

Thank you for that link. Your car shows much work. Back when families had several children, it ment that we had both siblings and uncles and aunts. That gave plenty of oppertunity to have some interesting people in the picture. My one uncle believed the secret of good gas mileage was complete vaporization of he gas/air mixture. He once told me, you should run duct work from the carb, to the trunk of the car and back again to the intake manifold to give it plenty of oppertunity to mix. Then he grinned and admitted that it would only take one backfire to blow the whole car up.

I sometimes check a site called utterpower.com. It is great for rugged, long duration generators and features several interesting people. One of the lines from that web site spoke well to efficiencey and modifications: "Follow the BTU's" Physics rules in the end.

I may have raised this question earlier, but has anyone tried to put a VW diesel into a Geo Metro? Great idea and maybe not that hard since you could move the whole engine, trans, differential and short shafts in one piece. Just splice the shafts and make up mounts.

[trooper Tdiesel]

Originally Posted by michigandiesel

My cousin once stated to me that he traded cars with another guy, so take over payments I guess. He let go a Geo Metro, and got a Monte Carlo. He gave up 1 mpg.

not all geo models get amazing mpg, every one ive seen with the 1.6L I-4 engine and 3sp auto trans are hard pressed to get better than 35
a 1.3L with the auto can push low 40s

1991 Geo Storm 4 cyl, 1.6 L, Automatic 3-spd,
Compare Old and New MPG Estimates

1997 Geo Metro 4 cyl, 1.3 L, Automatic 3-spd,
Compare Old and New MPG Estimates