New personal best - work in progress

[Arkaneinc]

Little background:

I bought my 2000 Kia Spectra back in December of 2009. Car had problems but I needed a car and it was what I could afford. Bought the car for $1800 and little by little got the car back into shape. My first tank I recorded back in Feb 14th 2010 got 23.86 mpg. I was burning through used tires like crazy. Finally saved up the money to fix the car as much as I could. New catalytic converter , tune up , timing belt, alignment , 4 new tires, driver side front axel.

Noticed in improvement right after of course. Steadily climbing up mpg wise.

Today I hit my personal best distance and mpg wise.

Hit 405.5 miles on 12.13 gallons of gas. Mpg = 33.43

Defiantly a big improvement over what I was getting. Changed my driving style from "2 fast 2 furious" to the slow lane never going above 60mph. Right now I don't have a scanguage but I plan on getting one. I've managed to get the mpg even with 2 12" subs (weighing in at about 100 pounds with box included) in the trunk.

All in all I have this place to thank for a constant inspiration to achieve higher mpg. This place has been a wealth of knowledge and I look forward to many higher gas tanks and mods in the future.

for those who may read this and want to know the mods i have thus far:

absolutely none.


Looking forward to grill block , lowering springs, removing the subs from the trunk plus many more.

Thanks again everyone.

[5speed5]

Originally Posted by Arkaneinc

Little background:

I bought my 2000 Kia Spectra back in December of 2009. Car had problems ... My first tank I recorded ... 23.86 mpg. ... New catalytic converter , tune up , timing belt, alignment , 4 new tires, driver side front axel. ... Today I hit my personal best distance and mpg wise. Mpg = 33.43

Isn't that an awesome feeling. Congrats and good work!

Looking forward to grill block , lowering springs, removing the subs from the trunk plus many more.

Does your Kia have steel rims with plastic wheel covers or does it have alloy rims? If it has the steel rims, another very easy mod is smooth racing hubcaps like on my truck:

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

Keep in mind you will need a 4 wheel alignment if you put lowering springs on.

It's good to hear you rescued a junker and have fixed it up.

[320touring]

Originally Posted by Fr3AkAzOiD

Keep in mind you will need a 4 wheel alignment if you put lowering springs on.

It's good to hear you rescued a junker and have fixed it up.

i second that!
excellent work getting the car servicable

The korean stuff is pretty decent to be honest-i've driven a fair few..
Rhey're fairly uninspiring-but that helps to get good mpg as you dont thrash it!

good luck and keep at it.

[Arkaneinc]

5speed5: they are steel : Planning on doing that mod as well thank you for the advice

Fr3AkAzOiD: Oh yea I know I'll need the alignment once the springs are on. I believe that pep boys still has the lifetime alignment for $150

320touring: ty much. I've driven and owned several Kia's over the past 10 years and am still impressed with the cars for the money. Best part is salvage yards seem to always have them so parts are cheap enough.

ty all. Look forward to the mods and next goal is 40mpg.

[320touring]

just out of interest.. Do you have a pic of the car?i dont recognise the model name..
We've got a few diesel kia's over here-did you get them in the US?

Swapping the lump out could be a plan-they're pretty decent mpg wise over here.

[Arkaneinc]

need to eventually remove the subs lol

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

100 lbs = roughly 1 mpg

It's your call which you would rather have.

[320touring]

cheers for the pics!
that model is the shuma over here.

What size of engine does yours have? I'll do some digging to see if they were available in diesel or smaller engines

[Arkaneinc]

Originally Posted by 320touring

cheers for the pics!
that model is the shuma over here.

What size of engine does yours have? I'll do some digging to see if they were available in diesel or smaller engines

mine is the 1.8L.