Premium Gas In 2006 Sedona !

[jserrent]

Can you believe they plan on selling this van for use with Premium Unleaded !?!?!
The EX is stickering around 30,000. What happened to the value van ???? I can get a Honda ExL for that ......... this is nutz....... Honda recently changed the Odyssey to run on regular fuel, and Kia shoots for this. They will sit on the lots until Kia gives them away !

[Spec SX]

Yeah I was very suprised to see the 06 Sedona EX for 30K. Glad I bought my 05 Sedona LX for 18K.

[Esses]

Similar thing happened here when the new Rio came out. The old model was $15 000.00 "Drive-Away" & the new model suddenly became $16 000.00 PLUS On-Road costs, which amount to at least an extra $2 000.00! That lasted, oohh, about a week & now they're $16 000.00 Drive-Away. You can guess what happened to sales in the interim.

[Dman1458]

Originally posted by jserrent@Jan 18 2006, 09:21 PM
Can you believe they plan on selling this van for use with Premium Unleaded !?!?!

Quoted post

Here's the problem folks. There was a new standard introduced to calculate horsepower by SAE. Basically the old way car companies could put in premium lighter than production oil and run the engine to get maximum horsepower. This way they can publish the engine has 244 horsepower and advertise it that way.

Now the SAE standard the manufacturers have to divulge how they achieved this number. If you run regular fuel you will most likely see a 10% loss(I could be wrong with this number.) There was a big article in Road and Track I believe between September and November last year about this. Most of the imports took a bigger hit due to the new standard. Toyota took the biggest with their 3 litre V6 it went from 220 hp to something like 190.

Basically what KIA is saying is that to get 244 hp you will need Premium. That said regular will do just fine and do no damage to the engine. The computer is designed to compensate and retard the timing so as to not introduce knock.

I hope this helps.

[jserrent]

BIG QUESTION:

Will Kia honor the warranty if they determine regular grade gas is continually being used in the new Sedona ?????

[snowman]

Per owners manual (2006 Kia Sedona) 87 octane (regular) or higher. There is no need to worry if you use regular unleaded!!!

[kruhland]

The new 2006.5 optima states premium gas as well and I had a thread on it. The manufacturers, in order to get the stated horse power you need to be using premium gas, it's a upcoming law change for the manufacturers to post how they get their HP. So the vehicles run fine on regular gas, but wouldn't get the stated HP.

[Dman1458]

Originally posted by kruhland@Feb 8 2006, 01:25 PM
it's a upcoming law change for the manufacturers to post how they get their HP.*

Quoted post

It's not really a law as such as it is a change in the standard. The SAE made changes in the way HP is calculated to make sure all manufacturers are on the same page.

It's sort of like the HP ratings in the 70's. They were all Gross HP which basically meant all the engine had hooked up was an alternator with no exhaust, smog equipment etc.

Basically what auto manufacturers did was fill the test engines with Premium fuel. Now most off shore manufacturers have a form of variable valve timing. With this feature the cars computer can advance the timing to produce better HP.

More octane in the fuel is less prone to knock so therefore there is little to no chance of detonation. This way if we all run our engines with 91 we will all be getting much needed HP.

Now what the SAE has stated is you need to test the engine in the following fashion or put an "*" beside the number. I have found the following link that should provide usefull in seeing the changes.

http://www.sae.org/certifiedpower/

[Dman1458]

I saw an ad in the local paper yeterday refering to HP the new Sedona puts out. It turns out the engine gets the as advertised 244 and 252 ft/lbs with premium. Now when you run it on regular you only loose 2 hp and 2 ft/lbs to take it to 242 and 250 respectively. Not too bad really.

Of course I wonder how much gas mileage you loose?

[hrngffcr]

You haven't done your homework. First, a fully loaded EX will sticker at about $32,000. Second, a comparably equipped Honda will sticker at about $36,000, give or take, and a comparably equipped Toyota will probably be closer to $37,000. The Sedona is still a value-priced vehicle. And that doesn't even take into account the longer warranty on the Hyundais and Kias (what I can't believe is that the Toyota only has a 3 year warranty!). In addition, due to the the still-existant misconception as to the quality of the Hyundais and Kias, you may be able to get a deeper discount off sticker than on the Honda or the Toyota.