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MPG will improve with time: myth or reality?

6K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  dynamicsuv 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I am one of you now! Last week I finally bought a 2013 Sorento, LX GDI 2.4L and so far I like the car very much!

In one week I have travelled about 1800 km with the car. Like others have reported, the computer MPG computation is a bit optimistic. I have so far about 4 fill ups. This is what I have noticed:

- all highway fuel economy is about 11 L/100 km (21 mpg), fairly flat road, no speeding, AC ON
- in the city, I have about 15 L/100 km (16 mpg), AC ON, driving the normal city speed limits with lots of traffic lights.

the above numbers are real mpg calculated myself by counting the amount of fuel at the pump vs distance travelled.

I am not towing anything nor drive crazily so I find that the above mpg is worse than I anticipated, but I am hoping that it will improve with time. I read somewhere here that people say mpg will improve with time after the engine break-in. I wonder how true that is? please share your experience


thanks
 
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#2 ·
with the purchase of two KIA's I would say its true. I don't get too concerned about a few fill ups, I track it over a year to get a more accurate picture. I also find that the AVERAGE reading on the computer is now very accurate compared to early readings. In fact in some cases is seems to be more pessimistic.

With a new vehicle you are getting use to all the different features and you may not be driving quite the same as you drove before, so it takes some time to get into the rhythm. I also believe the car is learning at the same time too.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Fuel

There is a post that has a link to Fuelly.com where owners post their mileages. Kia Sorento MPG Reports | Fuelly 23 seems to be the average, with 19 in town and 26 freeway.

My new GDI EX AWD with 70 miles says it's getting 16 around town. Really too early to tell.

Just a note on Fuel. My motorcycle averages 50 mpg for the past 3 years. This summer I bought off brand fuel and the mileage dropped to 34 mph ! I thought the bike had a problem. Everything checked out so I was baffled. I switched to Shell gas and the mileage bounced back to 50 mpg. I honestly believe that the off brand stations were selling E10 gas. (or worse, E15)

All I'm saying is that there is some terrible gas around. The Kia manual recommends "top tier gas". The Shell gas has given me superior mileage. At 70 miles, I haven't tried it in the Sorento yet.

Another factor is the amount of weight in the car. If you want mileage, ditch the un-necessary weight. Check your tire pressure.
 
#5 ·
My 2007 Sportage definitely became more fuel efficient after about 10,000 -15,000 Km. My 2012 Sorento has done only 10,000 kms so far, so still I cannot comment about it.

But yes I think the consumption improves after about 10,000 kms and then plateaus out and when the engine is old and worn starts deteriorating again.
 
#6 ·
How much improvement should I expect to see ?

Is-this something particular to the Hyundai engines? I have owned several Toyotas, GM and Volks cars before and never noticed that mpg on a new engine would be worse at the beginning

also I looked at the fuelly site and tried to see if there are some trends in mpg improvements by looking at the data from Sorento 2011 and 2012 owners who have records of their gas comsumption over time. I could not draw any solid conclusions.
 
#9 · (Edited)
My Sportage improved from about 12L/100km to about 10L/100km.

No I don't think its specific to Hyundai/Kia. It is just that after some time as the engine parts get slightly worn the friction reduces and makes it more fuel efficient. After several hundred thousand Kms the wear will be significant enough to cause compression leaks etc so the consumption would again increase.
 
#11 ·
I'm coming up on 9,000 miles on my SX/V6. I'd say I've seen a 1-2 mpg increase. I find if I'm driving really carefully with mpg in mind, I can get as much as 28mpg on the hwy. More often it's 25-26. Around town if careful, about 21, if not about 18-19. But again, this is from the V6.

I'd like to use shell gas to see if indeed you get better mpg, but around here, it's about 15-18 cents per gallon more than Mobil or similar.
 
#13 ·
I posted the same topic a week after I got my 2012 Rio. My gut feeling at the time was myth versus truth. I am happy to say now however that there is a dramatic improvement in fuel economy as the odometer climbs. "break-in" is real...


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app
 
#17 · (Edited)
My best run to date was about 400 miles of mostly highway driving on I-95 with the cruise control set at 65mph. That produced a result of 28.5mpg. That's not wishful thinking by the onboard computer, but actual measured fuel usage when I filled up at the end of my trip. Second best was 28.2mpg on a similar trip where I spent less time on cruise control due to traffic conditions.

Best,
 
#15 ·
I drive my 2013 EX GDI at 65 - 70 mph average for mostly flat highway commute.

I get approximately 25 - 28 mpg only for highway driving. (with Cruise Control)
Comparing my old 2006 Subaru Outback (4-speed auto), it gets similar or even better mpg on highway. I was pretty impressed by this mpg.

However, City driving mpg is 2-3 mpg worse than outback due to the heavier weight & bigger engine characteristics.

I once got 26 mpg average for a full tank gas consumption. (80% highway & 20% city)

Hopefully, this helps.
 
#16 ·
At 65-70 mph on the highway for a stretch of about 80miles, I had the computer reading 24 mpg. Definitely never as high as the 25-28 you guys have seen. In the city though I see 16-18 mpg. My lifetime average for ~10K miles is something like 18.5 mpg. I suspect we all have different definitions of what constitutes "city" though. I wonder if my highway driving is more hilly than that of others, or if my car just gets worse fuel economy. I would be willing to bet I could see 26 if I cruised it at 45 or 50, but I will never drive that slow on the interstate so its a bit of a moot point.
 
#18 ·
Absolutely not a myth.

At 15,000km, I was getting around 600km per tank of diesel. Before the 30,000km service, it was up at 750km/tank.
AFTER the 30,000km service, it hit 1,000km/tank.

If thats not an improvement, I don't know what is!! ;)
 
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