Does anyone here have a Kia Optima?

[Patman]

On our recent trip to Florida we had a 2015 Kia Optima as our rental car, and I was quite shocked at the fact that the trip computer was reporting the fuel economy as 44 MPG AVG when I kept it around 60-65 mph, 40 MPG when I kept the cruise at 75 MPH and overall it was averaging about 38 MPG in mixed driving. That seems a bit too good to be true if you ask me! Is the onboard computer way off or do these cars really get that kind of fuel economy? That's roughly what my Civic gets and it's much lighter with a much smaller engine. The 2015 Optima is rated for only 34 MPG highway, so to easily beat it (with the air conditioning going as well!) seems pretty hard to believe.

 

[Rand]

I could believe 44mpg everything fully warmed up, highway at 60mph.

Does your civic have super low Rolling resistance tires that wear fast?
That is good for a couple mpg right there.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Rand
I could believe 44mpg everything fully warmed up, highway at 60mph.

Does your civic have super low Rolling resistance tires that wear fast?
That is good for a couple mpg right there.


Actually no, I've got Kumho KW31 snow tires on it that I just leave on all year round! (since I only drive the Civic when it is raining during the summer months, since I drive the Corvette instead)

 

[Vuflanovsky]

I find most mpg readouts to be in the neighborhood of 3-5% optimistic but that would still be excellent mileage. My Hyundai readout is consistently 5% optimistic and will always match the hand calculated mpg minus this 5%. As I usually beat the highway EPA rating in the hand calculated figure I'm not too concerned. If I go on a long trip and keep it at 65-70 mph, it's possible to beat the EPA figure by 7-10%.

 

[Nick1994]

I just bought a 2015 Sonata last week (the Optima's sibling). Have put around 500 miles on it so far, my mpg readout at 65 mph after I filled up was around 40 mpg. Once I started commuting and getting some city miles on this tank it dropped a bit.

I wouldn't be surprised if it gets a bit over the stated mpg. My Camry is rated for 28 mpg highway and I've gotten 37-38 mpg on it several times.

 

[Grambo]

i have a 2015 kia optima turbo sxl and i get great gas mileage believe it or not.

 

[Danno]

I have a 2013 Sonata with the 2.4L, very believable to get that mileage at those speeds. I have seen sub 6.0 km/l on extended drives averaging 100 KPH.

 

[FutureDoc]

Originally Posted By: Vuflanovsky
I find most mpg readouts to be in the neighborhood of 3-5% optimistic but that would still be excellent mileage. My Hyundai readout is consistently 5% optimistic and will always match the hand calculated mpg minus this 5%. As I usually beat the highway EPA rating in the hand calculated figure I'm not too concerned. If I go on a long trip and keep it at 65-70 mph, it's possible to beat the EPA figure by 7-10%.


I find most computer/dash MPG displays to be optimistic as well ... except for my Genesis (3.8 V6). I am averaging about 23.8 around town (and only semi-flogging it... flog it and I hit 20mpg easily) on the display but my manual calculated average is about 24.4. Happened on my long trips as well as the cpu said between 27.5 and 30.0 mph and I was in the 31-32 range for manual calculation.


My Subaru is always about 0.6 below the readout and the Mrs' old fit was 10-20% optimistic. It would claim 44mph when I was calculating 37-38mph

 

[CharBaby]

Drivingvsomewhat gingerly and holding a steady speed between 70-75 mph w/ CC on, I have gotten slightly over 40 mpg(hard reading)in my 2015 Altima 2.5 SV when the dash/computer reading was saying 44 mpg. So it is possible. I always read my mpg w/ calculator after a fillup. Mostly though, the computer/dash reading shows ~ 2 mpg higher than my hard reading.

 

[JustinH]

Have a 11 Sonata with the 2.4L GDI, non turbo.

It gets 25mpg in mixed driving. Never seen 30mpg.

But most speed limits in Texas are 75-85 mph anyways.

 

[Vikas]

How many miles did you drive on your vacation? How many gallons did you fill in the car before returning it?

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
How many miles did you drive on your vacation? How many gallons did you fill in the car before returning it?


I didn't fill it up at all as the rental car agency signed me up for the pre pay option (without me knowing it) I'm not sure on the exact amount of miles I drove but it was quite a lot, as I started out in Tampa, then drove to Fort Myers the first day. On day two we went from Fort Myers to Marco Island and back. Day three I didn't drive anywhere, but on the last day I drove about 50 miles during the day, then at the end of the day we drove from Fort Myers to Fort Lauderdale and at that point there was still an 1/8th of a tank. So even though I didn't get an exact calculation, it sure seemed like we got a lot of driving done on that one tankful of gas! I was worried when they didn't have any small cars, and they gave me the Optima that I was going to get only about 25 MPG out of it, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Vikas]

I got actual 29 miles on the Charger AWD 6cyl full size vehicle driving 1200 miles during our Arizona vacation which came as a pleasant surprise to me.

 

[Patman]

On our last trip to Florida we drove all the way there, and since we had our three kids we rented a Chrysler Town and Country minivan and that thing struggled to get 23 MPG on the highway. Just brutal. Good thing it had a pretty big fuel tank or I would have been stopping every 2 hours to fill up.

 

[GeekPriest]

Originally Posted By: Patman
On our last trip to Florida we drove all the way there, and since we had our three kids we rented a Chrysler Town and Country minivan and that thing struggled to get 23 MPG on the highway. Just brutal. Good thing it had a pretty big fuel tank or I would have been stopping every 2 hours to fill up.


Odd. My 2011 T&C with what I think is the same engine routinely gets 25+ mph on our annual 2800 mile round trip between the Northeast and our homeland. Six people, a dog, and all our bags, doing 75 mph as much as possible.

 

[crw]

Keep in mind that it's a known phenomenon, that midsize sedans with good aerodynamics typically get better MPG at cruising speeds than compacts.