Kiwi MPG review

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Replacement shipped yesterday via priority mail from Portland.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Replacement arrived today and I made a largely unnecessary trip into town for groceries to try it out. My initial impression: I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I'M RETURNING THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE FIRST THING MONDAY MORNING! I was planning an in-depth review of all the features, but that's not going to happen. Here's what I do have.

Instantaneous MPG:

The value bounces around so much that I couldn't use it to fine tune my driving. That means it is utterly worthless for the number one thing I purchased it for. I had absolutely no problems with the ScanGauge II I used to own. It's update rate was pretty slow, but at least it seemed well connected to what I was doing. Probably some averaging system. This is not an optional feature! When it did stay in the same area long enough to evaluate it seemed to read very low (see average MPG). Result: deal breaker.

Average MPG:

The 1.5 hour round trip into town comprises about 90% of my driving and I've been averaging over 40 mpg on it consistently. The trip avg mpg the Kiwi MPG gave me is 13.8. I triple checked I had the right units. This was with the manual suggested correction factor of 1.2 (it came set to 1.0 annoyingly, but I corrected this before departing). That means the correction factor would have to be somewhere around 3.5. The manual strongly cautions against deviating from 1.2. The gives me absolutely no confidence whatsoever in this item's accuracy. Result: deal breaker.

Display:

The green LED display flickers slightly, but this isn't noticeable at the viewing distances it's designed for. Direct sunlight makes it very difficult to read. Result: I could live with it.

Menus:

The two buttons "set" and "mode" provide an acceptable, if clunky, interface. It's not quick and the codes are a little cryptic at times, but I think practice would help. Result: I could live with it.

Mounting Options:

The unit itself is very small and comes with a six foot cable. I wish it entered from the left rather than the right since my car has the ODBII port on the left. If I had kept it, I could see running the cable behind my roof panels and the support pillar and mounting it just above my review mirror. That would've been very useful. Result: Offers a lot of promise.

[theholycow]

Sounds like something is more wrong than just an adjustment. Either defective unit, or there's something seriously different that you need to do (change the engine size setting?).

[GasSavers_maximilian]

There is no engine size setting. Just fuel type, units, fuel cost, tank size, and the calibration constant. I agree it seems defective, but the impossible to use instantaneous reading is a deal breaker anyway. Unless that's defective too. Either way, I'm done with PLX.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

I doubled checked the fuel type and it was set correctly to gasoline. Since that's the default I'm not real surprised.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

I remember reading that the scangauge's instantaneous reading had a setting for refreshing so you could change it from fast, normal, and slow. something like that.

I say that even if it is defective, this is 3 strikes.

strike 1) took a month to get (past when they said they were sending it)
strike 2) first one came obviously defective
strike 3) defective or not, this one didn't work either

time to move on.

If I were you, I would contact the ebay seller and request a refund.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

No refresh control, unfortunately. You are thinking exactly along the lines I am. It has a 30 day return policy on it. They have you call for returns/exchanges so I guess that means Tuesday because of Memorial Day.

Wish I could justify buying a ScanGuage II, but I just don't drive enough. When I move I'll drive even less. Even buying this was a stretch on the rationalization front.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

my justification (at first) was the fact that it was a cool gadget. I really didn't expect it to make that big of a difference in the way I drive.

I was wrong.

I consider this a hobby of mine and there are many hobbies that people have that they throw money at with little or no return. there are very few hobbies that actually pay you back.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

The ScanGauge II was my main introduction to hypermiling driving techniques. I'd done a bit of research, but hadn't realized the full importance of driving in the highest gear possible and of quite how slow I should be climbing the steep hills around here (as slow as traffic will allow, pretty much). I considered keeping it, but quickly found that the difference between using it and not once I'd practiced was pretty small. Don't get me wrong, I definitely do better using the ScanGauge, but it's getting into diminishing returns territory.

At least with no Kiwi testing I'm now free to do mirror removal and WAI mods!

[dkjones96]

I was driving home tonight and wondered something. Is your Accent CAN bus or still true OBD2?

I don't think they are completely compatible. OBD2 commands will still work with CAN bus but not reliably.

Maybe that was your issue? Who knows. It's such a cool little device...