Kiwi MPG review

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Originally Posted by Lightning Blue

A friend of mine insists that any MPG computer is going to be bouncing around like the Kiwi does for real time MPG, but I can't see how that would be "normal".

The ScanGauge II is definitely employing some form of time averaging even in instant mode. It easily lets you tune your driving. The quality really is very good. It's not exactly stylish, but I don't care about that so much. The Kiwi's price and size were the big draw. You have to wonder about a company that would ship a broken product. Do they not think it will come back to haunt them? Or did they just not test them after making a last minute change? That might explain the accuracy issues, but the useless instantaneous part is just bizarre. I have worked with people who might have made such business decisions. "We can deal with that later" was the mind set.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by maximilian

It's not exactly stylish, but I don't care about that so much.

Folks looking to make it pretty use a blendmount, and adjust the display's background color (which can be adjusted to a whole lot of shades).

[GasSavers_maximilian]

I'm planning on doing that with mine. I didn't know the backlight could be different colors. Cool. I would call the ScanGauge's appearance "functional", which is more than acceptable.

[theholycow]

There are 63 possible colors, according to the manual.

[Lightning Blue]

Is the ScanGauge multiple car friendly (like, will it remember settings of different cars) or does it even have settings like fuel tank size and such?

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Here's their FAQ.

Found the SG2 manual online too, in case that helps.

[theholycow]

The ScanGauge is a little inconvenient switching between cars. I thought I would adjust it for each vehicle and take it with me no matter which vehicle I'm driving, but in reality I've found that I prefer to leave it in one vehicle for at least a few tanks at a time.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Just got the following email from Needful Toyz:

Last Friday we learned the PLX Kiwi MPG has an issue on vehicles that have CAN bus parameters which triggers a shut down of the unit, which many of you experienced. This explains why some customers have had zero problems and others have experienced random freezing or incorrect readings. We’re grateful to learn it’s an explainable and easily corrected problem.



PLX is aware of the issue and is currently working on a revision which is scheduled to be complete late next week or early the following week. The units you returned to us as well as the units we have in stock are being returned to PLX for replacement with the “new & improved” version. While we understand you might be skeptical of the product at this point, we wanted to make sure to communicate the information since the problem is being corrected.



I’m also working on getting all the refunds done – I apologize for the delay and I haven’t forgotten!


If you’d like to give the MPG a try again we’d be happy to offer the product to you for $5 off your original purchase price and free shipping .

Originally Posted by dkjones96

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...

It seems you were correct!! Good call!

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Just got my refund from the Kiwi MPG. It had fallen through the cracks, but I got it less than an hour after I emailed to follow up and they were appropriately apologetic. They had to strong arm PLX to pony up for all the shipping costs for the returns (in my case two returns) which had added some delay.

Anyhow, there are now a few reviews on Amazon.

[dkjones96]

It's gotten good reviews on there. Makes me wonder!

It just needs an output for a huge LCD display in the back!