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New First Edition

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2017 11:34 am
by Suman
Hi

I'm Suman from West London. I've just bought an ex-demo Kia Niro First Edition in White. I was about to buy a Toyota Prius Excel but found the Niro when checking Youtube reviews of Prius rivals. I'm switching from a 2007 gas guzzler Mercedes GL420 cdi as it's time for something a bit more economical and I like my toys.

I was surprised at the level of kit that comes with the First Edition. I haven't had a heated steering wheel since my last Lexus LS460 and the Lane Keep Assist seemed to work equally as well as on that luxury car.

I didn't try out the Smart Cruise Control during my test drive but am interested to see if it comes down to a full stop. My previous cars would have the radar cruise deactivate automatically when the speed dropped below 20 mph.

I pick up my car in a couple of weeks as I have a couple of things to sort out first, but I am very excited!

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2017 5:37 pm
by smileymiley
Hi Suman,
The adaptive cruise control does indeed stop the car! It's quite good fun slowing without touching anything. .. the cruise control needs to be reactivated afterwards.

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:51 am
by Suman
Today is the day... I pick up my Niro at 2pm :-)

I'm very excited!

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 6:06 pm
by Greenman
How do you like it?

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 6:49 pm
by Suman
I love it so far...

I need to spend a bit more time getting used to the Sat Nav. The ride is much firmer than my old Mercedes GL but the damping is better - there's less bouncing. I've already turned off the convenience seat moving on power off as it was bugging me. I prefer the driver's seat to stay put where I set it.

Now I've got the car I can say I had to wait two weeks to collect it because it just turned 90 days old - the earliest that the dealer could sell the demonstrator to me. With road tax at only £10 per year, I'm pretty happy.

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 8:50 pm
by Greenman
83mpg is the best we've had here. You'll have to let us know a few of the tricks. There's a mileage chat in the main forum, and there's a discussion about how to prepare the car if you are not going to use it for several weeks - all experience welcome.

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 5:30 pm
by Suman
The main thing to note with hypermiling is to drive as if you've got no brakes...

That means gentle acceleration and always looking up the road to see if traffic is slowing down and lifting off early rather than braking at the last minute. When you have to brake, do it early and gently to use the regeneration rather than the friction brakes as much as possible.

Once up to speed, lift of the throttle completely for an instant and reapply gently and you may get into EV mode faster, so long as the engine has warmed up.

I drove up to Rugby and back today to see my girlfriend and despite playing with settings and keeping up with the motorway traffic (using smart cruise set to 65 mph), I got 61mpg average.

20170425_154815.jpg


Re: New First Edition

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:07 pm
by djbobbins
61mpg is good but I don't see it as spectacular. My current Skoda Yeti, despite having the aerodynamics of a brick, regularly achieves 60mpg on motorway driving and on an Eco-run a couple of years ago, I achieved a trip-computer displayed 74.3mpg on a trip from North Staffs hospital in Stoke to home near Warwick.

I'm hoping my Niro 2 will deliver 60mpg as a matter of routine!

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:14 pm
by Suman
As with other hybrids, the Niro appears to be at its best in town rather than on the motorway. I will be doing my commute to work tomorrow where the maximum speed along the A40 into London is 40mph. I expect to easily beat that mpg too.

EDIT: I did my commute this morning and was slightly dismayed to find that over 8 miles on a cold (3º C) day I only got 51mpg... perhaps if I continued for longer my average would have gone up. I think for the first couple of miles, the engine was still warming up.

Re: New First Edition

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 6:41 am
by Suman
I have to say, the Niro's ECO default mode and the Sport mode are like Jekyll and Hyde in their differences, and I like it.

If you only ever drove in ECO mode, you would be forgiven for thinking the car was sluggish. Even giving quite a lot of throttle, the car doesn't seem to want to accelerate beyond a sedate amount. But move the shift lever to Sport and it's like a terrier, eager to accelerate and quite nippy by comparison.

I had a chance to use the Smart Cruise Control and it brought the car almost to a stop, but deactivated at about 6 mph and I had to brake to finish the stop. I then had to get going manually before resuming the cruise.