Kia Carens diesel MT: Initial impressions & real time fuel efiiciency

Although Kia claims the fuel tank capacity to be 45 litres, mine took in 50.23 litres (until auto cutoff) on the first tankful.

BHPian furyrider recently shred this with other enthusiasts.

For those interested in FE of the diesel manual, I’ve got 19.5 kmpl so far. This was tracked via Fuelio via tank full to tank full method. I’ve covered 700 km so far which included a mix of extremely dense traffic (~70 km), moderate city traffic (~100 km), moderate to open highways (~500 km). This was with 4 adults and light luggage driven between 80-100 kmph. On highway trips, expect a FE in excess of 20 kmpl.

Although Kia claims the fuel tank capacity to be 45 litres, mine took in 50.23 litres (until auto cutoff) on the first tankful. Here is my experience so far. Do note that my old car was a Grand i10, hence my comparison would probably apply for those who are upgrading from hatchbacks.

Pros:

• Lots of space on offer, airy and practical cabin, comfortable ride even while navigating large potholes.
• Felt planted at my usual highway speeds. Ride felt extremely bouncy at first. A quick look at TPMS indicated a pressure of 45 PSI in all tyres. Reducing the pressure to 34 PSI did the trick.
• TPMS seems to be accurate. It did match the value displayed on the air compressor I usually fill air in.
• Diesel does not feel like a diesel. You could hardly hear the engine inside. Almost everyone in my family was against my decision of purchasing a diesel, but are happy now.
• ACC is a boon. It cools the large cabin really fast. Having upgraded from a manual AC, the difference is night and day.
• Brakes seemed excellent. My old Gi10 had this weird issue where the brakes would bite suddenly. For someone driving behind me, it would be as if I have applied the brake suddenly instead of linearly.
• Wireless car play works flawlessly. Have not tested wireless AA as of now.
• Feels more car like to drive. It did not take much time to get accustomed to it’s dimensions.

Cons:

• Mine is a Prestige Plus. The less I say about the headlights, the better. Low beam is useless on dimly lit roads and highways. Highbeam seems slightly better, but the throw felt weird. I think I have to upgrade to better options. On pitch black roads, the headlight seemed okay though.
• The vehicle feels sluggish while moving forward from a standstill.
• The default audio setup is strictly okay at best. You cannot hear anything unless the volume is around 30-ish (50%).
• The IRVM vibrates on bad roads and on hard acceleration - as in the image appears blurred.

Niggles so far:

• While going over a speed breaker, the speedo console started blinking red and the car started giving continuous beeps with a warning on the MID stating that a door is open. It showed that the LHS front passenger door was open. In reality, the door was closed properly, for some reason, the vehicle threw this continuous error. Opening and closing the door did the trick. This was while I was driving back home post delivery. This never recurred since.
• Slotting into first gear seems to be tricky. The gear sometimes does not slot properly and you could hear a grinding noise. At first I thought that I did not depress the clutch fully, but this continued even when the clutch is depressed fully. The frequency seems to have gone down as the vehicle continues to accumulate some distance. May be the gearbox will settle down after a few thousand kilometres.
• While going over rough roads (roads where the top layer of Tarmac has eroded and hence has gotten rough), one could hear the windows rattling. This is not that pronounced, having the music on drowns this significantly.

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