[FGSOULOVER]

Yesterday I completed a trip to New Haven CT from the Reading PA area where I live. The Kia’s computer said 38.5 mpg. My measured mpg was 35.3. Considering this is a brick on wheels, I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m pretty happy with my mileage. I’ve had mine since one week pre-Covid. it has about 14300 miles on it. The measured fuel economy for those mile is 30.8 mpg combined. This Kia replaces a 2011 Forte EX which had 63500 miles on it. It averaged about 33 mpg on the highway and overall mileage was 28.9. I like my Soul EX.
I found that the original Nexen tires were garbage on wet, slushy or snow covered streets . They were down right hazardous when it came to stopping on snow, slush, or ice so I replaced them with Nokian WR4G all weather tires which have been excellent. I figure I may be paying a slight mpg penalty, but the added safety factor is worth it .

Replaced my Nexen with Michelin CrossClimate2 tires last Fall on my 2016 Soul Plus (17" tires) at 60k miles. [Including the '16 Plus, I've had other 4 Souls, from 2 Base (16" tires) models through 2 Exclaim (18") models.] The Michelin are the best tires I've used on my Souls; great ride, quiet running, excellent traction in dry, wet, and snow/ice conditions! About 2-3 better mpg after 8 months of driving. In the end, your right foot more than anything determines your gas mileage and tire tread wear.

P.S. I've found the 1.6L engine in the Base, with the higher gearing of the 6-spd A/T, consistently gets about 6-8mpg better than the 2.0L engine, regardless of model year, 2016 and earlier.

 

[DanR]

The fuel economy is the only thing that disappoints me about this cool Kia. I bought it new in June 2021, even though it is a 2019 model. Prior to purchase, I read that it should get 37MPG.

The window sticker was in the glove box. I didn't look at it until after I bought the vehicle. The window sticker says 30MPG highway. That is exactly what I get, based on my own calculations by dividing the number of miles driven by the number of gallons added from the previous fill-up.

I do not rely on the MPG display on the dash. I use fillup-to-fillup and miles driven.

I expected a smaller vehicle with a smaller engine to get better MPG than my prior (larger) vehicle which had a larger engine.

So... yeah... I am disappointed in the fuel economy, but overall... this little car is really great.

It's wind resistance from the boxy design...good an excuse as any other...

 

[GeoSoul]

MY EXPERIMENT: Ran the fuel down. Fuel "low" light came on with a range of 33 miles left. Ran it until the range was ----, zero. Then recorded the odometer reading. Then drove another 100 miles or so and it was still running normally. Then I ran out of time. So after the "low" fuel light comes on, you still have at least 133 miles left. (That was my 2.0L, 2017, with a POS engine. uses about 1 qt of oil per tank of gas !)

I think at about 30 miles showing on range, the number turns to just dashes, which is computer code for "you're on your own."

For me, when the low gas indicator comes on that's about 3 gallons left, or about 90ish miles of mixed driving.