Kiwi MPG review

[maximilian]

Kiwi just released a cheaper, smaller car computer called the Kiwi MPG and I just ordered one. It's $86.99 on ebay with free shipping and a 30 day return policy. I owned a ScanGage II for a couple weeks so I will be very interested to compare them. I'll post about it when I have had a chance to give it a go.

Only displays one value at a time, but the numbers are larger than a ScanGuage. The unit's also quite small at 2.5"x1"x.5". I found a review, but it seemed perhaps a little overly positive. Since the name of the review site and the ebay seller are identical...hmm. Not conclusive I suppose.

Instantaneous MPG (MPG, Km/L, L-100Km)
Trip Average MPG (MPG, Km/L, L-100Km)
Trip Dollars Consumed (All worldwide currencies supported)
Fuel Used (Gallons, Liters)
Fuel Remaining (Gallons, Liters)
Distance to Empty (Gallons, Liters)
Engine RPM
Vehicle Speed (MPH, KMH)
Coolant Temp (Fahrenheit, Celsius)
Throttle Position

It also reads and clears error codes.

No IAT, which is a bit of a bummer.

[GasUser]

This is an interesting lower cost alternative to the scanguage or the more expensive kiwi model. I am interested in your review.

[dkjones96]

That's a sweet unit! I only want an MPG gauge for my Durango and don't need all of the other extra stuff as I actually have a tach and all of that. I might actually get one of these!

[maximilian]

That particular place I bought it from can't get any more until the 10th. They emailed right away offering me a full refund if it was a problem, which is nice. I told them not to sweat the extra two days.

Its small size really gives some interesting mounting possibilities. I hope to find a way to put it where I can see it without taking my eyes off the road. Running the line to the OBDII will be the tough part I guess. Have to see.

I imagine that unless it really is terrible that this unit will take a lot of the steam out of the homebrew mpg computer projects.

[BEEF]

it still has to have obd2 which means homebrew for anything before that.

I didn't really realize the size. that's a business card...well a stack of business cards.

that may be an option for my wife's element.

[maximilian]

I had some 1/2" foam lying around and cut a piece to scale. It's pretty easy to find good spots for it. The ScanGauge II fitted nicely into the standard insert beneath my radio, but that was just dumb luck.

[maximilian]

I just checked and the release date has been slipping on Amazon. Must be having supply issues since it was just introduced.

[maximilian]

Just received an email shipment notification for my Kiwi MPG. About a month later than expected as they're having supply issues. Should be here in about a week.

The good news is that you can now get them for slightly less: $85.50 including shipping. The bad news is that Amazon's estimated product release date is now May 27th. Looks like I was fortunate to even get one in the first batch. I looked around but can't find any newer reviews of it.

[maximilian]

My kiwi arrived today, and it's defective. The strain relief where it attaches to the display is clearly damaged and individual color coded wires are visible and visibly creased. Didn't plug it in or anything. I'll scan in the instructions and post them since there is no copyright anywhere on them.

A month late and it arrives damaged. Beginning to have trouble keeping an open mind.

This is as close as I could really get with my camera even in macro mode before the focus started to have a little trouble. Bet there's a way to do better if I play with it more. You can just make out the color of the wires on the right and that there's a gap. It's also bent back a little. Too bad they went with a right cable approach as my ODBII port is on the left. Come to think of it so are all the ones I've ever seen. Is that generally true? Those marks on the display are on the plastic protective sheet, which I didn't remove since I saw it was damaged.



There's a small power switch on the right. Hey, wait a minute! Why is this closer shot so clear? I need to practice a bit, obviously.

[maximilian]

After I double checked I saw that there is a tiny copyright symbol on the instructions. I scanned them anyway so I can read them over after I return the unit. I want to exchange, but who knows how long that might take.

[maximilian]

OK, did a quick once over and there's nothing too surprising given the feature list I had before. You can set the fuel type, tank size, fuel cost, units for volume and distance, as well as a calibration value to improve the mpg accuracy. Glad to see that last one's in there!

[BEEF]

after all that time and the thing is defective? have you tried plugging it in at all? you could ohm out the wires to make sure they are making contact.

still puts a sour taste in your mouth about them. never had that problem with a scangauge.

[maximilian]

I have a "hands off" policy towards damaged stuff. I'm sure it probably works, I just want to keep it in as original shape as possible for an exchange. If it were cheaper I'd just fix it. I've done that with some Harbor Freight stuff that arrived busted. I guess I could plug it in just to see how bright the display is and stuff. That way I wouldn't need to recoil the cord.

I wonder what this says about my personality? Cowardly but patient?

[BEEF]

you could just say to send you a new cable and send pics of the jacked up cable. that is if it works.

I have a bad habbit of voiding warranties and trying to fix stuff.

I guess your poilcy is a good one especially if you are ever thinking of getting rid of it. I noticed that a lot of the comands on it look almost like code. probably due to the 7 segment displays that they chose to use. I don't really notice it as much on the scangauge even though they only use 3 characters but they arent 7 segment displays.

for me, that would take some getting used to.

[theholycow]

That's not cowardly, that's smart. There's a difference.

[dkjones96]

Sucks about the Kiwi, they need to improve quality control which can be hard in a small company.

As far as the camera is concerned. It probably had trouble because of the plain surface in the middle of the picture. The camera relies on contrast to adjust focus and that screen doesn't have much. If you center the area with the wires you should be able to get much closer. Or you could use the manual focus, if it has one.

[PaleMelanesian]

We had a big Kiwi for review at CleanMPG, and it was functional but very poorly put together. The screen was crooked with gaps around it, and the whole thing felt cheap and flimsy. Even Wayne's very non-technical mother called it a "pretty piece of garbage".

And it was nearly useless in actual driving. Reset on every engine stop? What if you key off at a red light?

[maximilian]

I'm still willing to give it a shot. I can always Ebay it for most of what I paid. The seller got right back to me and is paying for it to be shipped back. The first batch was apparently hand assembled and they've had a few other problems with some of them. They actually have a new shipment arriving tomorrow so there shouldn't be any delay getting me a new one. Offered me a refund if I preferred as well.

So far, not grooving on PLX, but the reseller has been doing pretty well with a difficult situation.

[BEEF]

the way I feel about ebayers or others like amazon. they are selling a product. they can't help if the product doesn't meet what was promised.

I usually rate them on shipping (if they did what they promised to do) and if there is an issue, how they handled it.

sounds like you have gotten a hold of a good one. he has offered you a refund twice now which is big of him and he is taking care of shipping.

he can't help it if the thing is broke.

[GasUser]

Too bad it arrived busted. I was looking forward to a real world performance test of it.

I am glad that the seller is making good on it anyway. Hopefully when you get the replacement, it will be better and you will be able to use it and report on it's functionality.

[maximilian]

Replacement shipped yesterday via priority mail from Portland.

[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?).

[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.

[maximilian]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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...