So I am close to completing 1 month of ownership and 470 kms. Wanted to share my experience with my Kia Sonet HTX iMT petrol so far.
Mileage: My car is giving an average of 9.6 kmpl on the 2nd tank full post purchase. I'm hoping this improves over time. I plan my work commute to avoid traffic both ways. However, Bangalore traffic being what is is, its not possible to sustain all the time.
Misc.: I initially faced some sounds from the roof. Realised it was my goggles which were clashing with the un-carpeted area of the Sunglass holder. Got this shifted to the glove box and that stopped the noise.
Gearshift: Sluggishness exists when moving from 1st gear. Accelerator input is required, which is a learning curve for me since I come from a Diesel. Gear shifts seem notchy at times Eg: 2nd to 1st. or 2nd to 3rd. Perhaps it should get smooth over time. Will ask them to check it during the 1st free service planned next week. In my test drive before purchase, that car had run a couple of thousand kms and I had no issue shifting gears.
Body sheet metal: While not as thin as Maruti or Honda, it is certainly not as thick as Skoda or VAG cars. There is a little flex on the doors and bonnet, which I noticed. Again, it’s a European car hangover which may go over time.
Headlights: On a longish drive after evening, I found the LED headlights to be inadequate. There were no streetlights, but even with Fog lights, I was not confident of driving beyond 70 kms due to the poor visibility. I would have liked the stock LEDs to be brighter.
Audio: I am getting used to the connected car ICE, coming from an earlier pioneer CD player. The convenience is really great, plus the steering controlled audio selection is a boon. One point not to do with the car, but in my daily commute, there is a certain traffic junction where the Android Auto Bluetooth always disconnects. I need to manually connect it a few hundred meters ahead. It appears there may be some strong signal interference which causes BT to disconnect. It works fine with the cable, but too lazy to connect it through the wire.
TPMS: Interestingly I also encountered my 1st tyre puncture. Was parked at a ground and was driving out. After a few meters, the steering started pulling strongly towards the right and could not steer smoothly. Just about that time, I got an indication of the TPMS on the instrument cluster (thank God for TPMS!) and I got an error that the front left tyre is low on air. Parked by the side and saw the front left tyre was fully flat. I was a bit surprised, since there was no indication of gradual air reduction which is supposed to happen in a tubeless tyre.
I tried opening the wheel nuts myself, but since it was factory fitted, the wheel nuts were too tight and a weakish human like myself couldn’t open it. Tried looking around if there was a tyre shop and found none close by. I called KIA’s RSA and got good support. They sent someone in 30-40 mins and I was on my way in another 20 mins. I later showed the car to my trusted tyre repair shop where they checked the original tyre but couldn't find any puncture. They concluded that perhaps air may have escaped from between the rim and the tyre edge due to some impact.
Post this incident, I realised I needed to be prepared for such eventualities in the future, hence invested in the below:
1. Portable battery operated Air pump machine-Portronics
2. A 2 ft long GI pipe to give additional leverage when using the wheel spanner. (Thanks GannuVerse on Youtube who posted a very useful video here-->)
I Painted it black to go with the look of the OEM wheel spanner.
![LOL](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/LOL.png)
3. Z rod to prop up the jack with more ease. The original jack provided by KIA needs the spanner to be inserted at the open end of the jack prop rod, which I found a bit uncomfortable. In Skoda, the jack had an in-built foldable prop rod which was more convenient (cant help comparing with my earlier steed , sigh!).
I still need to check out Airbag compliant seat covers, since the interiors are beige and prone to get dirty. Another investment I need to do is a dashcam. Thinking of a dual channel cam to cover front and rear. Will go for this in the next e-comm sale.
That's al for now. Will update post my 1st free service experience.