Customer Reviews

PLX Kiwi OBDII Scanner and Fuel Saving Device

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have owned a Kiwi when it first came out into the market in June, and I say I am very happy with it. I think Kiwi designer has put in a lot of thoughts into the product. Kiwi is more than a simple gas saving device. Its concept is to bring conscious and responsibility to the driver to be aware of his/her driving habit and to change it to drive more greenly.

I found many useful features builded in with the product. The neatest thing is it reports the cost of each trip for the driver to be conscious not to spend $5 worth of gas just to go buy a a pack of gum. It's also pretty intellegent that it automatically detects different OBDII standards in the cars and automatically adjust itself to work flawlessly with it, a truely plug-n-play. Once installed, it goes to sleep and wake up automatically every time you drive the car. It also give ability to keep track of previous several trips to show improvement or lack of improvement in MPG and your driving behavior.

I found that high MPG is not everything! For example you can take 3 different routes from home to work. Though you can take a freeway with report highest MPG but you have to drive longer, you may not necessary save gas more than the city route with slightly lower MPG. With Kiwi, I can drive 3 different routes and compare what it actually costs me in each route, so the route that saves most gas can be selected over the route that saves most time, and vice versa.

I've already used Kiwi to reset my engine check light twice. I have an old Honda Prelude and a few months ago the engine check light came on. Kiwi reported a troble code P0113. I Googled it and found P0113 is air intake temperature problem. Checking the wire around AIT, I found a broken wire that goes to the AIT sensor. I reconnected the wire and reset the code with Kiwi, the problem went away.

Last week another code showed up when my engine check light came on again! Kiwi reported trouble code P0141 which is a problem at 2nd O2 sensor (after catalytic converter). I checked the wires, cleaned the plugs (with the hope that I do not need to replace the expensive O2 sensor) and used Kiwi to reset the code, the problem went away. The 2 incidents would have costed me several hundered dollars if I went to a garage and have someone diagnosed and reset the code for me. My Kiwi pays for itself after the first incident, and I feel my money was well spended on the Kiwi.

A friend had mentioned he had a KIWI and I thought it would be interesting to try it out on a recent road trip. It's marketed as 'fun' so I wondered if it would be helpful in any way. Much to my surprise I found that I adjusted my driving style quite often to keep my 'score' up which meant I was increasing my MPG. It's extremely easy to install, use, read, etc and is 100% portable from vehicle to vehicle. For those who do a lot of driving it would certainly pay for itself in a relatively short amount of time!

I've had my Kiwi for several months now and I'm very pleased with it. It's been a fun, neat and valuable tool for me to experiment with my gas mileage during my boring commutes to and from work. My daily commute ranges between 20-30 minutes and I've been using my Kiwi to determine which route saves me the most time and gas. With the Kiwi I've discovered that my driving behavior plays a tremendous part in my fuel efficiency. I've also been able to discover which routes save the most gas.

I've experimented with my driving behavior quite a bit and I've noticed that my Lexus can range as much as 35% on the same route. On some days I'll drive aggressively by accelerating rapidly and braking aggressively. My Kiwi Score would drop to about 78 with an MPG of about 20 and a cost per trip of ~$1.4. On other days, I'll baby the car, keep my momentum in turns, plan ahead and stop gradually and I'll get a 92 Kiwi Score with 28 MPG and a cost per trip of ~$1. When I arrive at my destination, the Kiwi will show me a trip summary with all that information, which is a nice feature. I've also noticed that there's a definite correlation between my driving behavior score and my actual MPG.

Before I had the Kiwi, every morning I'm always caught with a dilemma. Should I take the longer freeway route or should I take the shorter city route to work? With the Kiwi I've discovered that my city route to work is 9.0 miles where my freeway route is 12.2 miles. I've also been able to discover that my longer freeway route actually saves more gas and time than my shorter city route if there's no freeway traffic. I check the traffic with my iphone every morning now and if there's no traffic, I'll take the freeway, and if there is, I'll take the city.

The engine check feature has also been useful. A buddy of mine drives a BMW M roadster and forgot to screw his gas cap on tightly. Apparently BMW has a pressure sensor which checks for this and throws an error code on the dash. I look my Kiwi out and reset his light for him saving him at least $100 from having to go to the dealer.

All in all, I'm happy with the Kiwi. It does what it's advertised to do and requires no maintenance. The unit is easy to install, turns on automatically and turn off automatically.

When you plug this thing in you are greeted by a beautiful bright screen. The user interface is pretty easy to navigate with the directional keys. Text is large and straight forward.

Once the unit is plugged into your dash's OBD II port it scans all that information into the device in real time. I drive a WRX so this unit plugs underneath your driver steering column. Once the unit is powered it figures out your vehicle's performance. It knows how much you accelerate and brake, then the unit some how figures out a mathematical formula to teach you how to drive more smoother.

Before getting my unit I was driving about 21MPG. Driving using the Kiwi's tool I was able to push it up to 26MPG. My WRX isn't very efficient. So your mileage may vary.

Bought the KIWI and started using it in my 2004 Toyota Camry. I travel via 2-lane highway about 180 miles each way almost every weekend. This goes through about 6-8 small towns and is not freeway driving by any means. I used to get 34 mpg highway. After using the Kiwi, mileage gradually increased to 38 mpg. They recommended switching to synthetic oil and my new "record" is 41.6 mpg. This is a very good product. It also analyzes the check engine light for you when it comes on so you can decide to get it fixed now or wait. It basically teaches you how to drive to save gas.

Why would you buy this here for 300 when you can buy the same thing directly from the manufacturer for 200

Unfortunately, I read nothing but glowing reviews of the Kiwi, but it didn't glow for me. In fact it didn't turn on. We called Kiwi customer service and they were nice enough saying to just send it back. I bought this item new but the rep said somehow we must have gotten an older model? Needless to say I am not happy since this was a christmas present for my husband. I might be a littler happier if my money was refunded but I'm still waiting. I trust Amazon and have rarely had a problem. I hope this doesn't turn into one.

If you'll notice the maker and other reviewers say very little about how much this device will actually improve MPG. The basics of efficient driving - reducing speed, accelerating gently (unless you have a hybrid and then that may not apply), and coasting as much as possible when stopping - will make some difference, in my experience perhaps 10%. But you don't need a device to guide you to do those things do you? Well, maybe you do, and then this device will help remind and reward you in a game like way for doing these things.

But are you looking to have fun with a new toy or do you actually want to make any real difference in your pocketbook and the environment? Then you need to get a more fuel efficient vehicle. It's just that simple. Saving 10% on a 20mpg vehicle is only the equivalent of driving a 22mpg vehicle. Think of the difference you could make with a 30mpg vehicle while sacrificing very little; that's 50%! Or how about a Prius or Civic Hybrid at over 40mpg; thats 100%! Double that is! Duh.

Go ahead, be courageous, make a real difference, step up to a more efficient vehicle!

Or, of course, you could just drive less....