I was recently shocked at the Pakistani market when I went out to sell my KIA Picanto (AT) 2020. I found no one interested in buying for the mere reason of BAD FUEL ECONOMY. I started digging into the main issue faced by the Picanto users. I found a Pak Wheels Owner Review in which a guy kept on sharing his moderate somehow honest views regarding the Fuel Economy of KIA Picanto. This video eventually became the root cause of KIA Picanto's market failure. Though when I dig deeper I found that the problem lies in our understanding of ECO mode. Most people have experienced ECO Idle mode in which a car's engine is off when it is stopped and with a slight pressure on the pedal it is back up. This saves fuel in Japanese Cars. But guys you have to keep in mind that this car is a Korean Technology and its ECO mode is way much different than what exists in Japanese cars.
The ECO mode of KIA Picanto basically "Latch" to a certain speed with 2000rpms and on Pakistani roads when you try to speed up the car for overtaking purposes you will face slight resistance to break that ECO maintained speed. THIS ECO MODE IS THE MAIN CULPRIT ON PAKISTANI ROADS. As you press the pedal enough fuel is dispensed in order to break the latch of ECO mode which causes bad fuel economy/ average.
SOLUTION
Turn off the ECO mode and A/C. Now try to maintain 2000RPM (By keeping a light foot on the accelerator) and try to keep your speed somewhere around 60KMPH within the city. This will 100% start improving your average on the digital meter. It will ultimately give you 5.5L/100KMS to 5.8L/100KMS which means you are having 17 to 18 KMS on 1 Litre of Petrol. This is my experience. You should try it.
Note: This is for the Automatic Variant.
