PLX Kiwi MPG Trip Calculator and OBDII Scanner

I have been using the kiwi mpg meter for several days. I found that the speedometertech and miles driven work fine. The mpg average is another story. it reads 13 mpgon a known hyundai sonata with 25000 miles 4 cyl that gets 24-28 15 mile trip daily.I have tried changing cal numbers fact setting is 1.00. changing 1.5,2.0,2.5 has not helped at all. If I could cal this unit would be a winner. I like the fact that there is an on/off switch. The scangauge works much better but does not have a on/off switch. And yes in winter it can cause a car battery to become very run down.The scangauge will turn itself on in a low voltage battery. Can anyone help with cal numbers on the kiwi device it's very cool.

Everything works fine but if you want a MPG gage this is not it. Will give you MPG but is very slow calculating it. Cannot get a good reading around town and after a 25 mile trip was still not up to what my vehicle should get, started a 6 mpg and was at 11.5 and still going up. This vehicle would get about 21 for that trip when I checked it before.

SUMMARY: Great concept and much-needed product. Unfortunately, my unit failed after 10 days. Replacement/refund process a three-month ordeal.THE GOOD: This product represents a much-needed tool for drivers to educate themselves in fuel-efficient driving techniques. It works. After ordering, I received the unit in a timely manner and found it easy to install. The user interface was somewhat clumsy, but I was able to get my Kiwi MPG up and running in a few minutes by reading the instructions. Once installed, I found the Kiwi MPG very useful for determining instantaneous and average fuel efficiency of my 2004 Toyota Tacoma.THE BAD: Unfortunately, the unit failed within the first 10 days of use. Symptoms were that it would not shut down after the vehicle was shut off. Rather it continued to operate and got very hot. Shortly after this symptom commenced, it failed altogether and just gave an error display. It was still functional if I shut it off manually and rebooted every time I started the truck, but clearly it was not working out. Unfortunately, since this was purchased through a second party seller, I had to deal with the seller rather than Amazon directly.THE UGLY: After contacting the seller by email, I was instructed to send the unit back for a replacement, which I did. One week passed, then two...and ultimately five weeks and still no replacement. I contacted the seller via email again and was assured my replacement was on the way. More time passed and still no replacement. After this, I was able to locate a phone number on the web and after several tries over a number of days eventually contacted the company. I verified that they had received my return and again, I was assured a replacement was on the way. Again, weeks passed and no replacement. Subsequently, I left a message with a different person on the phone and eventually my call was returned by someone high up in the company who was at a trade show at the time. He instructed me to call the original person I had spoken to weeks earlier and tell this person that he should "take care of me". I did and the person agreed to process a refund. More weeks passed, no refund. I called this person again and he told me he'd have to check with their accounting department and get back to me. He promised an email within a few hours explaining the status of my refund... no email appeared.At this point, it was crystal clear that PLX had no intention of refunding my money. I contacted Amazon directly and inquired about my options. My first inquiry was met with (direct quote)"Unfortunately as they are not responding to your calls and emails there is nothing we can do."I was not satisfied with this answer from Amazon and sent a more impassioned follow-up which included more details about my quest for a replacement or refund. My second claim was just approved and today Amazon sent an email confirming that I will be getting a refund for the purchase price from them directly. The squeaky wheel gets the oil I guess. Thus, assuming Amazon follows through, my long and painful saga appears to be over. My original purchase was on July 19th, 2009. The date of confirmation of a refund by Amazon is November 22nd. This was my second experience recently with uncooperative second party sellers through Amazon. I'd like to acknowledge here that Amazon did make it right in both cases. They deserve kudos for this.Judging from the other reviews on this page, a lot of people have had good experiences with the Kiwi MPG. I suspect most people will have a similarly good experience. However, one should go into this purchase with their eyes open. If you do need to send the unit back for whatever reason, you are in for a painful ride.

I am used to driving a Chrysler T&C which has a trip computer which gives Instant gas Mileage, (Instant and Average), miles to empty, trip miles and time since last reset.Most vehicles (including my new Tacoma) don't have this and I have gotten very used to this. The Kiwi computer does this very well for an add on. MPG both instant and average seem to be very accurate. Fuel used is very accurate. At my last fill up, the computer said 13.07, gas pump said 13.11. Oh, and on a Tacoma when the gas pump shuts off there is no pumping a little more.My cons list is the setup. On the first page you have MPG (average and instant) and price of fuel used. then you have to hold down the mode button 3 seconds to get to page 2 where you have distance to empty and several more. Then 3 more seconds to get to the vehicle internal codes, three more seconds to get to setup and finally 3 more seconds to get to the first page. Maybe a third button for this function and put MPG (average and instant) miles to empty and gas used and miles traveled on page 1.Last con. My Chrysler used the actual vehicle gas gauge to calculate distance to empty. The Kiwi uses fuel used for the calculation which means you have to reset this at fillup for the function to work.Overall it gives functionality which is not available on most vehicles and allows you to better gauge how your driving uses fuel and therefore helps you get better miles per gallon.

I have had the Kiwi MPG for about a month.It produces very accurate MPG for my 2001 Toyota Corolla.Over 2 tankfuls of gas, it was off by less that 0.1 MPG.The adhesive on the Velcro softens and flows in hot weathermaking this meter slide off from it's mounting.I have also used it to monitor and reset Check Engine Light malfunction codes.It is impossible to read if the sun is directly on the guage; otherwise it is easy to read.Right now, while we are vacationing in Paris, my son-in-law is using it on hit F350 diesel.It will be interesting to see how he likes it.BillN.H.

Purchased the product for a 2004 Ford E250 V8 engine. Works as advertised. However, the Van is not used everyday. After 5 days of the Van sitting idle the battery was dead. Installed a new Battery as the other one was original. 2 weeks later the new battery was dead as the Van sat idle for 5 days. Charged it up and ran the van for 6 days straight. No problems at all. Left the van idle for 1 week and the battery went dead again. Finally removed the device from the Van and did nothing else. 5 months later and the battery has not gone dead. Last week I left the unit plugged in by mistake. Today the battery is dead. Tested the current draw many times with the unit plugged in and everytime it was only about .03 Amps. Not really enough to kill a battery. Not sure why this happened but now only plug the unit in when taking long trips.

hard to work out, hard to program, hard to adjust for mpg calibration, hard to read while driving. Apart from that its a cracker.

It is as described and suits my purposes , thank you , I will recommend the item to others that might require one , Mel ,

a very good item if you have an iffy fuel gauge