2017 Kia Niro Review - HybridCars.com review 

Whey there is hesitant on stand mode at Eco mod for the first gear, but at sport mod there isn't hesitant? Maybe for saving battery?

Right. Missed this in editing. We would clip it now, but don't want to re-do the url

There is 12v battery its in the trunk.

MrWawer- No, it's not. The 12V batt is attached to the hybrid batt, under the rear seat.

I have one and the 12volt batter is in the back, behind a panel on the right side.

Iam Ian Define what "plenty" means? It's a hybrid, it won't cut the 0-60mph by 2 seconds or even half a second putting it in sport mode.

Chr Gav- I don't know the numbers, but I can give you a real world example. I rarely use the sport mode, but once at a stop, I moved the shifter left to sport mode. By mistake, I moved the shifter down also, which puts it in manual shifting. So when I pushed the pedal, I was in sport mode lowest gear. The car literally squeeled tires, jumping from a stop with more torque than any car I've driven in a long time, including manual trans. Sport mode has enough power to climb hills or bridges, and use the passing lane easily. The max torque is 195 lb/ft. at a low RPM of 2400, which is a lot more than Ford C-Max, which is the most powerful small hybrid. I don't know how much time it will cut the 0-60mph by, and of course neither do you. But are we really concerned with 0-60 times with a hybrid?

The sport mode also adjust the automatic shift points and steering. So even if you don't want to shift yourself, the sport mode offers extra power. The car in Eco mode is not very good for passing quickly while at highway speed, as expected for a car designed for fuel economy. But I recently had mine on a two lane highway with limited space to get around a couple of semis before hitting oncoming traffic. I moved it to sport mode, and it picked up speed quickly and I easily got around the trucks and back in my lane in plenty of time. It's hardly a sports car, but the sport mode gives you the get-up-and-go that you need in certain scenarios.

Bryan- yes, and anymore, what can you do with a "sports car"? Speed up for 500 ft. till you get to the next red light? Accelerate up to the traffic in front of you? Tuning the exhaust is the big thing now, they even have a speaker in some cars so you can hear the gurgling exhaust sound better! What a load of shyte..

Is it running purely by engine when it is in Sports mode ?

Ronald C Krause Jr the Federal tax rebate is only on the plug in hybrid .and is $4500 for plug in hybrids. Full electric like Tesla or leaf gets $7800

kens97- the difference between the Niro base trim, FE, and next level up, LX, is only ~$280. The LX is where you can get most of the safety feature add ons. That's what I did.

land That's good to know... Thanks. I thought the price difference was more than that.. definitely the best option. Still wish they offered all the safety stuff with the base trim. Especially on the Ioniq. They add a bunch of stuff on the mid grade I don't need or want and you lose 5MPG according to the info I see.

@@kens97sto171 you can get it for less than $300, what more do you want ? safety is worth 300 no?

@@linh811 Yep...nice. And with the added package the MPG goes from 58. To 54mpg. Because other stuff comes with that $300 package that I don't want or need.. So I have to choose safety or MPG.. I drive 50,000+ miles a year. .. it does matter. Or I can buy a Prius and get the safety systems standard. On a side note.. the Ioniq is a bit smaller too... And unfortunately the seats don't arrange in a way that allows a good camping car... The front head rests don't come out.. and when you put the back seats down and the front seats back.. they hit each other. The Prius they lay flat to each othrrt allowing a almost flat area from the end of the car to past the front armrest. Great for air mattress beds, and long trips and sleeping in the car. Not important to most people probably but I use that a ability a lot when I travel. Saves needing a hotel when I need to sleep.

So... Honda's base model is more expensive.

12V battery is below rear seat, attached to the hybrid batt- not in trunk.. at least in US sold versions.

I have a Niro, and I can tell you there is no 12v car battery in it. It draws from the lithium-ion battery instead.

This car does NOT have 12V battery at all not even under the back seat. Plug in hybrid has 12V in trunk

markmd9 Snow Tires > AWD

I have an AWD cadillac ATS right now and I can tell you my previous Honda Accord with just FWD was better in the snow.

In places like Finland/Sweden, they laugh at this whacky insistance on AWD.

4wd is not that big of a deal to be honest. Plenty of snow most of the year here in Finland and mud during summer and fwd is more than enough as long as you have good and right type of tyres. 🙂

You can just buy one there is space for it under the floor and add a jack

I like "mediocre", not a failed Buck Rodgers futuristic cheese wedge thrown into a blender.

Well, I like something a bit more assertive looking, Sportage looks better to me.

50+ MPG is assertive to me. And with a low center of gravity, handles much more assertively than Sportage, believe me.

Mmm, but looks tepid.

Tepid is the Sportage, which every other soccer-mom is driving.