Intellichoice Lowers Ratings On Hyundai, Kia Models Over Fuel Economy

Much ado has been made over the mpg controversy surround Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia. Late last week, the EPA audited and brought down many of their fuel economy numbers after finding that the automakers didn’t properly account for “coastdown” procedures in their fuel economy figures.

Then, they were struck with lawsuits, despite the fact that they’re planning to pay financial reparations to affected customers. And now, here’s a third hit: Keeper of all the resale and financial statistics you could ever want, IntelliChoice, has lowered its ratings of many of the affected models.

In keeping cost of ownership records, IntelliChoice rates vehicles on a nominal scale and has thusly lowered several models’ rankings due to added fuel costs over the course of five years of ownership. Unfortunately, with sitting on the “Average” fence before the fuel economy fiasco, some Hyundai and Kia models have been readjusted to “Below Average” and even “Poor,” such as several versions of the Kia Sorento and Sportage.

It should be noted that our chart only covers vehicles affected by noteworthy fuel economy fluctuations. Models like the Kia Optima and Hyundai Sonata have not seen any changes, as they’ve not experienced any fuel economy shifts. The EPA recertified their existing numbers after the audit.

Why some cars and trucks underwent fuel economy changes while others did not is not yet known. What is, however, is that Hyundai and Kia are going to be reeling from this fuel economy audit for a while, as outside organizations must continue to reassess their data. A full chart of the changes in IntelliChoice data is displayed below.