[Arnulfo Puma]

Hi All. I bought a 2023 Seltos SX a couple of months ago and I love it! Previously I had a 2019 Optima S, which I loved but living in MN I really needed AWD. Went to my local dealership to buy a K5 with AWD but completewly fell in love with this Seltos.

 

[Speedtek22]

Enjoy! The 1.6T is a fun drivetrain on these things.
I recommend using the "S" mode on the transmission exclusively. I find mine actually gets better mileage when I do. You don't have to dig into the throttle anywhere near as much to get moving as you do in regular "D".
Kia really set it up nice on the transmission in that you don't have to manually shift, it will shift automatically (unless you engage the manual mode by pushing the lever forward or back. If you bump it up or down accidentally, just flick the lever over to D and back to S and it will be in auto sport mode again).

I leave my drive selector knob in Smart and use the S mode on the shift lever, works great.

 

[Arnulfo Puma]

Enjoy! The 1.6T is a fun drivetrain on these things.
I recommend using the "S" mode on the transmission exclusively. I find mine actually gets better mileage when I do. You don't have to dig into the throttle anywhere near as much to get moving as you do in regular "D".
Kia really set it up nice on the transmission in that you don't have to manually shift, it will shift automatically (unless you engage the manual mode by pushing the lever forward or back. If you bump it up or down accidentally, just flick the lever over to D and back to S and it will be in auto sport mode again).

I leave my drive selector knob in Smart and use the S mode on the shift lever, works great.

I love the 1.6T with the 7 speed DCT. I used to drive mostly manual transmission cars, so the DCT feels more natural to me. S mode is nice, but is a little thirsty at the pump, I usually just drive in normal mode and manually shift when I need more control.
Anyway, sorry for the late responce, I have been a little busy at work but planning to sped a little more time here at the forum.

 

[Speedtek22]

I love the 1.6T with the 7 speed DCT. I used to drive mostly manual transmission cars, so the DCT feels more natural to me. S mode is nice, but is a little thirsty at the pump, I usually just drive in normal mode and manually shift when I need more control.
Anyway, sorry for the late responce, I have been a little busy at work but planning to sped a little more time here at the forum.

TBH I find it actually gets quite a bit better mileage using the S mode. You don't have to dive into the throttle near as deep to get it moving off the lights. I regularly get at least a litre/100kms better economy than my wife (who only drives it in D).
In case you weren't aware (I know I wasn't at first), the S mode operates like a normal automatic unless you start manually changing the gears. It just changes the shifting patterns to a more direct and quick feel.

 

[Arnulfo Puma]

TBH I find it actually gets quite a bit better mileage using the S mode. You don't have to dive into the throttle near as deep to get it moving off the lights. I regularly get at least a litre/100kms better economy than my wife (who only drives it in D).
In case you weren't aware (I know I wasn't at first), the S mode operates like a normal automatic unless you start manually changing the gears. It just changes the shifting patterns to a more direct and quick feel.

I'll give it a try again, it just seems to hod on to the lower gears a little longer than I want it to but on the flip side it does make it way more spunky off the line.

 

[Ricky10]

Hi All. I bought a 2023 Seltos SX a couple of months ago and I love it! Previously I had a 2019 Optima S, which I loved but living in MN I really needed AWD. Went to my local dealership to buy a K5 with AWD but completewly fell in love with this Seltos.

View attachment 1533

Looks beautiful, I have the same exact one but it’s a 2021 so I am a little jealous of the new badging .

You need to get your front windows tinted to match your rear windows. You will love it! I would also recommend the OEM Sport Visors for your windows. They do a great job!

 

[peter47]

Enjoy! The 1.6T is a fun drivetrain on these things.
I recommend using the "S" mode on the transmission exclusively. I find mine actually gets better mileage when I do. You don't have to dig into the throttle anywhere near as much to get moving as you do in regular "D".
Kia really set it up nice on the transmission in that you don't have to manually shift, it will shift automatically (unless you engage the manual mode by pushing the lever forward or back. If you bump it up or down accidentally, just flick the lever over to D and back to S and it will be in auto sport mode again).

I leave my drive selector knob in Smart and use the S mode on the shift lever, works great.

Speedtek22, one of the things that intrigues me, and why I enjoy coming in on the essentially North American Seltos forum, and some others, is the way that manufacturers set up vehicles, even to the way dome things work, and/or are labelled. For example, referring to your auto settings.

Here in Oz, the drive move rotary button just sets the gear box change rpms so as to make them either more economicl, by holding gears longer, which in our case is called Eco, then there'sNormal, which changes up and down a bit more promtly, and then Sport mode, with really brisk changes up and down, holding gears longer in descents, etc as well. The S mode for the actual gear stick selects the manual driving mode, where you have to bump the stick/lever forwards to changer to a higher gear, and backwards to select a lower gear, so in effect, a clutchless manual tranny results.

I'm finding it hard to work out exactly how your system works. You are implying that in the S mode, where you move the stick to the right, it still changes gear automatically, but in a more sporty way. That for us is ab=chieved via the drive mode rotating knob. What does your drive mode knob do..? If what you call the Smart position relates to that knob, then for us that is Normal or even Sport. I think, but youi have me confused. Because in our car, if you leave the shift lever across to the right in the S position, then you have to move the gearstick for every gear change, and it only selects 1st automatically if you actually stop. Please explain...

 

[Speedtek22]

Speedtek22, one of the things that intrigues me, and why I enjoy coming in on the essentially North American Seltos forum, and some others, is the way that manufacturers set up vehicles, even to the way dome things work, and/or are labelled. For example, referring to your auto settings.

Here in Oz, the drive move rotary button just sets the gear box change rpms so as to make them either more economicl, by holding gears longer, which in our case is called Eco, then there'sNormal, which changes up and down a bit more promtly, and then Sport mode, with really brisk changes up and down, holding gears longer in descents, etc as well. The S mode for the actual gear stick selects the manual driving mode, where you have to bump the stick/lever forwards to changer to a higher gear, and backwards to select a lower gear, so in effect, a clutchless manual tranny results.

I'm finding it hard to work out exactly how your system works. You are implying that in the S mode, where you move the stick to the right, it still changes gear automatically, but in a more sporty way. That for us is ab=chieved via the drive mode rotating knob. What does your drive mode knob do..? If what you call the Smart position relates to that knob, then for us that is Normal or even Sport. I think, but youi have me confused. Because in our car, if you leave the shift lever across to the right in the S position, then you have to move the gearstick for every gear change, and it only selects 1st automatically if you actually stop. Please explain...

We have two modes, sport and smart. (There may be normal, but I’ve never used it. Sport drive mode select puts even the D position into “sport” mode and I suspect that sliding the lever to S at that point makes it manual shift only with no auto function…I may have to experiment.)
Sport is self explanatory, when selected with the knob, the dash changes and the transmission is always in sport mode.
Smart automatically senses driving requirements and changes between normal, sport and eco.

I run my drive mode in smart, which when the transmission is in D, it operates as per normal (dynamically…however the sense to change to sport shifting when flooring it is a little slow to kick in imo)

When you slide the lever to S mode (with Smart drive mode selected) and don’t manually shift, the transmission shifts automatically and quickly, the display on the dash changes from D to S, and the car is much peppier overall. If you were to bump the lever forward or back it would switch it to a manual shift mode and you would have to cancel it out (if you wanted to return to auto shifting) by switching back and forth to D and back to S. There may be another way to cancel (I know on Chrysler vehicles you just have to hold the lever in the gear up position for a count of three and it will revert back to auto function), but I haven’t experimented with it more.

maybe try putting your lever over to S while in Normal mode and don’t shift manually…it might do it automatically…

 

[Speedtek22]

Sorry, did a few edits on that post…lol

 

[peter47]

interesting. With our antipodean setup, when you move the shift lever across to S, it becomes essentially a clutchless manual, and effectively ignores the drive mode setting, although if you slow down a lot, it will drop a gear or two, and if you try to over-rev it, it will change up. If the drive mode button is rotated to the third, ie, sport position, the box becomes effectively how yours is with your drive mode in Smart mode, and shift lever slid across into the (manual, for us) S position. You wonder why they bother, and don’t just standardise the whole shebang for all countries..?