Hi Emma,
I have the auto transmission version, but have only done about 300 miles so far.
At my recent top up I calculated my MPG to be 34.3 overall. The usage was approx 50% town/city rush-hour driving and 50% emptyish A roads and motorways. I've been cruising at 60 - 65 on the motorways and sticking to the 30/50 MPH limits where applicable. I've been driving the car gently, no sudden accelerations and using a couple of techniques to improve the MPG figure:-
a) At traffic lights with long delays, I don't leave it in D, I shift to N until the lights go amber.
b) I use 'Sport' mode in a proactive manner. Eg. Even at 60MPH on the motorway (on the flat), the Automatic function does not call on the transmission to change up into 6th gear. A 2 litre Turbo diesel engine pulling as much torque as the Sportage does could easily cope in 6th gear, so I change up to 6th at 50MPH. The car copes admirably - no labouring at all. If I'm on a hill I change down, if needed. Similarly, once used to the engine and the response, it is possible to employ early up-changes at other points.
There is a caveat though, you must keep an eye on the rev counter, when in sport mode, to maximise MPG, whilst avoiding labouring.
For my car it is still very early days and I expect once the engine loosens up (after 10-15 k miles), I will be able to achieve pretty close to the quoted 40.4 MPG overall figure.
Hope this helps,
Sparky
Edited by: Sparky2009