There are several dashboard computers on the market, some for the extreme car enthusiast, some for the rest of us. The new kid on the block is the PLX Kiwi. It’s a dashboard computer that plugs into most cars through their diagnostic port (OBDII).
Unlike others on the market, KIWI’s goal is a somewhat game-like experience where you try to obtain the highest “Kiwi Score”. You get a higher score when your driving style is optimized for fuel economy.
Let me list what I think are the top three advantages and top three disadvantages of the Kiwi:
Top three advantages of the Kiwi dashboard computer:
- Saving gas is almost a game that may help keep your interest over the long –haul.
- The interface seems extremely simple and even tells you how much money you saved.
- Appears to 26 individual pieces of sensor information from your car’s ODBII port.
Top three disadvantages of the Kiwi dashboard computer:
- Almost too much like a game, with a somewhat overly distractive interface.
- Fairly expensive (MSRP of $299). It would take a considerable amount of gas savings to pay for it given a gas price of $1.53 (what I’m currently paying for a gallon of gas).
- The “Fun Mode” makes me think they needed to fill some unused space on that big, bright display.
I’ll look into a few more of these dashboard computers…I’d eventually like to pick up something like this for my commuting.
Maybe the best thing about the KIWI is that it try’s to train you for better driving habits…Something we could all use a little of.
