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EU Car Makers Manipulating Fuel Efficiency Figures

Posted by timothy on from the both-sides-of-the-pond dept.

pev writes with a report in The Guardian that "European car manufacturers are rigging fuel efficiency tests by stripping down car interiors, over inflating tyres, taping over panel gaps and generally cheating. This overestimates the figures by 25% to 50%. One would have thought that a simple clause stating that cars have to be tested in the conditions that they are sold in would have been obvious?"

4 of 431 comments (clear)

  1. Not surprised by s4ltyd0g · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is no different from dot matrix printer specifications from long ago. Sure your printer would do 250cps as long as all the characters were the number 1.

  2. European Magic by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This topic comes up every time we discuss fuel efficiency on here. Someone inevitably complains that the high-efficiency European cars are not available in the US, and then someone else points out that the Euro cars would not do very well on the EPA test. Hijinks ensue.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    1. Re:European Magic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's made even more hilarious by the nonlinearity of the "miles per gallon" metric vs. the "liters per 100km" metric and by the fact that a British gallon and an American gallon are two different sizes.

  3. Re:Slow news day? by rickb928 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most of the cars I've driven could meet or exceed the MPG specs.

    My '98 Saab 900 SET Convertible did 25-28MPG on my mostly highway commute right up to 208K miles. That's winning.

    My '95 Explorer was hitting 17-19MPG on the same commute, at 318k miles. Winning.

    My 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally is hitting 27-31MPG, same commute, 212K miles. Winning.

    My wife is driving the 2000 Explorer V8 at 143K miles, and is getting 16-18MPG. Not so winning, but not bad.

    Her commute and mine are similar; relatively quick in the morning, stop and go in the afternoon.

    Other cars I have driven that met their MPG estimates include various versions of the Taurus, Focus, Malibu Maxx, and a collection of forgettable crap. The older ones, pre-1990, were disappointing.

    MPG results are highly influenced by the driver, the traffic, and vehicle condition, but the driver I think counts a lot.

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    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.