Car Manufacturer figures regarding vehicle fuel consumption can be immensley misleading to drivers, as the actual amount of fuel burned was much higher than the official figures actually estimated.
A new study by the Auto Express magazine revealed that about 28% of cars consumed more fuel than estimated by manufacturers, and this difference added up to a sizeable amount of £570 per year to average fuel payments.
Nevertheless, government and consumer associations asserted that official figures were devised in accordance to stringent tests, and to assist buyers in drawing comparisons with the performance of various models.
To that, Auto Express said it had assessed manufacturers’ figures based on tests authorized by the government and found that they encompassed a range of drives, like driving in town, the countryside as well as on motorways. These figures were listed in new car brochures and manuals.
As an illustration, the magazine cited UK’s best selling car, the Ford Focus, saying that it hardly drove up to 42.5 miles in one gallon in an extra urban road, against tall claims of 55.4mpg by officials. The 1.6Ti-VCT LX, which was the model assessed, thereby would incur £2,187 as costs in fuel with annual mileage of 20,000, i.e. an additional £240 to official figures.
The highest inconsistency in fuel consumption figures amongst cars assessed was found in the Mazda RX-8 Hi-power coupe that ran only 13 miles per gallon in town, a whopping 28.2% less than the officially claimed 18.1mpg. The vehicle’s annual fuel bill would therefore amount up to £574 more, i.e. about £4,131.
Chief Editor at Auto Express, David Johns, was quoted saying, “The official test is carried out on a mechanical rolling road and bears no comparison to real-life driving on UK roads. Our test team discovered that, on average, cars are around 17-20 per cent less economical than the official claims. This discrepancy could end up costing drivers hundreds of pounds more than they'd bargained for.”
Meanwhile, senior motoring researcher at consumer magazine Which? George Marshall-Thornhill believed that a disclaimer was necessary to be attached to official figures to state that they merely held car models in comparison instead of a guide to performances.
A spokesperson from the Department for Transport added that tests complied with standards set by the European Union and could not “be fully representative of actual fuel consumption because of variations caused by driving styles, weather conditions, loading and use of equipment such as air conditioning.”
Posted
on : Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:35 GMT | General News
By : Mark Richardson
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