The Car Hub

As motorists we are now, sadly, having to come to terms with the fact that oil companies are unwilling to lower the cost of fuel at the pumps to anything lower than £1 per litre regardless of the price of a barrel of oil.

That means that we motorists have to keep a keen eye on what our cars mpg figures are in order to budget the weekly cost of motoring.

Here now comes the problem, whose data figures do you believe?

It can safely be said that in the majority of cases do NOT believe the car manufacturer. Why?, well simply put, the car manufacturers want to present the best set of figures they possibly can so their tests have been “manipulated” to achieve this.

Take these few points as examples, to attain the urban mpg figure car makers do not drive as you or I woulPicture to get up through the gears to reach the required 62mpg, driven normally you could attain that figure in 20-25 seconds but testers are allowed a leisurely 50 seconds to reach the 62mpg by much more gentle acceleration thereby using less fuel.

Another example is illustrated by the fact that car makers do all their testing indoors and at temperatures between 20-25c, oh to be lucky enough to live in such warmth, so here again reality does not exist as on a cold day bringing your engine up to working temperature will take longer thereby impacting on fuel economy.

Some other points to illustrate the “false” figures provided under the NEDC (New European Drive Cycle) testing system are that testing does not take place on roads but on a rolling track and with no gradients. Each time you go round a corner your mpg is slightly affected by the power required to operate the steering pump. Driving with the windows down, having a roof rack, even the carrying of passengers all affect fuel economy and perhaps none more so than switching on the air-con; but do the testers take account of this - no.

Finally to sum up, perhaps its unfair to single out examples but Which? have a recent survey in which their testing results showed an average mpg for the diesel powered Mini Cooper as 53.3mpg compared to the manufacturers figure of 72.4mpg!!

The choice is yours, but if you are fuel conscious dig a bit deeper into the data you’re presented with.