08 April 2013

How are you dealing with the tricky subject of fuel consumption? I only ask because, as you may be aware, there’s a bit of a campaign building over so-called ‘True MPG’ figures.

Here in the UK it’s being led by What Car? magazine but, perhaps more importantly, Brussels-based lobbying group, T&E, is also on the case. Since T&E is listened to by the European Commission, and any change in testing will have to be pan-European, its campaign is likely to have more effect.

T&E has outright accused manufacturers of ‘manipulation of test procedures’ and set out to repeat the official tests under its own controlled conditions. Interestingly, it found that the manufacturer figures are out by  23%; which is not that far different from What Car’s average 17% and a claim of 24% error for superminis.

I guess the first question is: do customers care. Some will, some won’t – taking the view that official consumption figures are only there as a guide and to allow you to make comparisons.

Of course, that argument goes out the window if you suspect some carmakers are proving better at manipulation than others and you’re not being told the truth. It’s a bit like buying cheap beefburgers: you probably don’t mind a bit of horsemeat but you’d like to be told.

And what about all those clever devices that add to the cost of buying the car (such as stop-start) but which appear to make little difference to fuel consumption in real world driving conditions? How do we justify those?

It seems to me the answer is to focus on the parallel benefits of a low official MPG – which are primarily the reasons why the manufacturers are fiddling the figures in the first place. For company car drivers, it’s lower personal tax; for private motorists, it’s lower road fund licence.

Does anybody believe the government will change its tax bands if we revise the test process and get more realistic (higher) CO2 figures? Campaigners should be careful what they wish for.

Rupert Saunders

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Tags: economy figures, fuel consumption, fuel economy, TA, True MPG, What Car?