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Hyped breed?

I recently bought a Honda Insight, which I use mainly for short journeys of three to five miles Honda claims about 61mpg for urban work. I am getting about 51mpg for such journeys. I have spoken to Honda about this discrepancy but have not received satisfaction.
Am I being unreasonable in expecting manufacturers to provide realistic targets or is that a naive view?

Asked on 17 October 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
51 is what I would expect for short journeys from cold in summer. The official urban figure does not assume runs as short as 3 – 5 miles from each cold start. And it will be worse in winter, of course. Driving normally we got 55 from the Insight in 'combined' conditions, the same as I got from my long-term Focus ECOnetic diesel.
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