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Why is my Vauxhall Astra failing to meet its quoted mpg figure?
Last November I bought a Vauxhall Astra 1.7CDTI Eco with a claimed combined mpg of 62.8. I struggle to get 45mpg, which is more than 25 per cent less than the stated figures. I wrote to Vauxhall expressing my dismay and they wrote back saying "The figures are not intended to be used as an expectation of the MPG that will be achieved during normal use".
It's all well and good telling me this after I have bought the car. Surely on their marketing information this should be visible as the figures are misleading. They also claim that "...as the vehicle is performing within the manufacturer's specifications, we would not look to progress this case any further".
It's all well and good telling me this after I have bought the car. Surely on their marketing information this should be visible as the figures are misleading. They also claim that "...as the vehicle is performing within the manufacturer's specifications, we would not look to progress this case any further".
Asked on 11 March 2012 by MM, Llandudno
Answered by
Honest John
As I explained, these figures are for the EC lab test results that determine the EC drive cycle mpg of the car from which CO2 is extrapolated for tax purposes. These are the only figures that manufacturers are allowed by EC law to publicise in any way. Naturally, manufacturers will set up their cars to perform as well as possible in the EC lab tests, but this has nothing whatever to do with how the cars will perform in real life motoring conditions. That is why to give car buyers an idea of what they can expect in real life conditions we set up honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg 18 months ago.
Real MPG enables you to register the fuel economy you are actually getting against your make and model of car, its engine and type of transmission.
Every time you enter an average consumption figure against your car, the overall average automatically adjusts to reflect it.
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