Automakers attacked for advertised fuel use figures

Where there is pressure to achieve, there will be cheating. With auto companies facing increasing pressures of competition on one hand and tightening emissions legislation on the other, accusations of bodgy fuel consumption figures are inevitable.

In the US, Honda and Hyundai have found themselves squinting in the icy light of consumer group scrutiny.

A plaintiff against the Japanese company has been awarded nearly US$10K after her Civic Hybrid failed to live up to what a Californian small claims court decided were false fuel economy claims of up to 50mpg. Indeed Heather Peters said her 2006 car’s fuel economy dropped below 30mpg after Honda updated its ECU software. The company’s motivation, she claims, was to prolong battery life, help minimise $3K-a-pop warranty claims by placing more of the power burden on the car’s petrol engine.

Honda has announced its intention to appeal. Not surprising, considering how uncomfortably sticky Peters is proving to be for the company. Autoblog reports she’s delivered an 1150-name petition to all 50 state attorneys general urging that plaintiffs in a class-action against the company bargain for a better settlement against the company on the same issue.

To date, Honda has offered participants up to $200 in cash and $1,000 off a new car, which Peters and her co-signatories deem ‘ridiculous’.

This isn’t the first time Honda has had to defend its fuel economy claims in court. Facing a class-action over fuel economy claims of 49-51mpg for its 2003-07 model, it settled out of court in 2009. (Attorneys general from 26 states deemed that result unfair because the lawyers did better out of it than the defendants.

Hyundai, meanwhile, had big plans for its Super Bowl TV adverting campaign. They included claims of up to 29 and 40mpg, city and highway respectively, for its Elantra small sedan. Until non-profit consumer advocacy outfit Consumer Watchdog stepped in with counterclaims that owners have found the reality more in the vicinity of 18 city and 19 highway

Consumer Watchdog fired off missives to Hyundai bosses warning that if the company went ahead with the 40mpg claim in its Super Bowl campaign, it would counter it with its own anti-ad.

Hyundai modified the ad to cut out the claim, amid protests that the update was ‘in no way’ related to Consumer Watchdog’s actions. Consumer Watchdog went ahead and unleashed the video anyway.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for some clarity through all these claims and counterclaims, it’s perhaps best you don’t visit Popular Mechanics’ road test pitting the Elantra against the Ford’s Focus SFE precisely to test their 40mpg-plus fuel economy claims.

Cruising at 55mph, the mag found both cars not only cleared the 40mpg bar but went closer to approached 50. Even at higher speeds past their peak top-gear efficiency thresholds, they came close to 40mpg. City runs saw both cars reaching into the mid-30s. At no point did testers make any great effort to keep the consumption figures down.

In Australia car companies are required by law to present mandatory combined-cycle fuel consumption figures in any advertisement, in accordance with the respective ADR (Australian Design Rule).

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