Everyone a winner in Global Green Challenge

It may have been a cross-country trip to measure fuel economy in production cars but it ended up just like a children's party game: everyone won a prize! While the HSV Maloo scored the biggest drop in fuel consumption over its official rating, each manufacturer that entered claimed some sort of victory.

Holden, Ford, Suzuki, Skoda, MINI, Hyundai, Kia and Tesla all entered cars in the Darwin-to-Adelaide trek run last week. The HSV win was helped by the fact that the results were measured on improvement over official sticker consumption, not overall fuel consumption.

Because of that, even though the Maloo drank 7.74L/100km of fuel (the most of any car) it achieved an impressive 48.76 per cent improvement over its claimed consumption figure. It bested cross-town rival Ford which entered a Falcon XR6 Turbo alongside a Fiesta ECOnetic.

The Falcon came in just behind the HSV with an improvement of 39.81 per cent, but thanks to organisers putting the HSV in the 'Ute/Light Truck' category, Ford was able to claim victory in the 'Large Car Petrol' category.

Ford also took honours in the 'Small Car Diesel' with the Fiesta ECOnetic. The blue oval entry also claimed the title of the most economical car of the entire trip with an average consumption of only 3.13L/100km.

MINI was one of the few brands unlucky not to win an actual class but still claimed second, third and fourth overall with its trio of Cooper Diesels behind the Fiesta. The best MINI used only 3.42L/100km and the company was quick to point out in its post-event announcement that the Fiesta isn't on sale in Australia until December.

Suzuki's new Alto impressed too by taking out the 'Small Car Petrol' class with a final figure of 3.91L/100km; an improvement of 18.55 per cent over its official claimed consumption.

Other winners included the Skoda Superb in the 'Large Car Diesel' category, Hyundai claimed the 'Medium/Off-road' class with its new Santa Fe diesel and Tesla claimed the 'Production Class Two-seat Electric' category.

But perhaps the biggest victory of the entire event was Top Gear Australia writer James Stamford, who completed the 3000km odyssey aboard a Honda CT-110 (or Postie Bike to give it its common name). If that's not impressive enough, he did it using alcohol instead of petrol and did most of the journey dressed as Evel Knievel.

Eco Challenge Awards
Production Class Small Car Diesel
Ford Fiesta ECOnetic
Production Class Small Car Petrol
Suzuki Alto GLX

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