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Mercedes Vito London Taxi comes out fighting

Mercedes has come out fighting against the Nissan NV200 London Taxi with an assertion of the benefits of the Mercedes Vito Taxi. Yesterday we had the news that Nissan, not content with just undermining the Crown Victoria as the NYC Yellow Cab, have turned their attention  to the London Taxi with their NV200 take on the Black Cab. So far, LTI hasn’t responded to the imminent threat to their business from Nissan (but then they still haven’t really reacted to Mercedes entry in to the market), but Mercedes has, coming out fighting this morning with a press release extolling the virtues of the Vito Taxi.

Car makers to be forced to disclaim ‘Official’ economy figures

We’ve banged on for a long time about the futility of official economy figures, especially as car makers get better and better at ‘gaming’ the official economy tests to produce the results they want. Much of the impetus to create the best headline economy figure for a car is driven by taxation, with car makers well aware that the better the official economy results are, the lower their CO2 will be (CO2 isn’t tested for – it’s just extrapolated from the official mpg) and the more appealing the car will be to buyers, particularly fleet buyers. But a ruling by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) against Audi could at least see car makers having to admit in their adverts that the ‘official’ economy figure bears no relation to what owners can expect to achieve in the real world.

Toyota Matrix likely to be dropped

Toyota will roll out Tundra and Corolla redesigns next year and will revise the RAV4, Avalon and Highlander, but there are some things the division probably won't do. For example, there is a strong possibility that the Corolla-based Matrix hatchback will not be renewed for the United States when the Corolla redesign comes next fall. "If we don't have the Matrix, it won't be the end of the world," said Toyota Division boss Bill Fay at the press introduction of the RAV4 in Phoenix.