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.

Ford's EcoBoost engine torture test gets TV broadcast, Web chat

Towing logs in Oregon and race cars in Florida, then running the Baja 1000 race. Ford did all that with one EcoBoost V6 built for truck duty. How did the engine fare?

Toyota Prius Recall: 5,000 UK cars affected – 242,000 worldwide

5,000 2009 Toyota Prius (pictured) are being recalled Toyota has had a bit of a nightmare with recalls in recent years, and the news that they’re now having to recall 242,000 Prius models from 2009 worldwide is another financial, and logistical, problem for Toyota. But in truth, the recalls are about car makers now taking responsibility for faults in their cars which become apparent long after warranties have expired, and that’s no bad thing. The Prius models affected are those built between March 2009 and October 2009 (you can check if your car is affected here) and the UK has 4,947 cars on the road that need to be looked at by Toyota’s dealers.