Post by jeffolie on Nov 2, 2012 13:26:01 GMT -6
-20% mpg lies: German vehicles etc, buyers compensated
" ... two companies said they would not contest the EPA’s finding and will compensate about 900,000 customers who have bought cars with misleading mileage stickers. ... the EPA has also developed its own, more accurate set of tests that more closely resemble what drivers can expect to get on the road ... A recent study by the International Council of Clean Transport found that, in 2011, the average new passenger car out of Germany was about 21 percent less fuel-efficient on the road than the dealer’s brochure claims.
my jeffolie view: widely known for a very long time mpg exaggerations got very slowly regulators condemnation plus for the 1st time consumers get money. False advertising under the EPA miles per gallon stickers remain a joke and discredit both govt regulators and corporate mpg claims. ...
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Hyundai, Kia overstated their fuel-economy numbers. How common is this?
November 2, 2012
That sleek new fuel-efficient car you bought? It may not be as efficient as advertised. On Friday, the government announced that Hyundai and Kia have been overstating the fuel economy of many of the vehicles they’ve been selling since 2010.
The 2011 Hyundai Elantra, one of several models found to have incorrectly labeled mileage stickers.
After receiving a number of complaints from drivers, the Environmental Protection Agency went back and investigated the fuel-economy claims of various Hyundai and Kia models. EPA tests showed that the actual mileage often fell short of what was advertised, usually by one or two miles per gallon–but in one case by six miles per gallon.
The two companies said they would not contest the EPA’s finding and will compensate about 900,000 customers who have bought cars with misleading mileage stickers. It was not immediately clear why there was such a discrepancy.
In recent years, Hyundai and Kia have been making major inroads into the U.S. market with their popular line of small cars such as the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Rio, both of which have been marketed as getting 40 miles per gallon on the highway.
But those claims will now take a big hit—as could, potentially, the companies’ reputations. The newest models of the Hyundai Elantra, Accent and Veloster, as well as the Kia Rio, will no longer be able to claim 40 miles per gallon on the highway. The EPA will redo the mileage stickers for most of the companies’ 2012 and 2013 models, knocking Hyundai’s average fuel economy in 2012 down from 27 miles per gallon to 26 miles per gallon.
How often does a mistake like this happen? In a statement, the EPA said that only twice since 2000 has its auditing program uncovered vehicles whose mileage stickers were incorrect and need to be relabeled. “This is the first time where a large number of vehicles from the same manufacturer have deviated so significantly,” the agency said.
Many auto analysts agreed that the EPA’s mileage tests are fairly thorough, and the agency is usually good at catching errors—though in this case it took some time. “The good news is that the system worked,” said John O’Dell of Edmunds.com, “and although it took more than a year the EPA did catch the discrepancies.”
Drivers — and rival car companies — had been complaining about cars from Hyundai and Kia for some time. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford had invited journalists to its testing facility to compare the Ford Focus with the Hyundai Elantra. O’Dell noted that the social network at Edmunds.com had been “full of consumer complains about seemingly inflated fuel efficiency claims from the two companies.”
The government conducts two sets of tests in the United States for fuel economy. The Department of Transportation runs cars on giant treadmills to determine their mileage under Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules. But these tests, which were designed in the 1970s, vastly overstate the cars’ mileage, since they don’t simulate real-world conditions and fail to take into account the effects of air conditioning. That’s why the EPA has also developed its own, more accurate set of tests that more closely resemble what drivers can expect to get on the road.
By and large, the EPA’s fuel-economy tests are better than those in many other countries, as Jim Kleisch of the Union of Concerned Scientists told me in a recent interview. A recent study by the International Council of Clean Transport found that, in 2011, the average new passenger car out of Germany was about 21 percent less fuel-efficient on the road than the dealer’s brochure claims.
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/11/02/hyundai-kia-overstated-their-fuel-economy-numbers-how-common-is-this/
" ... two companies said they would not contest the EPA’s finding and will compensate about 900,000 customers who have bought cars with misleading mileage stickers. ... the EPA has also developed its own, more accurate set of tests that more closely resemble what drivers can expect to get on the road ... A recent study by the International Council of Clean Transport found that, in 2011, the average new passenger car out of Germany was about 21 percent less fuel-efficient on the road than the dealer’s brochure claims.
my jeffolie view: widely known for a very long time mpg exaggerations got very slowly regulators condemnation plus for the 1st time consumers get money. False advertising under the EPA miles per gallon stickers remain a joke and discredit both govt regulators and corporate mpg claims. ...
=================================
Hyundai, Kia overstated their fuel-economy numbers. How common is this?
November 2, 2012
That sleek new fuel-efficient car you bought? It may not be as efficient as advertised. On Friday, the government announced that Hyundai and Kia have been overstating the fuel economy of many of the vehicles they’ve been selling since 2010.
The 2011 Hyundai Elantra, one of several models found to have incorrectly labeled mileage stickers.
After receiving a number of complaints from drivers, the Environmental Protection Agency went back and investigated the fuel-economy claims of various Hyundai and Kia models. EPA tests showed that the actual mileage often fell short of what was advertised, usually by one or two miles per gallon–but in one case by six miles per gallon.
The two companies said they would not contest the EPA’s finding and will compensate about 900,000 customers who have bought cars with misleading mileage stickers. It was not immediately clear why there was such a discrepancy.
In recent years, Hyundai and Kia have been making major inroads into the U.S. market with their popular line of small cars such as the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Rio, both of which have been marketed as getting 40 miles per gallon on the highway.
But those claims will now take a big hit—as could, potentially, the companies’ reputations. The newest models of the Hyundai Elantra, Accent and Veloster, as well as the Kia Rio, will no longer be able to claim 40 miles per gallon on the highway. The EPA will redo the mileage stickers for most of the companies’ 2012 and 2013 models, knocking Hyundai’s average fuel economy in 2012 down from 27 miles per gallon to 26 miles per gallon.
How often does a mistake like this happen? In a statement, the EPA said that only twice since 2000 has its auditing program uncovered vehicles whose mileage stickers were incorrect and need to be relabeled. “This is the first time where a large number of vehicles from the same manufacturer have deviated so significantly,” the agency said.
Many auto analysts agreed that the EPA’s mileage tests are fairly thorough, and the agency is usually good at catching errors—though in this case it took some time. “The good news is that the system worked,” said John O’Dell of Edmunds.com, “and although it took more than a year the EPA did catch the discrepancies.”
Drivers — and rival car companies — had been complaining about cars from Hyundai and Kia for some time. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford had invited journalists to its testing facility to compare the Ford Focus with the Hyundai Elantra. O’Dell noted that the social network at Edmunds.com had been “full of consumer complains about seemingly inflated fuel efficiency claims from the two companies.”
The government conducts two sets of tests in the United States for fuel economy. The Department of Transportation runs cars on giant treadmills to determine their mileage under Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules. But these tests, which were designed in the 1970s, vastly overstate the cars’ mileage, since they don’t simulate real-world conditions and fail to take into account the effects of air conditioning. That’s why the EPA has also developed its own, more accurate set of tests that more closely resemble what drivers can expect to get on the road.
By and large, the EPA’s fuel-economy tests are better than those in many other countries, as Jim Kleisch of the Union of Concerned Scientists told me in a recent interview. A recent study by the International Council of Clean Transport found that, in 2011, the average new passenger car out of Germany was about 21 percent less fuel-efficient on the road than the dealer’s brochure claims.
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/11/02/hyundai-kia-overstated-their-fuel-economy-numbers-how-common-is-this/