Wednesday 20 March 2013
MPG Review - New Data Added Today
Long overdue, I know, but I am adding new fuel economy data today to the Prius MPG page. I think that the combination of colder weather (remember cold air is denser and increases the pull of aerodynamic drag on the car) and mostly short (less 10 minute) urban trips is driving down the mpg figure. See for yourself by clicking through to the page.
Thursday 14 March 2013
Car Manufacturers May Be Publishing False MPG Figures
I heard an interesting article on today's editipon of You And Yours on BBC Radio 4 - listen to the programme on this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r5s1r. The programme asked:
... does your car give the fuel economy it was advertised with? No? Well it may not be your driving. New research is blaming the manufacturers.
This may account for why many Toyota Prius owners are disappointed with the actual fuel economy they experience. According to the researcher interviewed on the programme, many manufacturers, especially in Europe, can 'tune' the car that is being tested for the official mpg figure. I was amazed to hear that they can blank off grills, remove wing mirrors, fit slick tyres, inflate tyres to high pressure as well as other 'tricks' like 'remove' the brakes by lifting off the calipers so that there is no friction contact between disc pads and brake discs. Apparently, the divergence between official mpg figures and actual mpg figurs has been increasing over the years - from about 7% in 2001 to 23% of late. Time to apply some consumer pressure, is it not?
... does your car give the fuel economy it was advertised with? No? Well it may not be your driving. New research is blaming the manufacturers.
This may account for why many Toyota Prius owners are disappointed with the actual fuel economy they experience. According to the researcher interviewed on the programme, many manufacturers, especially in Europe, can 'tune' the car that is being tested for the official mpg figure. I was amazed to hear that they can blank off grills, remove wing mirrors, fit slick tyres, inflate tyres to high pressure as well as other 'tricks' like 'remove' the brakes by lifting off the calipers so that there is no friction contact between disc pads and brake discs. Apparently, the divergence between official mpg figures and actual mpg figurs has been increasing over the years - from about 7% in 2001 to 23% of late. Time to apply some consumer pressure, is it not?
Wednesday 13 March 2013
Posts on priusforum.com
It has come to my attention that someone with the avatar name of "G_W" has been copying and pasting entries from this blog onto this forum - www.priusforum.com. Whilst I have no objection to my material and content being used on the web, I would appreciate being asked. The manner in which this has been done makes it look like I have spammed this site with content from my blog entries. I do not condone such behaviour. I just want to make it clear that these entries are nothing to do with me or this blog. Thank you.
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