On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 15:01:53 -0000, "Doctor Drivel"
wrote:


"Andy Hall" aka Matt wrote in message
.. .
How do you explain this?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...-ratings_x.htm

Matt, driving conditions in the US are very different to here. They have
more long faster straight roads.

Not around cities they don't. Virtually every intersection has a
stop light. Most cars have AC.



The Prius is counter intuitive. It return
more in stop start traffic than on a motorway. British urban driving will
produce far high mpg.

It will be interesting to see.


BTW, US gallons are smaller than UK.

Yes I do know that. Their miles are the same though.


To be fair, all of the cars mentioned in the article had worse real
world figures than the standard test ones.

As was pointed out, the tests were designed decades ago when car and
engine technology was quite different as well as patterns of use.

Manufacturers have been less than honest in optimising their products
for the tests rather than pratical use.

It will be interesting to see what the figures are like when the tests
are revised.

I suspect that there will be new firmware for engine management
systems to optimise for these tests.


--

..andy