"Dave Plowman (News)" babbled in message
a senile manner..
In article ,
Pete C wrote:
They may be, but are not representative of real life driving. And given
just how poor the Prius turned out to be, one can only assume the
software etc was tweaked for optimum results *for these tests*
Otherwise, how do you explain an overall figure of 23 MPG in an Autocar
test? No other car I can find is so far away from the 'official'
figures.

Web reference?

Buy a copy. All their test results are summarised at the back and
explanations of how they're arrived at.

Do you really believe Autocar alone? I used to get 42mpg combined from a
hatchback so claiming a Prius does 23 is absolutely laughable.

No - this figure of 23 mpg was for the duration of the Autocar test.

In the same way as the 'official' fuel consumption figures aren't meant to
be an absolute but a comparison, so are Autocar's. Because no test can
ever reproduce *your* actual driving conditions or style.
But checking the tables of overall consumption that Autocar gets with
every car can be interesting. For example, a Rover 75 2 litre deisel -
hardly an economy hatch - they got 33 mpg average for the duration of the
test.

Very few cars will be used only for out of town journeys, most cars
will be urban/combined.

Yup. Autocar have a test route designed to simulate this and put every
car they test over it. The Prius still did badly - considering its
claims.

See this real life test, quotes 58mpg over the first 1000 miles:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/?id=135

Have you actually read the article? He was trying as hard as possible to
get the very best MPG.

58mpg so far removed from your invented 23mpg.