Buick Regal Instrument Panel Control Assembly W/climate Heater Control Unit Oem on 2040-parts.com

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.

Video: A Nissan GT-R drag races a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8

Godzilla versus an SUV? That doesn’t sound like a fair fight, yet Drag Times arranged exactly that matchup--between a 550-hp Nissan GT-R Stage 2 and a force-fed, 640-hp Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8. The results are perhaps predictable, but closer than one might imagine.

Why aren’t Porsche 911 GT3 owners in the UK being compensated?

UK owners of the 911 GT3 aren’t getting compensation It does seem reasonable that if you buy a car you subsequently can’t use because of a design flaw, that the car maker pays you compensation for loss of use. So when Porsche ordered owners of the 911 GT3 to stop using their cars after a fire risk was revealed thanks to a faulty connector, it seemed certain owners would be in for some payback from Porsche. But despite offering US owners of the GT3 $2,000 a month for loss of use, up to $4,000 a month for those in the Middle East and €175 a day for German owners, UK owners of the GT3 aren’t getting a penny.