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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.

CAR interviews Volvo design vice president Peter Horbury (2010)

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 04 February 2010 07:00 CAR recently spent some time one-to-one with Peter Horbury, Volvo's new vice president of design. Horbury, who pioneered Volvo's modern look in his previous stint as design boss from 1991 to 2002 spent five and a half years in charge of Ford's North American design studio. But in May 2009, Volvo CEO Stephen Odell asked Horbury to return to the top job in Gothenburg.

Petersen Museum gets new chair

Peter Mullin, a car guy with excellent taste and the means to do something about it, has become chairman of the board of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Lucky place, the Petersen. Mullin's vice-chairs, who will help lead the museum into the 21st century, are uber car guys Bruce Meyer and David Sydorick, both longtime supporters of the institution.