Bogus Fuel Economy On Advertisement

[L board]

Dear friends. After the fuel price hike I noticed many sellers put bogus fuel economies on vehicle advertisements. For example see this http://www.autolanka.com/ad.asp?ID=7563 a Peugeot 406 1800cc doing 11-12km/l in city is rubbish! Absolutely bogus figure! It does maximum of 8km/l in city. As a forum is there anyway that we can safeguard the buyers? I remember once we contributed and came up with a list of vehicles and their fuel consumptions. Can someone tabulate that and link to the site?

Edited September 16, 2008 by L board

[The Don]

Dear friends. After the fuel price hike I noticed many sellers put bogus fuel economies on vehicle advertisements. For example see this http://www.autolanka.com/ad.asp?ID=7563 a Peugeot 406 1800cc doing 11-12km/l in city is rubbish. It does maximum of 8km/l in city. As a forum is there anyway that we can safeguard the buyers? I remember once we contributed and came up with a list of vehicles and their fuel consumptions. Can someone tabulate that and link to the site?

You have a point L Board, except there isn't much we can do about what sellers say because they can always claim they are reflecting on their experiences, and at times these figures agree with the official figures released by the manufacturer which have no bearing on real world performance !. As buyers we need to heed to the old Sinhalese saying which goes "Kiyanna kese keewath asanna sihi budhdhiyen yuthuwa asiya yuthui " I mean we as a buyer should take the responsibility of verifying the sellers claims before we purchase.

[Pericles]

Actually, it would depend on the city too. Say a quiet place like Galle. Also, time of day. I might return 10 in the city if I ran exclusively late at night.

Edited September 16, 2008 by Pericles

[Ripper]

Actually, it would depend on the city too. Say a quite place like Galle. Also, time of day. I might return 10 in the city if I ran exclusively late at night.

well the ad says colombo but the bugger doesn't give a time frame maybe like early early in the morning when the roads are absolutely free of traffic

[Pericles]

Anyhoo, there's nothing saying it can't be done. Light foot required, but as long as your not too stuck in traffic...

I mean, you pop out from Wella onto Marine drive, go a couple of kms and stop around Bamba, back and forth, you might be doing 11-12 in Colombo quite easily.

[mazdaspeed]

True in all means and totally agree with you. However the question is AL may not be able to do anything about it. Taking that forward and what other has commented – use the discussion board to seek information and get some opinions – This has helped many uses in getting a good idea about the car they intend to buy and the costs involved. We as a community need to help each other out – there are various uses using various vehicles. Hence you can get a very open and descriptive info on the selected model.

Maybe this Peugeot guy is a night shift worker – thus no getting caught in traffic

[The Don]

True in all means and totally agree with you. However the question is AL may not be able to do anything about it. Taking that forward and what other has commented – use the discussion board to seek information and get some opinions – This has helped many uses in getting a good idea about the car they intend to buy and the costs involved. We as a community need to help each other out – there are various uses using various vehicles. Hence you can get a very open and descriptive info on the selected model.

Maybe this Peugeot guy is a night shift worker – thus no getting caught in traffic

Or somebody desperate to dispose of his vehicle. Its not easy to shift higher capacity engined vehicles in the current economic climate ...

[Ripper]

Or somebody desperate to dispose of his vehicle. Its not easy to shift higher capacity engined vehicles in the current economic climate ...

i'd say that's the single biggest reason any seller with anything over 1500cc is thinking these days...

people have this phobia for 1500+cc vehicles as being really bad on fuel... not necessarily the case as we all know...

so i'm sure in this instance the owner is pre-selling his ride by talking about the fuel figures

[GihanFX]

most of the fuel economy adverts are BS, as long as my car do 7 to 8 im happy with it, u cant keep the cake and eate the cake, performance cars bad in fuel, cars with gud on fuel are damn slow.

there is a old car called Isuzu Asak, its Diesel Intercooled Turbo, that car is damn gud on fuel, wayy better than the Maruti and Alto,

[The Don]

i'd say that's the single biggest reason any seller with anything over 1500cc is thinking these days...

people have this phobia for 1500+cc vehicles as being really bad on fuel... not necessarily the case as we all know...

so i'm sure in this instance the owner is pre-selling his ride by talking about the fuel figures

Yes, my father used to suffer from the previous phobia of anything over 1300CC not being fuel efficient (talking mid nineties here) and we ended up buying this hacked dilapidated car instead of a fabulous Toyota Corona I had managed to find thanks to this nonsensical phobia ! They cost the same and while one was a DX station wagon with a newer number (due to being registered late) the other came with every option known to man at the time (AC, PS, PM, Cool Box, half decent stereo and fabulous interior), its only crime ...... a 1500CC engine ........

[Pericles]

Look, the point is, you can go in expecting the guy to have padded the fuel figures, naturally, every seller tries to show positives in a product, but you can't outright accuse him of lying, specially without proof.so he got 10.9 on one day and decided that he can advertise has 11-12. But only he knows the story. There is NO way we can say, this vehicle will do this with any certainly. We've had enough variation on member reports to prove this! The consumption is NOT based on the model alone, but on so many things. Driving style, maintenance, weather, time of day, traffic, weight, road conditions, inclines, wife sits in the car with the engine running to keep the AC on, how short or long your trips are, does the engine reach operating temp, whatever. It differs. Want proof? The Gen2 has a meter that calculates mileage. It does different figures when dad drives and I drive. I took it on a few rides to work some time ago, hitting a nice time when there was no traffic and coming back late to avoid traffic, and it did over 12. Normally, 9-10. So how in blazes do you say this car does so much when the same car can give you different figures depending on usage?

[Arc Angel]

most of the fuel economy adverts are BS, as long as my car do 7 to 8 im happy with it, u cant keep the cake and eate the cake, performance cars bad in fuel, cars with gud on fuel are damn slow.

I know a few amazingly fast ITR's that do over 9 Kmpl

[Ripper]

wife sits in the car with the engine running to keep the AC on

completely with you on this one :)

[Arc Angel]

Look, the point is, you can go in expecting the guy to have padded the fuel figures, naturally, every seller tries to show positives in a product, but you can't outright accuse him of lying, specially without proof.so he got 10.9 on one day and decided that he can advertise has 11-12. But only he knows the story. There is NO way we can say, this vehicle will do this with any certainly. We've had enough variation on member reports to prove this! The consumption is NOT based on the model alone, but on so many things. Driving style, maintenance, weather, time of day, traffic, weight, road conditions, inclines, wife sits in the car with the engine running to keep the AC on, how short or long your trips are, does the engine reach operating temp, whatever. It differs. Want proof? The Gen2 has a meter that calculates mileage. It does different figures when dad drives and I drive. I took it on a few rides to work some time ago, hitting a nice time when there was no traffic and coming back late to avoid traffic, and it did over 12. Normally, 9-10. So how in blazes do you say this car does so much when the same car can give you different figures depending on usage?

Spot on. In my own experience driving style has contributed to figures ranging from 4.5 kmpl up to 7.5 kmpl...

[harshansenadhir]

Spot on. In my own experience driving style has contributed to figures ranging from 4.5 kmpl up to 7.5 kmpl...

I've seen many times some 406 ad claims they do abt 11-12 in city. I wonder, because my daily driver which is 1.8l only does 7.5. This is fair for the driving pattern of mine, however my mechanic told me it can be improved to the maximum of 9 kmpl after a tuneup. People should wise enough to guess its impossible for a 1.8l, 1300kg weight machine to get a figure of a 1.3l 800kg weight machine.