Roger Stansfield's article links to the real life fuel economy register at www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg. This is the only data people really need because it gives them a real-world average of what they can reasonably expect. I agree that making the emissions tests more realistic would increase the taxable CO2 and hence the taxable burden, so any journalist that promotes more realistic emissions tests actually plays into the hands of government departments that want to tax us more.

Better to leave things as they are and if you want to know what economy you can really expect, check and contribute to www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg - at least 35,000 drivers already have and more than 2,500 cars are covered.