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Why are new cars sold with misleading fuel economy figures, like my new Ford Focus EcoBoost?

I would like to warn any of your readers wishing to save money on fuel that the new Ford 1.0 EcoBoost engine is not the way to go. I recently bought the Ford Focus Zetec EcoBoost 125 and the mpg is seriously disappointing, especially bearing in mind that emblazoned on the bonnet of the car I test drove was a claim of 55 mpg. Allowing for the ‘imaginative marketing’ of the motor industry I didn’t seriously think I would get that but I did expect to at least equal the mpg of my previous 2-litre diesel model particularly as the latter was much more lively.

I only bought the EcoBoost because I was given to believe that I would save money by gaining on the difference in cost between petrol and diesel, but I find that I am actually worse off than before since even driving at the optimum achievable according to the on-board monitoring system, I find I’m completely unable to achieve anything above 40.8 mpg. I know this situation is an oft-discussed topic so isn’t it about time the motor industry was brought to book on this serious misrepresentation?

Asked on 17 November 2012 by HR, Sutton on Sea

Answered by Honest John
Well, yes, the EC could introduce more realistic 'real life' certification testing that would result in more representative CO2. That would put a car like yours into the £165 or £190 a year VED tax bands. As it is, the EC is committed to a test regime that encourages manufacturers to achieve excellent mpg and CO2 results in a set of standard lab tests that then become the only figures that manufacturers are legally allowed to publicise. That's why, without upsetting the applecart, we run a real mpg databank at www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg, where real drivers of real cars on real roads can register their real mpgs and anyone can look up a truly representative average. In your case, today's real mpg for a Focus 1.0 Ecoboost 125 is 42.7mpg rather than the EC-advertised 56.5mpg.

Real MPG enables you to register the fuel economy you are actually getting against your make and model of car, its engine and type of transmission.

Every time you enter an average consumption figure against your car, the overall average automatically adjusts to reflect it.

Real MPG
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