Huge pinches of salt are needed with a lot of motoring journalism these days, but the brighter-than-average punter should realise that real world mpg is way below the official EU "Wind tunnel in Narnia" version; half of the gizmos on the test car are optional extras, and an intelligent human brain actually needs to be in operation in conjunction with the parking sensors/rear view camera/blind spot detector/satnav/automated parking mechanism, despite the impression gleaned from the test drive that the car more or less drives itself.
The prize for the biggest porkie ever used to flog a car must go to Ford of Britain for the "smooth silent V-power" of the "seen and not heard" V4 Corsair. Ahem.

Thing is, most 'poor sots' don't actually buy cars, they lease them, so it won't really matter. Hopefully (not likely, I know) people who buy their car, will do some homework 1st?

That'll be a first - probably why so many people (first and only timers here) write in and ask either a) questions that have been asked several times, some in the same week, and can't be bothered to use the search function (which is easy to use, same for standard search engines for info) or b) are just lazy and want others to do the hard work (no homework) or will do none at all/ignore any and post-sale blame everyone but them if the car isn't suitable for their needs.

Its like the son of the OP on the buying a £5 Porsche Boxster thread. If they either don't want decent advice or choose to make a stupid (in my choice), then the subsequent mess is all their fault, and hopefully, if their ego will allow it, a valuable lesson learned. In the meantime, those who are responsible can reap far better rewards from their labours.