NO ECONOMIES WITH TRUTH

IF you’ve ever checked your car’s fuel consumption against the brochure claims you would have been unpleasantly surprised.

It was nowhere near as good as you thought you’d been promised.

From next month, those two figures - claim and reality - will be much closer.

Sadly, though, the new reality means your car won’t go as far on a gallon of petrol or diesel as once claimed.

It’s all down to sweeping changes in the way fuel consumption - and exhaust emissions - are measured.

The old lab tests – called the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) – were designed in the 1980s. And years ago they ceased to have much relevance to the real world, even if the car makers still had to quote the numbers.

A new test, called the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) means new cars are now given much more real world tests, taking longer to perform and at higher speeds and taking into account extra weight from optional extras which could hit the real world figures.

Another test called Real Driving Emissions (RDE,) which measures the pollutants, such as NOX, emitted by cars while actually being driven on the road and not in the laboratory comes into force in a year’s time.

The net result will be a likely 20% decline in the official figures quoted for a car’s economy.

And because so many new cars have to be tested, the variety of cars being offered is likely to be trimmed as the manufacturers grapple with the sheer logistics involved.

This confusion over economy and exhaust pollution has hit new car sales - with diesels sales down 30% in the first six months of 2018 and total registrations down 6.3%.