EU Car Makers Manipulating Fuel Efficiency Figures

pev writes with a report in The Guardian that "European car manufacturers are rigging fuel efficiency tests by stripping down car interiors, over inflating tyres, taping over panel gaps and generally cheating. This overestimates the figures by 25% to 50%. One would have thought that a simple clause stating that cars have to be tested in the conditions that they are sold in would have been obvious?"

Re:Not surprised

[Bill_the_Engineer]

You could easily make the test more realistic by adding 'l','I', and '|' to the test.

Re:Not surprised

[Russ1642]

This needs to be modded up simply because it's a computer analogy for a car issue.

Re:Duh !

[K. S. Kyosuke]

The single biggest difference to fuel consumption is between the seat and the steering wheel.

I can confirm that this is true. When you remove that element for good, your monthly fuel consumption will drop to zero.

Re:Don't over inflate!

[maestroX]

Over inflating tires is dangerous... If you over inflate, the tire might not blow, but your stopping distance when having to do an emergency stop, will increase dramatically

Obviously, it's far more efficient to not brake at all under any circumstance.
Once you have accepted this superior way of driving, like I have, you can increase efficiency by doing away with dead weight like brake discs, pads, fluids and pedal.

As for tires, I recommend cheap Chinese tires made of constable wallops rubber to improve mileage.