Can you reject a new car for not achieving quoted power, performance, mpg?

Following a recent thread that a BRZ only achieved 170bhp, I also remember Evo only achieved 270ish BHP in a Focus RS. It's also well documented that a Fiat 500 twinair doesn't achieve 60+MPG (more like 35-40).

Has anybody successfully got there money back for their car failing to achieve the manufactors quoted figures?

You would have to measure the figures first. Who is going to remove their engine to measure the power on a dyno (since rolling roads do not give accurate figures)?

Similarly with the economy. The official figures are achieved using set tests. How can you simulate those in the real world?

Updated November 14, 2012 at 3:49 PM

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Impreza WRX STi Spec-C V-Limited Toshi Arai Edition/ GTR/ Panda 100HP Pandamonium/ Insignia CDTi 160

I read about a women in the US successfully sueing Honda as her Civic Hybrid didn't get near it's claimed MPG.

CLICKY

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Audio_Chris said...

I read about a women in the US successfully sueing Honda as her Civic Hybrid didn't get near it's claimed MPG.

CLICKY

Except Honda then won the appeal (and rightfully so)
CLICKY

Updated November 14, 2012 at 3:57 PM

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Impreza WRX STi Spec-C V-Limited Toshi Arai Edition/ GTR/ Panda 100HP Pandamonium/ Insignia CDTi 160

Mark BT52 said...

Audio_Chris said...

I read about a women in the US successfully sueing Honda as her Civic Hybrid didn't get near it's claimed MPG.

CLICKY

Except Honda then won the appeal (and rightfully so)
CLICKY

I'm surprised it even got to that stage. Only a fool would buy a car expecting it's stats to be that accurate, there's just far too many factors to take into consideration.

Alex88 said...

Mark BT52 said...

Audio_Chris said...

I read about a women in the US successfully sueing Honda as her Civic Hybrid didn't get near it's claimed MPG.

CLICKY

Except Honda then won the appeal (and rightfully so)
CLICKY

I'm surprised it even got to that stage. Only a fool would buy a car expecting it's stats to be that accurate, there's just far too many factors to take into consideration.

why is it foolish to expect your car to perform as its sold? Not everyone outside car nerds knows this. And it's not like its a cheap item either, if my phone doesn't actually hold 16mb of data, its not such a big deal at £40 a month. Would be a different story at £400 a month!

Glad to see some common sense prevailed although that article does say that Honda have paid out to lots of owners involved a class action against them for the same reasons.

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Don't play with a girl's heart, it's easily broken and she only has one. Play with her boobs instead, they're bouncy and she has two of those.

Holley said...

why is it foolish to expect your car to perform as its sold?

It is not sold in the way you are implying though is it. Where did Honda say that owners would achieve a specific mpg figure?

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Impreza WRX STi Spec-C V-Limited Toshi Arai Edition/ GTR/ Panda 100HP Pandamonium/ Insignia CDTi 160

Holley said...

Can you reject a new car for not achieving quoted power, performance, mpg?

Following a recent thread that a BRZ only achieved 170bhp, I also remember Evo only achieved 270ish BHP in a Focus RS. It's also well documented that a Fiat 500 twinair doesn't achieve 60+MPG (more like 35-40).

Has anybody successfully got there money back for their car failing to achieve the manufactors quoted figures?

Remember that the car manufactures do not claim how many MPG their cars do but the place which tests them does. Fiat isn't saying the 500 Twinair does 60+ The test centre is.

I don't know about horsepower though but these large car companies aren't idiots. They probably have a clause in the small print to protect themselves.

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Mark BT52 said...

Audio_Chris said...

I read about a women in the US successfully sueing Honda as her Civic Hybrid didn't get near it's claimed MPG.

CLICKY

Except Honda then won the appeal (and rightfully so)
CLICKY

Surprisingly the first story made prime time news and the second didn't .

Seems pretty reasonable to me to expect that if a manufacturer advertises a specific 0-60 time or MPG figure, that the man in the street should be able to replicate it, or near to, given ideal conditions.

They always say MPG needs to have a car which is adequately run-in. This takes it outside a reasonable time window for rejection.

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Si_ said...

Seems pretty reasonable to me to expect that if a manufacturer advertises a specific 0-60 time or MPG figure, that the man in the street should be able to replicate it, or near to, given ideal conditions.

They always say MPG needs to have a car which is adequately run-in. This takes it outside a reasonable time window for rejection.

But the offical Euro Drive Cycle, or US equivalent, for comparison of MPG figures is nothing like how Mrs Idiot will drive on the road. The manufacturers are forced to test to this cycle and they publish the figures stating as such. It's not their fault she can't understand that.

Updated November 14, 2012 at 6:47 PM

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Cheers,
Mike

Alex88 said...

Mark BT52 said...

Audio_Chris said...

I read about a women in the US successfully sueing Honda as her Civic Hybrid didn't get near it's claimed MPG.

CLICKY

Except Honda then won the appeal (and rightfully so)
CLICKY

I'm surprised it even got to that stage. Only a fool would buy a car expecting it's stats to be that accurate, there's just far too many factors to take into consideration.

Unfortunately for Honda that's probably their target market for such vehicles!

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Cheers,
Mike