The alarming bombshell finding that also affects consumers is the difference between fact and fiction in the new findings on fuel consumption. For some time now we know that there is a discrepancy between the declared fuel efficiency and the real one. But in the past years this difference has increased and in some cases it can even be up to 40 percent higher. This huge gap between a car’s actual performance on the road and its advertised number of miles to the gallon has increased five times over the past two years alone.
All this was possible only because of the rotten corruption at the core of regulation. Germany auto makers reportedly offer a specially prepared pre-production model for examiners to check. This scam is known in the industry as “the Golden Car”. In order for it to work several adjustments are done to the car. Excess weight is stripped (wipers and mirrors are often removed too) in order to get better results in fuel efficiency tests. The car tyres are pumped up so that the consumption is lower due less friction with the road surface.
In some cases the doors are taped up to reduce drag. This might seem light in comparison to the illegal software at the heart of the VW scandal, which actually detected when lab tests were carried out and as a result altered the car’s performance. But the gap keeps on growing and is found across the industry.
