Via Yahoo News:
The government has been keeping a secret about automobiles under wraps for the past 30 years. And when it comes to testing cars, Consumer Reports leaves no stone unturned, no lug nut loose. And here’s the question Consumer Reports set out to answer -- does your car get the gas mileage promised on the showroom sticker. And under these guidelines by the Environmental Protection Agency, carmakers are allowed to test miles per gallon by running the vehicle not on the road, but on what’s essentially a treadmill for cars. During an EPA spot check, the car ran with no air conditioning, no inclines or hills, no wind resistance and at speeds no greater than 60 mph. There’s hardly anything real world about it, but it gives carmakers what they want -- the highest possible miles per gallon to put on that sticker.The article also points out that the tests conducted by Consumer Reports provide, no surprise here, more accurate results than the EPA’s tests. It is no coincidence that car manufacturers are not additionally offering other reports since they know that EPA standards result in fuel efficiency numbers that are higher than they really are. Indeed, this morning I was watching a segment on this and a Consumer Reports spokesman said that a good rule of thumb is to subtract at least 20% from the EPA’s published efficiency numbers. Another government failure. Let’s have dynamic, comprehensive and independent testing instead of a static, tax-funded and bloated EPA.
