Autocar - First for car news and reviews

What exactly does the Japanese cycle test involve?

107mpg is great, but is it real world?

Teg....no its not real world, the same car here is getting 72.4 but do not forget that this is only if the conditions are perfect for the car and you drive steady as has been pointed out by Prius drivers on the forums....from memory they said if conditions changed and or like rural roads they could not get any where near that figure......I am sure one of them reported 42mpg or 43mpg (or something like that).

Also I am not sure of the gallons aspects i.e. if Japan use the US gallon as opposed to the UK gallon etc......

There was a forum on the Prius and since then I have actually found some graphs etc and some studies that have been done; I will post these in due course....they are interesting; but it does highlight several things! as I will point out.

I still do not know why Autocar do not get a Focus Eco and something else Eco like a Golf eco (if there is one) etc with a Prius and do a proper 2K mile rural test and a 2K mile motorway etc etc......send a couple of weeks.........they would have to repeat each test i.e. eco driving and then not eco driving......I do not know why they do not do it and at least settle all (at least partly).....they would need a carefully designed series of tests though.

Looked at the Insight recently and was not impressed - a wheelie bin is made out of better quality plastic than the Insight's interior.

This is where Honda should concentrate their input!

North:

I still do not know why Autocar do not get a Focus Eco and something else Eco like a Golf eco (if there is one) etc with a Prius and do a proper 2K mile rural test and a 2K mile motorway etc etc......send a couple of weeks.........they would have to repeat each test i.e. eco driving and then not eco driving......I do not know why they do not do it and at least settle all (at least partly).....they would need a carefully designed series of tests though.

North, something we agree on! A mega economy test would make very interesting reading.

Your comment about eco driving and non eco driving is also relevant. WhatCar recently ran an article where they took a group of people out in 150 CDTI Astras, then gave them some driving tips and took them out again. The improvements in economy were impressive. Now I suspect the results in WhatCar were a little extreme, but driving style is arguably the most important factor.