German court requires MPG to be added to hi-po car ads
Since the early nineties, big German car-makers DaimlerChrysler, BMW and Volkswagen Group have had an informal agreement in place to limit the top speed of their cars to 250 km/h (155 mph). Of course, that electronically limited, artificial cap has done nothing to thwart the horsepower wars among these three companies. Every successive generation of their cars has gotten faster, particularly the AMG, Audi S /RS and BMW M models. Of course, in order to make these prodigious power figures, more fuel and air have to be combined in the combustion chambers, and that means more carbon dioxide emissions. Recently, a German environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe filed suit against DCX, demanding that it publish the fuel consumption figures in their ads for these high power models, as a way of indicating their carbon emissions. Last week a Stuttgart court agreed, and according to a DCX spokesman "We will respect the court's ruling." No word was offered as to why DCX was singled out among the German automakers, but for now it will have to advertise its fuel mileage along with its miles per hour.
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SOhp101 7:03PM (1/22/2007)
As if this will really change anything... all they have to do is put a little asterisk and then in small 8 pt font put the mileage... much cheaper to tell a low level employee to add that text to future than to hire a team of lawyers to fight this which would result in little, if any, benefit for the company.
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That One Person 7:45PM (1/22/2007)
Yeah, I dont think it would really help out companies. I dont even wanna know what the mileage is on some of those AMG vehicles...
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narcszm 7:53PM (1/22/2007)
Mileage is a function of the weight of one's right foot.
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narcszm 7:55PM (1/22/2007)
And if you're buying an Benz AMG, Audi S/RS, or BMW M, do you really care?
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big jimmy 11:51PM (1/22/2007)
Modern High performance cars and their sixties muscle cars are one and the same when it comes to fuel economy, who gives a shit, really, when in the market for high performance German rocketships on wheels, who care about fuel economy, if a person wants a car wil good milage, buy a Prius.
A warning to all tree huging green frecks out do not start this bullshit up again.
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JAy 12:03AM (1/23/2007)
The actual sales volume of these cars are small. So actual effect on the environment is not huge. They still have to pass the strick Euro emission laws too. So they usually burn fuel efficiently - in a relative sense.
However I think a lot needs to be done to save the environment. It is more important and more urgent that most realise. It is a true disaster that is already starting to happen. We are in big trouble. There is nothing more important than saving the world that we live in.
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Cameron 12:17AM (1/23/2007)
Big f&*kin' deal - the people that can afford to buy and run such cars buy them for the prestige, exclusivity and performance. They probably couldn't give a rats ass about fuel economy and emissions.
Totally friggin' pointless!
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Lee 6:07AM (1/23/2007)
Yeah, I remember when I was planning on buying an SLR McLaren, I just coulnd't stop dwelling on the pathetic milage that thing got. That's why I ended up buying a Toyota Celica. I mean,if I'm spending $400,000 dollars on a car, I obviously can't afford to feed it's 10mpg appetite.
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