Hyundai lied about fuel economy

amethyst1

It is official. The Chicago Tribune on November 11 (Business section) stated that Hyundai management admits that they overstated the mpg on their Hyundai and Kia cars. In other words, they lied.

Well I am disappointed but not surprised. I have a 2013 Elantra sedan with only about 23 mpg in heavy traffic all stop and go. Maybe it will improve, maybe not.

What are we going to do about this?
If there is a class action lawsuit, I'm in.

backy

Do you mean this article from the Chicago Tribune?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/sns-rt-us-hyundai-rd-2013111- 1,0,3531018.story

And are you referring to this statement:

"Kwon has been R&D president for just over one year and was brought in shortly before Hyundai and affiliate Kia Motors admitted they overstated the fuel economy of more than 1 million vehicles in North America."

It's old news that Hyundai admitted overstating the fuel economy of many of their models (also Kia). But "overstating" and "lying" are not the same thing. Hyundai claims the overstatement was a procedural error, not an intent to deceive... i.e. not a lie. The Chicago Tribune article doesn't cast any new light on that subject.

IMO 23 mpg sounds about right for a compact car like the Elantra driven in heavy traffic, all stop and go. It's about what I get on small cars in such conditions.

In other conditions, more similar to the way the EPA tests cars, I have no problem at least hitting the EPA numbers.

Go ahead with a class action suit. It will take years and the lawyers will get most of the money, if there's a settlement.

dborth

In February of this year Hyundai / Kia offered lump sum payouts beyond the debit card program to compensate owners for milage mis-statements. Models include 2013 Elantra. See the link.

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/02/27/hyundai-willing-to-settle-mpg-cases-offerin- g-lump-sum-payout-to/

Hyundai supposedly "set aside" $225 million. There are already several class action lawsuits pending across the country.

Curious what the holdup is after nine months.

whatfuture

Man oh man, lawsuits can take years to settle (as someone said already). The MSRP STILL shows 28/38 on the Elantra, so they're still lying. I thought the mileage was based on unrealistic EPA ratings but I see it's a combination of possibly both or just Hyndai. It's like the FDA just saying, "Send me your research results. We don't care what they say, we'll release the product." I expect lower mileage.

I do know that lowering your speed to 55 makes a difference. I had the patience to run some tests on my last car @ 7 years ago. But no one drives 55 and I'm not surprised at the lying.

rbutch

It’s one thing to give misleading projections on future fuel economy. You can say people didn’t get the claimed fuel economy because of the way they drive. My 2014 Sonata has a fuel economy gauge that shows better fuel economy than I actually get. They have no case, since gauges should tell exactly what I have been getting when I drive, however the gauges are no way near being close. There are no arguments that can justify why. This is a worse crime than projecting misleading fuel economy. We have the technology to give accurate indicators of average fuel economy over each fill up but they give figures that don’t reflect one minute over that entire fill up. This can only be because they want to justify their projections to some people who can’t be bothered to do their own calculations. This is something that should be prosecuted and not only the estimates of future fuel economy.

rbutch

I have 2 gauges on my 2014 Sonata Fuel Economy and Instantaneous Fuel Economy. The Fuel Economy Gauge can be reset when filling up. I assumed that if it was reset it would give average fuel economy until I refilled again and reset the gauge. That's a wrong assumption. It gives a lot better readings than what I actually get. It would be easy for them to calculate accurately but they don't. They could take fuel used since fill up and distance driven. It's not fuel injectors that should give fuel used but the fuel remaining in your tank since fill up. If fuel is used it's used. I don't care if it evaporates or what happens to it after I paid for it. It's down so much and I've driven so far. That's what the gauge should show. It's nonsense to say they can't have an accurate gauge and should only use it to do comparative estimates of how you are driving. Over a long length of time the calculations in the computer would get more accurate. If they can't do that their Engineers must be pretty stupid or just lazy.