On the subject of fuel economy: when I was an apprentice, the proper mini had just been announced to an astounded public, and our dealership had taken over fifty orders on the first day! after a couple of weeks, the cars started to come in for their first 500 mile services (laughable today, I know).One particular owner complained of heavy petrol consumption, so particular notice was taken to tune it spot on. The following week, back it came again - same problem. I was given the job of sorting it out. The owner claimed it was only doing only 37 mpg around town, so I made up a 2pt test tank. gravity fed to the carb, and off I went on road test.It ran out of fuel after 8.6 miles,or 34.4 mpg. Not a strictly accurate test I know, but good enough for us. We rang BMC, who said that was an acceptable figure, and no more warranty work would be done on that subject. When the owner was told this, he was astounded, and asked our foreman how he could get the 50mpg that others claimed for their cars. The foreman looked the man in the eye and said, "you do the same as they do , sir. You lie about it!"
I once drove a Ford Scorpio whose fuel computer,running downhill on a trailing throttle showed 96mpg. 100 yards on, going uphill, I floored the throttle, and it showed 6mpg! But I could legitimately say that it had averaged 51mpg!
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