Ad watchdog labels Audi MPG claims ‘misleading’

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has called for car manufacturers to publish disclaimers with official MPG figures after ruling that an advert for the Audi A3 1.6 TDI was 'misleading'.

The ruling relates to an online advert, which claims, “Audi A3 TDI – the most fuel efficient Audi ever,” and went on to say that it was capable of 68.9mpg.

However, the ruling does not call in to question the 68.9mpg figure, but instead that the manufacturer did not explain that this was achieved under laboratory testing, and that this wasn’t made clear to the average consumer.

The ASA said that the manufacturer should have qualified this was the case and that the figure achieved may not reflect real life driving results.

This complaint was brought in front of the ASA after an A3 owner claimed that the figures were misleading, and they had not been able to achieve the 68.9mpg stated.

The ruling does not apply to just Audi, however, and it does not ban the claim made for the A3. A spokeswoman for the ASA told us: “We haven’t banned the claim in and of itself; we just want car manufacturers to be clear that these stats are test figures, and don’t actually reflect real driving results.

“It’s a significant ruling for the automotive industry, and has ramifications for the sector,” she added. It also said that it would be communicating more widely with the industry and that it expected all manufacturers to comply.