ONLY five manufacturers have managed to beat their official CO2 and fuel consumption figures in an independent tests conducted in Germany, writes William Scholes.
The official tests were already widely discredited even before Volkswagen was found to have cheated them and the research for German magazine Auto Motor und Sport further confirms this.
Instead of the open-to-exploitation laboratory conditions of the official test, the German study focused on 'real world' outcomes by sending cars on a 170 mile test route made up of country roads, motorways and congested city traffic. Around 600 cars were tested over two years.
Jaguar was the top performer, beating its official figures by a substantial 11.4 per cent, followed by Subaru (6 per cent), Infiniti (5.2 per cent), Porsche (4.8 per cent) and Land Rover (3.4 per cent).
Lexus matched the official figures and Toyota was only 0.8 per cent above the official consumption figures.
Mazda, Nissan and Hyundai were also close to the official scores.
Worst performers - particularly when they all market their cars in large part on the basis of their frugality - were Fiat (12.8 per cent less economical), Renault (14.3 per cent) and Peugeot (14.4 per cent).
:: See below for an explanation of how the official EU fuel consumption and CO2 tests are conducted
