If there's one thing we all like to moan about, it's new cars not meeting their claimed fuel economy figures. The test is all wrong, the cars are compromised by it and new engines aren't much more efficient than old ones in the real world. And so on. They are valid criticisms, which makes it all the more interesting when a car so far exceeds the claims. Don't worry, we'll be back to fast stuff soon.
Opaque screen blocking view of queue?
Honda has set a new Guinness World Record with a Civic Tourer 1.6 diesel for lowest fuel consumption across all 24 contiguous EU countries, averaging 100.31mpg over 8,387 miles in 25 days. 100mpg! Not only is that exceeding the 74.3mpg official figure by more than 25 per cent, it also means 932 miles on each tank. That in turn means filling up nine times to cover a distance equivalent to driving from the UK to Australia.
The two drivers were Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren, staff from Honda's European R&D team. If they weren't good friends before then they should be now! Or bitter enemies... Anyway, the car was entirely standard as judged by independent witnesses, it was fuelled at regular filling stations and the wheel alignment "set to factory specification to represent the experience of the regular customer."
And how to reach 100mpg in a Civic? Drive like the stereotypical Honda Civic driver, actually. Ahem. "Logical", "sensible", "smoothly" and "correctly" come up in the discussion of the eco methods, as well as "keeping up with traffic conditions".
So well done Honda. All sarcasm aside, to reach 100mpg from a standard diesel Civic is some going. Now how about a Type R wagon for the other side of the spectrum? There's another record to claim there after all...