Do these cars really deliver the mileage they claim?

Every car maker advertises the fuel efficiency of the cars they are selling. The advertised figure comes from ARAI—a government owned certification body. The ARAI conducts certain tests under certain conditions and arrives at a mileage.

But do the numbers it certifies come anywhere close to the actual mileage that you and I get out of the cars we own? Or for that matter, even the cars do not deliver the certified mileage, why do some cars score very high?

Let’s look at the petrol sedans across three categories:

Compact sedans

The new Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire tops the list with a claimed mileage of 19 kmpl. Toyota Etios and the older Dzire follow with 18 kmpl. At the bottom of the list is Mahindra Verito with 14 kmpl. Also read: Does filling Nitrogen in tyres help increase mileage?

This raises two questions:

Do the cars at the top give such high fuel efficiency?

Is there really a 5 kmpl difference between Dzire and Verito?

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Sedans

The new Hyundai Verna tops the list Ford Fiesta, Honda City, Renault Scala with a claimed mileage of 17 kmpl. Interestingly, Hyundai and Ford claims similar fuel efficiency across all 1.6 liter variants including the one with automatic transmission—Honda claims 1 kmpl less—16 kmpl—for its auto variants. At the bottom of the list is Chevrolet Optra Magnum with 13 kmpl. Also read: Top three most fuel efficient petrol sedans in India between Rs.11 – Rs.20 lakh

This raises two questions:

Do the cars at the top give such high fuel efficiency?

Is there really a 4 kmpl difference between Hyundai Verna, Ford Fiesta and Honda City and Chevrolet Optra?

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Share your thoughts. In fact, how about letting the community know which car you own and what fuel efficiency it deilvers. Also read: Five most fuel efficient entry-level diesel sedans under Rs.11 lakh!