Mahindra vehicles fail US mileage Test

Thankfully the US is strict about complying with claims that most of the auto majors advertise. Its great an Indian auto company got pulled up in the US for making claims which its vehicle could not deliver on. In India these vehicles promise the sky and get away with cheating the consumers, Once a vehicle is bought, its the owners liability and the cartel of auto companies, dealers and all the middle men refuse to do anything for a consumer who has been cheated.

High time the feeble and senile Indian Government which sleeps and agrees with everything the big corporations say, got some teeth and started standing up for the consumers.

M&M’s US foray hits roadblock

Light Pick-Up Truck TR40 Fails To Comply With Promised Mileage Figure

Nandini Sen Gupta TNN

Chennai: Mahindra & Mahindra’s much-awaited debut in the US with its light pick-up truck, TR40, has faced a marketing setback with the vehicle fetching American fuel economy rating of 19 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 21 on highways. That’s considerably lower than the 30 mpg that the company had reportedly promised its retailers and more or less on a par with established models in the market like the Toyota Tacoma and Ford F 150.
The fuel economy setback comes nearly a year after M&M’s US dealer Global Vehicles took the Indian company to court over what it claimed were delays in the launch of the vehicle.
M&M officials said the fuel economy stats look worse due to a new method of calculating the mileage used by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “EPA has certified the Mahindra vehicle as on date for highway fuel economy at 21 mpg, due to the changes in the calculation procedures adopted by EPA for fuel economy label declaration from Model Year-2008 and more recently with 5-cycle method from model year 2011 onwards,” said an M&M spokesperson. However, the overall range fares much better. “For the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy), the city fuel economy certified by EPA is 23.6 mpg, whereas highway fuel economy certified is 30.5 mpg,” he added.
US media has started speculating on just how much the mileage figure is likely to hurt the Indian brand. Local publications have even quoted Global Vehicles saying that they are waiting for more products from the Mahindra range before they make up their mind about mileage, crucial for the positioning of the brand. M&M is supposed to roll out a two-door, two-wheel drive version as well which will offer much better fuel efficiency. Given that its CAFE ratings are much better, the roll-out of more products could improve the Mahindra brand’s mileage reputation.
The M&M range will be kitted out with its global engine platform mHawk which boasts common rail fuel injection system from Bosch. There have been speculation that M&M’s products would be positioned as a small, high-mileage diesel range to take on more established Toyota and Ford rivals.
On the legal front, Global Vehicles has dropped its US suit in favour of a British arbitration panel which will decide whether it will be M&M’s US distributor.