Ford Sued for Overly-Optimistic Hybrid Economy Claims

Consumer Rports discovered that the fuel efficiency claims put forth by Ford for their two hybrid offerings, the Fusion and C-Max do not match what the cars actually get in real world driving conditions. The Blue Oval claims that both hybrids can average 47 MPG, yet apparently this is not the case.

The actual figures achieved by Consumer Reports are 37 MPG for the Fusion sedan, and 39 MPG for the C-Max - quite a big difference. Due to this cold hard fact, Ford has now been sued with a class-action lawsuit, which was filed on December 7 in the US District Court in the Easter District of California.

The lawsuit calls Ford`s claimed figures ‘false and misleading’, and with good reason. Following the model of the Hyundai false efficiency claims situation, which is somewhat similar, Ford will end up paying compensation to all owners of the cars, as well as adjust the efficiency claims.

Still, the fact that Ford lied about the hybrids’ efficiency doesn`t make the two cars any less competent - far from it. In fact, the C-Max hybrid is the fastest-selling hybrid in US history, and considering the fact that Toyota is still king of the hybrids Stateside, that still says a lot.