Dirty cars stripped of Best Buy awards

OldTrout · January 21, 2016

Under this headline in the February edition of Which? are the following two paragraphs.

"We've analysed unique emissions data for more than 300 cars and discovered that 95% of all diesels and two thirds of petrol cars can't meet official emission limits in our tests.

"Based on these findings, we've stripped Best Buy awards from five cars, listed right. These cars may have scored highly in our tests on aspects such as performance and comfort, but they are some of the worst offenders for emissions. They push out so much NOX or carbon monoxide in our more realistic tests that they exceed official 'Euro 3' limits set last century, which we think is unacceptable. See are full findings on p20."

The five cars listed are BMW X3 (2010-), Lexus IS (2013-), Lexus NX (2014-), Mini Cooper (2014-) and Toyota Yaris (2011-).

23 Best Buy awards were also removed from cars implicated in the Volkswagen Group scandal.

Simpsoid · January 21, 2016

Ouch! If they're right about the Lexus IS (2013-) then I am very sad to hear that.

I hope they're not suggesting that Lexus have 'managed' the emissions in test environments as per VW Group and it's more that the test environment isn't "realistic". Assuming it's the latter then presumably Which? are in a position of being hard-pressed to put any cars as "Best Buy" unless they're pure electric..?