New VW ads border on misleading

VW at NAIAS

VW’s latest advertisements leave a lot to be desired in an age of truth in advertising.  Their latest campaign seems to be based on obfuscating consumer knowledge of diesel engines and clean diesels with some slight of hand to make their products look more appealing.  In their recent print, tv, and internet ads on websites such as hulu.com, VW boasts how their new clean diesel models have an impressive range on a tank of fuel, 580 miles or better on a single tank, with a low price tag and clean technologies, it’s like getting a hybrid level fuel efficient vehicle without the cost and technology premiums, isn’t it?  Hardly.  Visiting VW’s own website illuminates the facts, the EPA stickers for the various “clean” diesels range from 17-30 MPG, a less then startlingly impressive number, so how then does it produce such great range?  The same way the Hummer 1 and Hummer 2 does, by having a huge fuel tank, 27 gallons.  At today’s $2.65 for diesel, a full tank costs $71.55.  Seventy dollars to go 580 miles.  Compared against a Prius or an Insight, the same 580 miles would only cost $33 dollars or less to go the same distance at today’s fuel costs.  Extrapolating that out, if you drive about 1000 miles a month (33 miles a day), that’s an extra thousand dollars a year spent in fuel by owning a “Super fuel efficient” diesel vehicle over a hybrid.  In most cases, it’s less then three years before having bought a hybrid would’ve been the financially smarter option, or looking at a variety of fuel efficient nonhybrids which offer better MPGs and a lower sticker price can be an even better choice. 

            In their print ads, VW furthermore showcases this added range by implying that it’s so far between fill ups that you’ll have to relieve yourself on the side of the road in the woods.  Besides painting the consumer as an idiot who can’t make a rest stop, it also implies that owners urinate on the environment.  On the other hand, other companies are using the image that their vehicle is part of the environment, which in today’s carbon conscious world, seems like a good move. 

            I’ll be discussing the truth about diesels in an upcoming article here when I get to showcasing that technology.  It does have its advantages, but tremendous range and public urination aren’t two of them.