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Originally Posted by seifrob
Doesn't that mean, that IF you would drive EXACTLY as EPA wants you to drive, the "device" will kick in and emissions will be as low as stated even on road???
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Well, if you can manage to drive in a completely straight line for however long the tests lasts, and keep your rear wheels from ever turning, and keep a completely dead-even air temperature the whole time, and a few other things.... Then yes, you would wind up in the "low emissions testing mode", and run cleaner than everyone else.
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Why donīt we take homologation tests with real drivers under real conditions?
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Too many variables. Waaaaaay too many variables. Just look at the fuel economy numbers posted by different drivers in the exact same car, and you can see an immense difference. Remember, most people out there know that it is completely impossible to even get close to the EPA ratings, because they are never closer than about 80%. They ignore people who regularly get 200% of the EPA rated mileage, of course--or even a few souls getting about 300%!!
Then you have variables based on the route driven (if you go downhill, you get better economy), wind speeds and directions (tailwinds help!), ambient temperatures (higher ones are generally better), even altitude makes a difference! Not to mention other weather. Oh, and the specific fuel used does as well.
To account for all of those variations, they'd have to do hundreds of individual tests, with different drivers, in different locations, on different days. Many times each, so they can average out any errors. For hundreds of different vehicles.
So who runs the tests? Who pays for it, and how?
Yes, the current setup kinda sucks. But the alternatives, as far as I can tell, are no better or are worse.
-soD