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Tuesday, 6 November 2012

US: legal action over mileage claims

Hyundia and Kia sued over gas mileage claims, says US legal website Inside Counsel. (There's a story on the Automotive News site too, but it's paywalled.) The complaint was filed on Sunday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, where voters currently hold the outcome of the presidential election in their hands - one or two hanging chads might be all it takes. The manufacturers have apologised, but that's not enough to see off a class-action suit. (Not that the action has class-action status yet, but that's what the plaintiffs are after at this stage.)

Apparently the mileage figures were overstated by one or two miles per gallon. And it's not as if these were typical American gas-guzzlers: surely the margin of exaggeration would be well within the effect of a slightly heavy right foot (let alone a godasse de plombe such as French motor-racing fans attributed, quite rightly, to Jean-Pierre Jarier, one of the more entertaining drivers of his time). Doesn't de minimis non curat lex mean anything in the States? Perhaps we'll see.

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