THE Vehicle Certification Agency has been heavily criticised by a fleet industry expert for providing 'useless' information in its new 'New Car Fuel Consumption and Emission Figures' booklet. Stewart Whyte, managing director of consultancy Fleet Audits, has attacked the 'lack of clarity' in the figures provided by some manufacturers. He said they had been allowed to supply economy and emission information in a format that was easy to them but 'useless to users of the publication'.

A glance at the new guide reveals a stark difference in the user-friendliness of data provided by car makers. While some list models in clear fashion, others do not. Ford, for example, adopts more technical descriptions with the first Focus in the booklet appearing as the '1.4i 16V saloon <1090kg unl.mass (175/70 R14 tyre)'. In the VW section, variants of the Golf hatchback are described along the lines of 'AHW 1.4 55kW 1130kg'.

Writing to the VCA, Whyte said: 'It is absolutely inexcusable that you cannot (or will not?) 'instruct' motor manufacturers to conform to a standard. There is absolutely no cost on manufacturers to produce the data in a non-technical, user-friendly and intelligible format: they all have marketing and sales departments who would never even consider issuing fuel (or other pollutant) data that could not be understood.'