A bit peeved at Chevy's advertising of the Equinox

[Taliesin]

Just have to get this off my chest, but you may have seen some of these advertisements.

The Chevy Equinox gets better highway mileage than even the Ford Escape Hybrid.

While this is true (32 vs. 31) they never mention anything about city or combined.

Equinox vs. Escape Hybrid:

City 22 vs. 34
Combined: 26 vs. 32

Someone that puts a ton of highway miles on a vehicle may do better to pick the Equinox, but most will probably do better with the FEH.

I think this is something Ford needs to address.

[Chuck]

This GM spin is the same old GM:

"We sell more vehicles that get 30mpg than anyone else....and more vehicles that get 15mpg or less"

[99LeCouch]

It's true if you look at it from a certain point of view.

If it sells cars, Chevy is happy with you only knowing a sliver of the truth.

[MaxxMPG]

I don't see anything wrong with it, as they do say: better "highway" mileage. If they said something vague like "better mileage", they'd be misleading. And the fact that fuel economy has been brought to the forefront of their ad campaign, even with gas prices fairly low and stable, is an encouraging change in GM advertising. Note that they are not selling the Equinox as having "up to 255hp" and "0-60 as low as 7 seconds" and "towing capacity up to 3500 pounds".

In the ad world, everyone does this sort of thing. Remember the old ads for chewing gum that stated "four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum." The catch? They imply that the dentists recommend their brand, but the fact was that the dentists were only recommending any chewing gum without sugar.

And we remember Toyota's objection to Ford's claim that the FFH was America's most fuel efficient midsize sedan. Toyota's Prius is not a sedan but a hatchback, according to Ford's marketing department. Toyota is free to improve the EPA numbers on the TCH to reclaim the crown from Ford.

What should Ford do about the Chevy ads? Continue to improve the FEH to add 1 or 2mpg and then Chevy can either bump their EPA number higher or they can start promoting other attributes of the Equinox. The Chevy has a fairly large fuel tank, so they can always brag about having a more "highway miles between fillups" but forget to mention that those fillups cost 20% more if the tank is 20% larger...

[bomber991]

The combined rating is probably the rating most people that commute 10 to 20 miles to work daily get.

26 for the equinox vs 32 for the escape hybrid. 26mpg combined still isn't bad at all for an suv.

Now I don't know what the price difference is between the two, and it's probably pretty hard to figure it out since chevys are like pizzas, you don't buy them unless you can use a coupon / get a discount. I'm guessing with the hybrid Escape you won't be able to get much of a discount at all.

[Chuck]

I liken GM's reputation to the Cowboys - they have a huge following, but disappoint way too much to deserve it. In the case of both, only bottom-line success will get them out of the doghouse.

[Taliesin]

Originally Posted by MaxxMPG

What should Ford do about the Chevy ads?

A possible ad war could erupt, but I think pointing out the entire line of FE vehicles they have might be good. Especially if they bring the European vehicles over.

"The most fuel efficient SUV in the US. 31 mpg on the highway and an impressive 34 mpg in the city."
(Technically it's a tie with the Mazda Tribute Hybrid and the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, but they are all the same vehicle.)
They might also mention the Fusion Hybrid's status, but that's getting fishy as MaxxMPG pointed out.
And the most FE pickup in the US (the Ranger and the Mazda 2300). They can't really mention the 1/2 ton trucks since Chevy (barely) edges them out.

Or they can simply start advertising Combined FE (or city, but I think combined would be better). If they can get people to start looking at Combined FE instead of just highway, they will be way ahead in the game since their hybrids are more competitive there (and it's what most people should be looking at anyway).

It wouldn't hurt if they mentioned the situation with the Taxis in San Fransisco (being retired at 300,000 miles and nothing wrong with them). That kind of durability can't hurt. And mentioning the mind-blowing tank that Wayne and team pulled on the Fusion wouldn't hurt either.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Equinox itself. That's a pretty impressive highway number for an SUV. It just that the ad compares apples to oranges since it's comparing the Equinox's strength against the Escape's weakness.

It would be like Ford coming out with an ad that states that the Escape Hybrid gets better mileage in the city than any other SUV gets on the highway (which would still hold true against the Mazda and Mercury hybrids).

[Damionk]

I think that Ford is intentionally not advertising Wayne and team's Fusion tank for the simple fact that most drivers outside of this community would never come close to 1400 miles on a single tank. I imagine that if they did advertise that people would buy the car then complain because they are only getting 35-40 MPG because they don't know how to drive it.

[southerncannuck]

Advertising is like a first date. You only let the good info out. I'm more bothered by the line about not competing in the lawn mower market. I wish Howie said "we don't compete YET"

[WriConsult]

If I remember right, when the EPA first started testing and certifying cars, automakers were prohibited from advertising the highway number alone. If they used only a single number it had to be the combined figure. In other words, the Equinox could be advertised as "26 mpg" or "22/32 mpg", but not as "32 mpg". I don't know when they ditched the rules, but even Toyota pulls this crap now.