Forgive me…
…but I need to get a small rant off my chest.
I was watching television a bit last night when a Cadillac ad came on. You know the ones, it’s dark, lights are flashing by, a powerful looking business man/woman is driving a Cadillac and you’re just waiting for them to put the hammer down so you can watch them rocket off into the night.
Well, this time, the businessman let a little secret slip out. He was driving a big, honkin’ Escalade and was talking about how you might have wanted an Escalade but also wanted to be responsible. Well, the secret was that an Escalade Hybrid was coming.
Well, I’m one of those freaky, I mean interesting people whose eyes are immediately drawn to the bottom of the television screen as soon as anyone starts making some sort of claim. IF you are quick, and IF you get close enough to the screen and IF the marketing company wasn’t smart enough to put the letters on a light background so you can’t read them anyway, you can usually get some good information. Usually it tells you that the real story is much different than what you’re hearing during the ad.
So was the case here. If I saw everything correctly, the claim is that the Hybrid is 50% more fuel efficient (only in the city for some reason) and that the current Escalade’s city rating is 12 miles per gallon. So apparently an extra 6 miles per gallon is all Cadillac feels is necessary to assuage prospective owners environmental responsibility concerns!!!
Now before you go calling me a tree-hugger, don’t get me wrong. I am environmentally-friendly and try to do my part, but we all have our limits. I for one, don’t always throw used plastic containers into the recycle bin if I feel lazy. I’ve also been known to keep my heat turned up at night and I rather indiscriminately use plastic utensils during the summer. Last time I checked, it’s also not against the law to buy a car with low gas mileage.
But raising a car’s gas mileage 6 mpg and calling it a hybrid? Come on Cadillac. It reminds me of when we talked about Truth versus Honesty. It is certainly truthful that 18 miles per gallon is 50% better than 12. But portraying driving a vehicle that has merely bad gas mileage versus one that is horrendous; is that honesty?
(In all fairness, I just checked Cadillac’s Escalade website and saw that the EPA estimated mpg is 20, not 18. My post stands as is.)
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment