Volkswagen Guinness Records are under question following the recent emissions scandal which has caused a major restructuring at the company. The auto giant may be facing an inquiry by the Records Management Team at Guinness.
This year in July the Gold TDI Clean Diesel set a new Guinness Record for “lowest fuel consumption – 48 US contiguous States for a non-hybrid car”. The Golf beat the previous record of 77.99 mpg by travelling 8,233.5 miles in 16 days with a score of 81.17 mpg.
The record’s validity has now been called into question by none other than the primary driver Wayne Gerdes. An automotive journalist, Gerdes runs his own website cleanmpg.com and is a hybrid car enthusiast claiming that the full potential of hybrid cars is yet to be realised. In a recent post on his website Gerdes said, “What I am concerned about going forward is having two 48-State Lowest Fuel Consumption Guinness World Records stripped because of this.” He also expressed surprise that why would a giant like Volkswagen need to falsify emission test results.
Earlier in September, Volkswagen was caught “cheating” on emission test results using software that would reduce the level of emissions during testing. Actual emissions were in excess of allowed limits. VW has been ordered by the US government to recall up to half a million vehicles and may face a huge amount of fine.