3 ms·

I wouldn’t take environmental advice from top gear. I seriously doubt the accuracy of this

• throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  I agree. It's automotive themed entertainment. While not totally scripted they have a plot picked out. But you're among an online community that thinks the Hilux episode was a scientifically controlled experiment so that's gonna be an uphill battle.
• dagw 6y ago
  The original poster is slightly mis-remembering the episodes in question. In the first scenario much of it was down to the big car having a really big gas tank and thus going further on a single tank of gas than the smaller, more economical, cars. In the second case they where driving the Prius around a race track as fast as they could make it go (ie nothing like cruising on normal roads) while with the M5 following at the same pace. And in those conditions the M5 did use less gas, but I don't recall it being half as much.
  • usrusr 6y ago
    Did the M5 happen to follow in the slipstream? That basically nullifies energy demand at high speed...
    • buran77 6y ago
      This kind of test is mostly for showmanship. There's even a chance that an M5 will get better fuel consumption than a Prius due to the way the test was designed: making the Prius run at the absolute limit in circumstances that cannot be replicated in any reasonably legal setup on a public road, like racing. Even when "cruising" at top speed the Prius should be more efficient than the M5 at the same speed. An M5 won't have better fuel consumption than a "normal" small car in any situation that you could reasonably see on the road.