Ford Lowers Gas Mileage On Six Models

For the second time in less than a year, the Ford Motor Company is lowering the fuel-economy ratings for some of its vehicles. The automaker said in mid-June that it would reduce the mileage rating on six new models, most of them hybrids, and pay $125 to $1,050 to customers who own or lease about 200,000 of the cars in the United States.

The vehicles include four versions of the 2014 Ford Fiesta, as well as the hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the 2013-14 C-Max and Ford Fusion, and the hybrid version of the 2013-14 Lincoln MKZ. Most of the vehicles’ combined city and highway rating will be lowered by one to five miles per gallon; the MKZ will be reduced the most, by seven miles per gallon, to 38 from 45. The announcement came during increasing federal scrutiny of automakers over safety and fuel-economy standards.

Last August, Ford lowered the ratings on the 2013 C-Max hybrid to 43 miles a gallon from 47 in combined city and highway driving. After that announcement, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would update its labeling rules, which date to the 1970s, to resolve disparities among hybrid and electric vehicles.

Ford has emphasized fuel economy in its marketing. A Super Bowl commercial in February, for example, trumpeted the Fusion hybrid as having "nearly double the fuel economy of the average vehicle." With this announcement, the rating on that vehicle was reduced to 42 miles per gallon from 47.

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