Hyundai and Kia, operating under the Hyundai Motor Group, are set to pay customers approximately $100 million to make up for lying about the fuel economy of vehicles. Hyundai has admitted that it overstated fuel economy figures on 13 models sold in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 model years. Hyundai will pay owners who bought the affected cars the difference in fuel costs based on the average cost for gas in their area and number of miles driven, plus 15% for the trouble.
The payments will continue until the original owner gets rid of the car, and is not transferable to new owners. In 30 years we’ll be marveling at the one guy still getting Hyundai checks that are in the triple digits when fuel hits $100 a gallon.
Carmakers perform their own fuel economy testing and then report the findings to the EPA. The EPA recently tested 13 of Hyundai and Kia’s vehicles to check for accuracy and found their window sticker ratings to be overstated by as much as six miles per gallon, according to Automotive News.
The Kia Soul was overrated by six miles per gallon highway.
Hyundai owners who bought the cars are really making out on this deal. Most people don’t get anywhere near the sticker MPG on their cars, but only Kia and Hyundai are currently paying their customers the difference. Before you hop into the comments section and rip me for trivializing the plight of those poor Hyundai owners, remember that people buy cars for a lot of reasons, and if the money savings from fuel economy was one, they are getting a lot more than they originally thought. Moody’s estimates the total Hyundai will end up paying the original owners of these cars at approximately $100 million.
