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This is a device that claims it can cut fuel consumption for your car too good to be true? Sadly, yes it is.
A member was playing a word puzzle mobile app when they saw an advert for a device claiming it could drastically cut fuel consumption in their car.
Sadly, it certainly is too good to be true. This is a fake advert appearing under a non-existent publication called ‘TechTrends,’ and it’s hosted on getecodriver.com – the same website that sells the ‘EcoDriver’ device.
It’s described as a ‘chip tuning box’ that plugs into the on-board diagnostics port of your car. At the cost of £39.99, it’s claimed to reduce fuel consumption ‘by up to 55%’.
Sounds plausible? It isn’t: The EcoDriver allegedly ‘adjusts the boost pressure, the quantity of fuel, injection timing, and pressure to increase the performance of your car.’ Sounds plausible? It isn’t. Which? car researcher Adrian Porter explains:
“It’s understandable that people would be drawn to such a device. The cost of running a mid-sized petrol hatchback has risen £400 in a year, or from 14p per mile to 17.9p per mile – which is clearly a massive increase. But don’t be taken in by scam devices such as this one.
Car manufacturers are sinking untold millions to produce economical cars with subsequently low CO2 emissions. Failure to maintain low averages across the cars they sell could result in massive fines being levied against them.
It’s really not as simple as just popping on a third-party device that ‘re-maps’ your engine, which is what the Ecodriver proposes to do. Done incorrectly, re-mapping your engine can be dangerous to you and damaging to your car. It could also increase fuel consumption rather than decrease it, and invalidate both the manufacturer’s warranty, and your insurance as it could be counted as a car modification.
There’s another risk: that the device could access the personal data that’s stored in your car’s computer. We used the on-board diagnostics port to hack a car as part of an investigation carried out in 2020.”
The company selling the device is Lithuanian firm UAB Commerce Core. In 2021 it was excoriated by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over an ad which showed an Apple Watch while flogging a different £49 smart watch.
UAB Commerce Core failed to respond to the ASA and also did not reply to our request for comment.
Source: Which? (29 June 2022)
