Fiat criticised by ASA over advertising messages for low carbon cars

Thu 26 June 2008 View all news

Fiat has become the latest car maker to be criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for making misleading claims in relation to two adverts for low carbon models in the national press. The ASA upheld complaints against Fiat for potentially misleading price claims.

The press adverts, which ran in February this year, featured two different headlines: "E CO2 NOMY OF SCALE" and "LESS CO2 NO CONGESTION CHARGE". Both adverts depicted four models of Fiat, each described with a model name, price and specification.

The prices cited in the advert headlines were qualified with the word "from" but were for bottom-of-the-range models, while the prices for the low CO2 emissions models featured were more expensive.

While actual prices were given in small print at the bottom of the adverts, the ASA said it was a breach of the Advertising Practice code to quote prices that do not match the models illustrated.

The ASA also said that the Fiat ads could give the impression that the models with low CO2 emissions were cheaper than they really were.

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