Garage technicians, you can help vehicle owners keep fuel costs down when replacing exhausts…

Date: Wednesday 29 June 2022

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Are you ordering a replacement exhaust for a customer? Choosing a fully type-approved Klarius system, compared to a lower quality alternative, could save the driver up to the initial purchase cost in fuel savings during ownership.

The average exhaust replacement is a distress purchase. A vehicle owner has brought their car or light van to your garage, complaining of a rattle, knocking or other unholy racket from where their exhaust used to be. Either that, or they’ve failed their MOT.

The go-to response for many vehicle owners is: “I’ll only have it another six months – put the cheapest possible replacement on it”. With average car ownership lasting around 4 years as of 2017, along with spiralling prices in the current second-hand market and ongoing OEM supply issues – that’s an argument you can easily counter.

Now, if your customer knew that the extra fuel cost of fitting a cheaper, inferior exhaust could be more than £100 per year for drivers racking up over 25,000 miles annually, they could have second thoughts about that rubbish replacement. With a Klarius type-approved exhaust fitted, even the average driver – doing 6,500 miles per year – will save a not inconsequential £25 in fuel every year.

You want some proof? As you’re still here, here’s the argument in more detail…
In a test carried out by Longbridge-based Emission Test Facility UK, a standard Renault test car, fitted with an OE catalyst (CAT) and a Klarius exhaust delivered 37.27 mpg on an extended control test on the rolling road. A lower cost non-type-approved exhaust with the same OE CAT delivered 36.57 mpg. This doesn’t sound like much of an improvement, unless you’ve been on a forecourt and seen the prices at the pumps recently. Currently, this small difference really, erm, makes a difference.

On average, people travelled 6,500 miles in 2019, unchanged from 2018, which can be considered more representative than mileage figures from the lockdown affected 2020 and 2021. Travelling this distance at an increase of 0.7 mpg, with fuel at £1.91 per litre, results in a saving of £28.65. A car that is fitted with a good quality type-approved replacement CAT back exhaust system is going to save the motorist money.

Beyond fuel economy, there is also the environmental impact to consider.

Testing conducted by Emission Test Facility UK has shown that poor quality exhausts systems produce more harmful tailpipe emissions and adversely affect engine performance. A key contributor to the poor test showing from inferior exhausts was the reduced quality of design and manufacture.

Tim Colgan and Graham Downing, Directors and Testers at Emission Test Facility UK, pitted a range of inferior exhaust systems against a quality type-approved design and the original OEM part. It was discovered that the poor quality exhausts could produce up to 50% more hydrocarbons and twenty times more NOx emissions compared to the OE or type-approved units.

So, by ordering a Klarius type-approved exhaust for your customer, you are safeguarding the performance of their vehicle while helping to save them money on fuel.

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