The national press ad, for the RAV4 XT-R, claimed that the car had ‘low CO2 emmissions" at 173g per km.
But a reader complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that this level was not low compared to other cars on the market.
The ASA ruling said: "Because it was unclear that the low emissions claim was intended to be a comparison with other SUV vehicles, we considered the ad was likely to mislead.
"?Toyota had argued that readers were likely to understand that the low emissions claim was a comparison with its SUV competitors, rather than small cars."
However, the ASA ruled that the ad breached substantiation, truthfulness and environmental claims rules and said the ad should not appear again in its current form.
.jpg)
.jpg)