[sweels]

Although both answers are right, I think(??) that the OP is wondering if it is measured 'officially', and therefore in some way independently in the way the mpg/CO2 test is.

My understanding is that (unlike co2 figures) because no purchase tax/ company car benefit in kind tax/ yearly road fund licence etc is based on 0-60/0-62 mph then there is no requirement for this to be officially measured. Therefore it can be done by the individual manufacturers.

Although there is some sort of standard under which kerb weights are supposed to be quoted (a certain %age of fuel capacity and all operating fluids and a notional 75kg driver in the car, if I recall), it is not clear whether performance figures have to be measured under such strictly controlled (and therefore comparable) conditions.

Clearly if a manufacturer was consistently quoting acceleration times that even expert road testers could get nowhere near, then it would soon become apparent in the motoring press, so I suspect this is enough to keep them honest. It is generally suggested that BMW are fairly conservative with their figures (and people on here seem to be matching, or even slightly beating the bmw numbers based on the few vbox related posts on here).

Depending on the car, it can be easier or a lot harder to achieve the 'ideal' acceleration figures depending on how you drive, so this must give a little more leeway. And in no way would I want to get into a debate about the real world relevance of the 0-60/0-62 time as the benchmark, but whether we like it or not, it has become the accepted norm, and goes some way to indicating a car's relative performance. Many will suggest that 30-70 mph is more relevant, as we mostly need the car's best acceleration whilst already on the move, and it negates the variations of cars' abilities to get off the line, (whilst also wanting to avoid the frequent 4wd vs rwd (or even fwd) debates.

As an aside, 0-60 has been the benchmark certainly since I first got into cars in the early 80s and I believe well before then (although on the 60s quite a few cars took so long to get to 60, they were only quoted to 50mph) but as cars generally get faster, the 0-60 times get ever closer, even proportionally, as tyre grip becomes an ever more limiting factor rather than (mostly) power to weight ratios.

As a rule of thumb, in a front wheel drive car, a pwr to weight ratio of 100bhp/tonne will give a 0-60 time close to 9.5 to 10 seconds whereas you'd get approximately 5 to 10 per cent improvement on that for rear wheel drive and a slight further benefit over that for 4wd.