diff --git a/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTaskTest.java b/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTaskTest.java
index b24bc06957..12811b1591 100644
--- a/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTaskTest.java
+++ b/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/PMDTaskTest.java
@@ -149,6 +149,7 @@ public class PMDTaskTest extends AbstractAntTestHelper {
 
         executeTarget("testFormatterEncodingWithXMLConsole");
         String report = getOutput();
-        assertTrue(report.contains("unusedVariableWithÜmlaut"));
+        assertTrue(report.startsWith("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"windows-1252\"?>"));
+        assertTrue(report.contains("unusedVariableWith&#xdc;mlaut"));
     }
 }
diff --git a/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/xml/pmdtasktest.xml b/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/xml/pmdtasktest.xml
index 45df78ac9b..857b9bd7c7 100644
--- a/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/xml/pmdtasktest.xml
+++ b/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/ant/xml/pmdtasktest.xml
@@ -131,7 +131,13 @@
         <pmd encoding="cp1252">
             <ruleset>java-unusedcode</ruleset>
             <formatter type="xml" toConsole="true">
-                <param name="encoding" value="UTF-8" /> <!-- report encoding -->
+                <!-- specifying a encoding here will override the console encoding.
+                     The output might have junk characters in it.
+
+                     <param name="encoding" value="UTF-8" />
+
+                     The test doesn't specify the report encoding, so that the console/default encoding is used
+                 -->
             </formatter>
             <fileset dir="${pmd.home}/src/test/resources/ant/java">
                 <include name="EncodingTestClass.java" />