VW US Diesel emissions debacle

[Bob]

Well not really because owning an unreliable car is still annoying even when you don't have to pay for the repairs. If the GTI was reliable, I think it would represent a pretty good daily driver. It has the utility of the 5 door hatch, gets 30 MPG combined with C&D testers driving it and traps 100. That's not a bad combination.

Surprisingly, nothing has broken in the first 17k of C&D's long term test: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/201 ... est-review

[kevm14]

Oh I thought you meant a TDI.

[Bob]

You can't buy that right now. Honestly, with the diesel price differential starting to adjust back to historical norms, I can't seem to see how it's worth it to drive a TDI in the US, especially with the economy of gas cars increasing.

[kevm14]

Sales halted until further notice:
http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/vw ... dailydrive

VW/Audi cars recalled:
http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/li ... dailydrive

[kevm14]

http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/wi ... dailydrive

Winterkorn is out. As expected. This is part of the reason these guys get paid the big bucks. The board needs them to retain the capacity of a fall guy, regardless of where the blame actually lies. A fall guy mitigates an otherwise free-falling stock price.

Logically, however, if he was any good and not actually to blame, he would facilitate addressing this and making good on the issue. So the resignation is a little weak. I think my previous paragraph is more directly applicable when the CEO is "fired."

[bill25]

I am having a hard time even trying to determine what an adequate punishment for this would be. They purposefully engineered a way to fake something that determined if a car can be sold here. That is a huge decision to purposefully not comply with regulations and this would have been a decision made at a very high level giving the visibility it would bring if detected as we have seen.

What else have they circumvented on purpose? Maybe send "special" cars to pass safety tests?

I think this also shows the reality of companies struggling with future CAFE requirements.

[kevm14]

Not CAFE but specifically our diesel emissions requirements, which are more stringent than euro standards, particularly for NOx. In fact, I think we are essentially holding diesels to the same standard as gas engines, but I'd have to double check to be sure. Either way, it's a tight standard.

That said, NOx is the only real tailpipe emission that I personally regard as an emission that needs to be regulated. It has been linked to smog and all kinds of other stuff, and the emissions standards that lead to significantly reduced NOx output essentially curbed LA's smog problem. As opposed to climate change and CO2 where we'll spend billions with probably little impact to global average temperatures (but hey, we'll feel good about it right?). The EPA regards CO2 as a pollutant. And the Europeans, I think, largely are on the CO2 train, but not the NOx train, as evidenced by their emissions policy. They're idiots.

All I'm saying is for all of the emissions system complexity (and low sulfur fuels) that is driven by our standards, NOx is a legit pollutant to go after. It doesn't mean I would or would not buy a diesel based on NOx emissions.

[bill25]

I understand that this is specifically about the pollutants, but I thought they offered diesels to help their average MPG for VW over the fleet which would help with CAFE requirements. Aren't diesels supposed to have better MPG hence the tolerance of diesel usually costing more?

[kevm14]

Ohh...I didn't make that linkage.

I actually never considered that selling a diesel could help meet CAFE requirements. Maybe because the numbers are so small. In this case, I think VW brought a product to this country that they already basically engineered. I guess it does help CAFE, but not sure how much. And I think the main benefit was just selling cars.

[kevm14]

2.8 million VWs in Europe, too.

http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/ge ... dailydrive

Porsche CEO steps up:
http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/po ... dailydrive

US CEO staying, due to US dealers
http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/us ... dailydrive