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Popular Mechanics wrote:This VW Diesel Scandal Is Much Worse Than a Recall
This isn't cost-cutting. This is outright cynical deceit.
Most of the time, media test cars are distinguished only by a license plate that might bear a discreet "manufacturer" tag. Audi diesels, though, are a different matter. Whether a Q7 or an A3, the diesel press cars from Audi (which is part of the Volkswagen group) always bear towering "TDI Clean Diesel" decals across their flanks. I guess the theory is that when the cars are out on the road they're serving double duty as billboards, spreading the gospel about the Volkswagen group's engineering prowess.
A few years ago I bought a nasty Ford F350 diesel for an engine swap, and I parked it next to an Audi A3 and took a few shots to capture the juxtaposition: truck from the dirty diesel past, Audi harkening to the clean-burning future. That certainly looks ironic today.
If you're not up to speed on Volkswagen's shenanigans, you can catch up here. Suffice to say that it seems the A3's sanctimonious TDI Clean Diesel stickers were relevant only when the cars were actually undergoing an EPA emissions test. Out in the real world, 2.0-liter Volkswagens and Audis were as much as 40 times above the legal emissions limit for nitrogen oxides (NOx). According to the EPA, about 482,000 four-cylinder Volkswagens and Audis built since 2009 included what the agency defines as a "defeat device," which is really just software that detects an emissions test and "turns full emissions controls on only during the test." The cheater software was discovered by researchers at West Virginia University who were trying to document the cleanliness of modern diesels. Volkswagen surely wishes they hadn't bothered.
The revelation of this emissions subterfuge answers at least two questions about VW's mighty little diesel. The first concerns urea injection, which every other modern diesel uses to pass emissions tests. The urea-injection systems help to neutralize NOx emissions, but they also add weight and cost to the car, and saddle car buyers with yet another tank of liquid that must be monitored. If you run out of this diesel exhaust fluid, it's like running out of fuel—on trucks with such systems, running dry on urea triggers a severe limp-home mode with a 5 mph speed limiter. That's how seriously the EPA takes NOx.
Everyone wondered how VW met emissions standards while foregoing urea injection. As it turns out, they didn't. It wasn't magical German engineering. Just plain old fraud.
The second question concerned fuel economy. It's been widely noted that four-cylinder TDIs tend to smash their EPA fuel economy estimates in real-world driving. The last TDI Jetta SportWagen I drove was rated at 42 mpg highway, but on 60-mph two-lane roads I averaged more like 50 mpg. That's a huge difference. Did running non-compliant emissions improve fuel economy? That's possible. And if so, that raises an interesting question: When the cheater VWs emitted too much NOx, were they also emitting a lot less CO2 thanks to improved economy? Maybe the good doesn't offset the bad, but it's something to consider. You can bet that VW's lawyers will.
So, how is Volkswagen going to fix this? Putting aside the inevitable fines, possible criminal charges, and massive public disgrace, there are half a million cars running an emissions setup that never should've left the factory. And there's no quick fix to make up for VW's lies.
All the other carmakers control diesel emissions by spraying a urea solution into the exhaust stream, where a catalyst converts it to ammonia. The ammonia breaks down NOx into nitrogen and water. If all of that sounds like it would be tough to bolt right in, you're correct. Maybe VW can meet the standards without adding equipment—say, by tweaking the engine control unit (ECU) with a different tuning. But what if that new tuning meets the emissions standards but sacrifices performance or fuel economy? Now you've got 482,000 customers on a class action lawsuit.
There's no easy way out of this, but they'd better figure something out, and pronto. Right now dealers are banned from selling 2.0-liter TDIs, which make up about a quarter of VW's U.S. sales. News of the scandal caused VW to lose about a quarter of its market value, indicating that investors understand how bad this is. There's no cheap fix nor an easy settlement here.
The intentionality behind the deceit makes this situation different from even a huge-scale recall. This isn't a story about a part that was made one cent cheaper than it should've been, where a car company cut a corner to save a little cash. It's about a huge corporation eying the rulebook and deciding there's a competitive advantage in violating the Clean Air Act. Incompetence is one thing, but calculated mendacity is quite another.
It's too bad. That Golf SportWagen TDI is a punchy, fun car. It's got great fuel economy, tons of torque and a bargain price. But when something seems a little too good to be true, maybe that's because it is.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture ... -a-recall/
Car and Driver wrote:VW CEO Issues Statement on EPA Emissions Violations, Apologizes for Wrongdoing
In response to allegations that it skirted EPA emissions standards using some software trickery in its diesel four-cylinder models, a serious offense that could land Volkswagen billions in fines, the automaker’s CEO Dr. Martin Winterkorn has issued a statement. To recap, VW is being accused of fitting some of its diesel-powered cars with a software algorithm that could detect a car was being emissions-tested and employ necessary countermeasures to reduce emissions; when no testing procedures were detected, the system would disable some of the emissions-reducing mechanisms—a big no-no. The precise reasons for Volkswagen’s skirting of EPA regulations, which specifically prohibit “defeat devices” for emissions equipment, aren’t presently clear. Nonetheless, with official investigations ongoing and the fallout only just hitting its stride, here’s what VW’s CEO had to say:
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board (EPA and CARB) revealed their findings that while testing diesel cars of the Volkswagen Group they have detected manipulations that violate American environmental standards.
The Board of Management at Volkswagen AG takes these findings very seriously. I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case. Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter.
We do not and will not tolerate violations of any kind of our internal rules or of the law.
The trust of our customers and the public is and continues to be our most important asset. We at Volkswagen will do everything that must be done in order to re-establish the trust that so many people have placed in us, and we will do everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused. This matter has first priority for me, personally, and for our entire Board of Management.” – Dr. Martin Winterkorn
According to the EPA, Volkswagen has already admitted to installing so-called defeat devices in its diesel models going back several model years, so Winterkorn didn’t need to do that again in his statement. Instead, he strikes a conciliatory note (while also pretty much admitting wrongdoing), adding that the company is doing everything it can to make things right. That might be more difficult than typical damage control, however, as Automotive News reports that the EPA is withholding final certification on 2016 model-year VW diesel models for the foreseeable future, a move that prevents Volkswagen from selling the cars—and that’s on top of Volkswagen’s self-issued stop-sale on 2015 model-year diesels still in its inventory. As AN points out, diesels account for roughly 20 percent of VW’s U.S. sales, so in addition to the automaker’s stock-market bloodbath after the EPA-violation news first broke (as of today, VW has lost $16.9 billion in market value) and the potential for up to $18 billion in EPA fines, the evaporation of one-fifth of its 2016 model-year U.S. sales would be quite the wilted cherry on top of a cupcake of financial loss. The investigation into VW’s actions is ongoing, leaving the final analysis of culpability up in the air, but it’s pretty safe to say Volkswagen’s problems are only beginning.
http://blog.caranddriver.com/vw-ceo-iss ... rongdoing/
Allergic2BunnyEars wrote:Big story. Dem fcukers be crazy.
VexXx Dogg wrote:damn, this is really huge.
sMASH wrote:Bbc said that American car companies did that scheme years ago.
Dizzy28 wrote:If this was a Japanese or Korean firm I have a feeling someone would be dead by now though!!
Dizzy28 wrote:So have any heads rolled yet in VW?
Allergic2BunnyEars wrote:Dizzy28 wrote:If this was a Japanese or Korean firm I have a feeling someone would be dead by now though!!
Story broke to public on the 18th. Not even Toyota with the acceleration thingy had this much coverage by the 4th day. If you thought the Japanese or Koreans got it bad you eh see anything yet I feel. I think CEO out by Friday.
Allergic2BunnyEars wrote:Dizzy28 wrote:So have any heads rolled yet in VW?
You will be pleased.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34340997
Road & Track wrote:VW CEO Now Claims Volkswagen Didn't Lie About Diesel Emissions
In a strange reversal, CEO Matthias Müller now claims the emissions scandal resulted from "a technical problem," not an intentional deception.
In a bizarre turn immediately following Volkswagen's press conference at the 2016 Detroit auto show, the company's CEO went from full apology mode to defiantly puzzling. In a post-conference interview with NPR, Matthias Müller claimed the whole diesel-emissions scandal could be attributed to a "technical problem," not an intentional circumventing of the law. He added that the company never lied to the EPA or anyone else before, during, or after it was discovered that certain diesel VWs came with software that turned on the emissions controls during government emissions testing and turned them off at other times, allowing the cars to greatly exceed allowable vehicle emissions.
If you've been following the scandal at all, Müller's comments might seem at odds with the overwhelming evidence that VW cheated on emissions tests and then seemingly lied about doing so to cover it up. Hence inquiries into and lawsuits over VW's behavior by the Department of Justice, the EPA, California's Air Resources Board, and several state attorneys general. Answering an NPR question regarding the scandal's roots within Volkswagen, and whether those were the result of shabby ethics or a technical challenge, Müller claimed it wasn't an ethical issue, stating "we had . . . not the right interpretation of the American law."
Müller also expressed a lack of understanding as to how anyone could think that VW suffers ethical issues even as the automaker continues to make staff changes at its highest levels. When NPR pointed out to the CEO the lies EPA says it was told before the emissions problem was fully brought to light, Müller claimed: "We didn't lie. We didn't understand the question."
The NPR/Müller exchange is only the latest development in Volkswagen's diesel-emissions saga, and it's certainly among the stranger ones.
ALEXANDER STOKLOSA
CEO of one of the biggest car companies in the world said they didn't understand the question. This is getting better and better (or worse and even more worse). Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 23 guests
