This is freakin' ridiculous. It does make for some fun sparring though!

Now I'm off to create a superfund site in the storm drain in front of my house. I'll be damned if I'm going to let some (evil) politicians keep me from killing the maximum number of fish. Maybe I'll get lucky and pollute the water table while I'm at it. I must have maximum front yard performance.

I doubt VW gives as much money to candidates as banking and finance. So they'll be an easier target for the DOJ.

In other words, VW execs will be breaking rocks soon.

Heh. Yeah, about that. Turns out VW's (and other automakers) lobbyists get paid quite a bit to influence the EPA.

What VW did was set it up so that a key emissions piece of equipment doesn't operate under normal driving conditions but does during the emissions test. The reason for this is simple......the piece of equipment tends to wear out in about 30,000 miles and the regs say that VW needs to cover it for many years (I think ten but not sure) so........by leaving it turned off virtually all of the time it will never wear out and they will never be forced to replaced these under warranty.

It was a pure money saving issue for them.

I suspect that VW will be forced to do three things - first the cars will need to be recalled to have the ECU reflashed so the emissions stuff works all the time as it should. Second they will need to warranty the part when it goes bad from actually being used...over and over agin if need be...lastly they will pay a massive fine.

This is going to hurt them on a real way.

Dave

From everything I've read that seems like one of the possibilities. Apparently the NOx trap is expensive to replace and the warranty on the emissions system is 8 years or 80k miles which is well past the period it's rated for. Just the recalls and repairs are going to be in the $100's of thousands.

I sure hope so.

The other question will be whether or not there are any criminal charges are well. GM just payed a massive fine for the ignition stuff, but as far as I know, no criminal charges. Let's hope they can pin something on the VW guys.

Ashley Madison

Dude, go drive the turnpike from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh and notice how the trees don't grow on the ridges. Go check out Bethlehem steel and look at the odd vegetation (or lack thereof). Emissions and acid rain are real. Acid mine drainage is as well. As are all the superfund sites. Your libertarian bent screws over the rest of us in ways not seen for a hundred years. Take your awesome diesel car and head over to China where air quality is carcinogenic.

They cheated and got caught. You are caught up in their cheating and refuse to acknowledge it.

Much easier to blame a politician than a brand you chose to believe in.

Give grawk a break, he's got more important things on his mind. Just wait and he'll tell us...

I drive a tdi and I hope these statements are true, but believe they are not. I would very much like to be proven wrong.

Good explanation. Thx.

Pretty sure it wasn't tdi engines that caused any of that. Burning coal with no SO2 or NOx remediation is a real problem.

Or any interstate/turnpike, better yet watch the news when there's a snowstorm that closes one or at night when there's construction and what will you see. Miles of idling tractor trailers and the very present smell of diesel fumes. Never bought into diesel being the cure all, 37 to 42 mpg every day of the week (my calculations not some live the fantasy numbers from a VW advert) in my "dated tech" '06 Honda Civic.

My mixed city/hwy mileage on my 2013 tdi SW has been consistently 38-42mpg for 40,000 miles. Am I sweated up about all above? Nope. Love my tdi.

I love my TDI. It's had the update and it performs the same. VW will be forced to cover the effected part for as long as I care about it. I hope it's not my last diesel vehicle. It's the effect on the marketplace that I am most concerned about.