OT: VW cheating emissions on TDI vehicles

[tv_vt]

Here's an oddball question - VW makes a nice new 1.4 liter turbo. See it in the Jetta now. How hard would it be to drop into a Sportwagen, either a new one or a Jetta from 2014?

Hear the mileage is almost diesel-like with that engine.

[thwart]

Originally Posted by tv_vt

Here's an oddball question - VW makes a nice new 1.4 liter turbo. See it in the Jetta now. How hard would it be to drop into a Sportwagen, either a new one or a Jetta from 2014?

Hear the mileage is almost diesel-like with that engine.

That would be kinda cool, but why go through all the bother...

With just over 6K on the odometer, probably 60/40 city/highway, my 6 spd MT 4-motion 1.8 gas Sportwagen is averaging (and this from fill up and odometer data, not the car's computer) 32.5 mpg.

After 33K miles, my '13 Golf tdi (FWD) was averaging 41.1 mpg, and that car had a higher proportion of highway miles.

So a difference that is not huge, given the other factors in play. IMO.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by thwart

That would be kinda cool, but why go through all the bother...

With just over 6K on the odometer, probably 60/40 city/highway, my 6 spd MT 4-motion 1.8 gas Sportwagen is averaging (and this from fill up and odometer data, not the car's computer) 32.5 mpg.

After 33K miles, my '13 Golf tdi (FWD) was averaging 41.1 mpg, and that car had a higher proportion of highway miles.

So a difference that is not huge, given the other factors in play. IMO.

My 'S', auto, 4Motion is right around 30...1.4 turbo 'may' be kinda anemic in a car as heavy as JSW...

[alancw3]

diesel cheating price tag now up to $30bn, u an actually surprised that vw can afford:

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/ff1fb74d...bill-hits.html

[fiamme red]

Seven-year prison sentence for Oliver Schmidt: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/b...olkswagen.html.

[pbarry]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

Seven-year prison sentence for Oliver Schmidt: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/b...olkswagen.html.

Lets not get bogged down with the big picture.

[BikeNY]

Not that he didn't deserve it, but If this had been a US company I'm 100% sure there would be nobody going to jail.

Or I guess the US government thinks the environment is more important than the lives of US citizens....

[ORMojo]

Couldn't have made this one up . . .

NYT: 10 Monkeys and a Beetle: Inside VW’s Campaign for ‘Clean Diesel’

FRANKFURT — In 2014, as evidence mounted about the harmful effects of diesel exhaust on human health, scientists in an Albuquerque laboratory conducted an unusual experiment: Ten monkeys squatted in airtight chambers, watching cartoons for entertainment as they inhaled fumes from a diesel Volkswagen Beetle.

German automakers had financed the experiment in a bid to prove that diesel vehicles with the latest technology were cleaner than the smoky models of old. But the American scientists conducting the test were unaware of one critical fact: The Beetle provided by Volkswagen had been rigged to produce pollution levels that were far less harmful in the lab than they were on the road.

The results were being deliberately manipulated.

....article continues...

[batman1425]

Originally Posted by ORMojo

The results were being deliberately manipulated

As a fellow scientist (though in a very different field) it makes me very sad to see this kind of stuff going on. The foundation of my industry is the (often self policed) ethical requirement to produce quality, unbiased data. If we lose that austerity, we lose all credibility and we now live in a time were the validity of "facts" are more widely debated than ever.

[JPS123]

I am all set to turn in my 2015 Golf Sportwagen TDI lease early on 2/14. It has 14k miles on it. Nothing beyond normal wear and tear although the exterior is not mint. I probably should have waxed it more, and it has a couple scratches here and there, for example from loading luggage in the back hatch.

I've never experienced a lease turn in before. In people's experience when the TDI's that were turned in, did they nickel and dime you over minor cosmetic issues?

[Rada]

Originally Posted by ORMojo

Couldn't have made this one up . . .

NYT: 10 Monkeys and a Beetle: Inside VW’s Campaign for ‘Clean Diesel’

FRANKFURT — In 2014, as evidence mounted about the harmful effects of diesel exhaust on human health, scientists in an Albuquerque laboratory conducted an unusual experiment: Ten monkeys squatted in airtight chambers, watching cartoons for entertainment as they inhaled fumes from a diesel Volkswagen Beetle.

German automakers had financed the experiment in a bid to prove that diesel vehicles with the latest technology were cleaner than the smoky models of old. But the American scientists conducting the test were unaware of one critical fact: The Beetle provided by Volkswagen had been rigged to produce pollution levels that were far less harmful in the lab than they were on the road.

The results were being deliberately manipulated.

....article continues...

I don't see how anyone could continue to do business with such a company.

[summilux]

Originally Posted by batman1425

As a fellow scientist (though in a very different field) it makes me very sad to see this kind of stuff going on. The foundation of my industry is the (often self policed) ethical requirement to produce quality, unbiased data. If we lose that austerity, we lose all credibility and we now live in a time were the validity of "facts" are more widely debated than ever.

Random perusal of RetractionWatch has cured this scientist of idealism.

[93KgBike]

Science!

This paper may be of interest to any research scientists in the thread.

Reproducible Research Practices and Transparency across the Biomedical Literature. PLoS biology
Iqbal, S. A., Wallach, J. D., Khoury, M. J., Schully, S. D., Ioannidis, J. P.
2016; 14 (1)

[zambenini]

Originally Posted by JPS123

I am all set to turn in my 2015 Golf Sportwagen TDI lease early on 2/14. It has 14k miles on it. Nothing beyond normal wear and tear although the exterior is not mint. I probably should have waxed it more, and it has a couple scratches here and there, for example from loading luggage in the back hatch.

I've never experienced a lease turn in before. In people's experience when the TDI's that were turned in, did they nickel and dime you over minor cosmetic issues?

If you are taking about turning it in on scandal settlement terms then no they will not nickel and dime you. They barely looked at our TDI JSW when we handed it in. Harder for us to give it up than for them to take it.

[Cat3roadracer]

They could not care less. When I turned mine in I kept (for whatever reason), the spare tire, the jack, the tool kit, and the mats.

If anyone needs a spare tire it's yours.