Ouch - VW/Audi in the US of A

[Alex jb]

Over 35% drop in share prices so far... I'd say so!

[JMR1]

Wait a month or two, and buy a top of the range VW/Audi for knock-down prices.......even with higher emission figures. Does any one know exactly just how much the emissions were understated?

[fat controller]

This is a dark day not only for the VW group, but for the automotive industry as a whole; even those manufacturers that are not involved or related have seen their share prices drop already; and what of other companies that may or may not be involved/implicated? Who wrote the software for VW? Was it within the group itself, or was there any input from a third party company (Bosch?)?

This could get really messy

[Passatier3]

No, that's not what I am suggesting at all. I am saying that the USG said something along the lines of... "We will test the car through this engine load and rpm cycle and the car must not produce more than X grammes of nasty stuff".

VAG have produced a range of cars that do exactly as they were asked. The cars need to pass that 'test cycle', they don't need to be as economical or clean in any other combination of engine load cycles.

That some ********, yoghurt knitting, US owners have worked out if they drive their cars in a different way to that precise test cycle, then the emission results are slightly different - is surely not reason to bankrupt Europe's biggest company... even though the ultra inefficient US auto manufacturers would love to see it.

I am sure VAG will have a field day when they get into court. If it ever gets that far.

I've been a bit confused over this matter as I thought that it was maybe only the cars being tested that had this illegal software, but from what you say it is all cars.

That would put a different complexion on it, because as said other manufacturers have tailored their cars in the past to pass the tests/regulations by having weak mixtures at certain revs etc., but it has been said that this particular software knows when it is being tested and adjusts things to improve the emission's which is a whole different ball game and is deceit, plain and simple. You can adjust your driving style to improve your MPG and try and get close to test figures if that is your want but I doubt you can do anything about emission's, especially if the software has been doctored.

And it has been reported that VW have owned up to it so it's a bit late to fight in court isn't it?

What happens when it comes to MOT time, will our cars pass?


Obviously this is going to cause massive damage to VW and a lot of other businesses/dealers etc., not just due to the fines if levied but the reduction in sales and cancelled orders.


I just can't believe that VW have done this, given the huge risk and wonder how far up the management chain this was known about and sanctioned.

[Col]

Tip of an iceberg, probably.

I'm sure VW are not the only ones and now all others will be closely looked at.


Meanwhile in the UK sometime soon....

"Today the HMRC and DVLA jointly announce that effected VW group vehicles will be re-classified to reflect their actual emissions outputs. Owners will suffer higher road fund licence costs and company car drivers will also suffer higher benefit in kind rates. The increased taxation will be backdated to when the cars were first registered."

It might not happen but you never know...

[Royston Ford]

As far as I've read so far, the fiddle was that the car recognised the test environment and infected more adblue into the exhaust. That can only skew the NOx emissions. Carbon emissions, on which UK cars are taxed, wouldn't be affected. Nobody ever really replicates manufacturers MPG figures over the long run, that's not the point. The cars go through the same MPG test and all manufacturers engineer the best result they can. So the test is a pretty good indication of the efficiency of cars relative to other vehicles and so a perfectly sound way of banding them for tax purposes.

[Crasher]

This whole story is getting out of hand with green lobby groups saying that millions of cars worldwide are affected! There may be millions but they aren't all VAG, all the companies that produce diesels for the US market are being pushed into this by ridiculous and unachievable standards and we will be getting something similar in Europe soon when EU6.1 comes in and God help us when EU6.2 arrives, that is twice as clean as today's ultra clean EU6! Then you get idiots asking if the cars are safe! There are many many millions of people out there driving re-mapped cars which have been rendered ten times more polluting than they should be and no one asks if they are safe, apart from killing people.... I think the world needs to get a grip!

[Alex jb]

I talked with my Bosch Rexroth software engineer today (not automotive) and there is a lot of worry.
News night just said in U.S. The measured was between 5x and 30x the limit depending on vehicle

[Holymoly]

Saw something on TV where some company tests emissions using real world conditions. They routinely find any pretty much all cars produce at least 4x the emissions in day to day use that they should be if the official figures are to be believed. That said apparently these results are far better than 5 years ago. I suppose one needs to be realistic here. Who really knows what say 90gm of CO2 means anyway? I'm reasonably happy just knowing that the trend is down, rather than at some arbitrary figure I've no idea the relevance of.

[A6S]

Does anyone know what engines and cars were affected? All I read is the type ea189 which means little to me.
Is this the 2.0 diesel that's fitted to everything vw/Audi/skoda/seat