Re: Car about to arrive - what would you do given widening emissions scandal ? –
04-11-2015,01:12 PM
And, at the end of the day, I'm not sure that the UK government is going to force owners to sign up for the recall(s).
The government kinda laid out there stall when they stated that existing owners would not be forced into another car tax bracket. That seems to imply that whatever the outcome of the recall(s) is - success at achieving stated emissions targets in real world driving or not - the existing owners will not be penalised. It also leaves a grey area if you choose not to have your vehicle modified in a recall - and I think there are some perfectly valid reasons that you could raise for refusing to have your car 'modified' - especially if the nature of the changes had a significant impact on economy, performance, DPF or engine longevity etc. etc. Fundamentally the "post modification" car would not be the car that you originally bought.
Now I guess you're in a bit of a grey area because you're only just taking ownership... but I think you were far enough down the line by the time this most recent set of accusation arose (and still not confirmed) that you would argue that you took delivery of the car on the basis that VAG / Audi had not done anything untoward with the 3.0 variants.
Also I agree with earlier comments. The presence of an Adblue filler cap (which I was surprised to see in the 272 allroad loaner I had last friday) should provide some reassurance. My understanding is that a lot of the games / deception / naughtiness in the smaller engines was based around VAG taking a stance that they did not need to use Adblue injection to achieve US emissions targets. I suspect that they saw Adblue as yet another annoyance that would deter US car buyers.
You need to understand that in the US the infrastructure for filling a diesel car is nowhere near as pervasive as it is here. In many "gas stations" (particularly in more rural areas) you end up joining the line with the trucks because they simply don't serve diesel at the nice car pumps. So you go "around the back" to the less well lit, generally more scruffy, oily floored more industrial size pumps... Your average "soccer mom" does not want to do that and having yet another thing to add stuff to (Adblue) makes filling your diesel car seem a bit of a hassle. Of course it started to change but it will be interesting to see the backlash from this whole fracas.
A6 allroad BiTdi (MY14, July 2013 - DAB & power tailgate). Glacier white, tech pack (HDD Nav, colour DIS, Parking Plus), sports seats, 4 zone climate, heated seats front and rear, ambient lighting, 75L fuel tank, adaptive Bi Xenon headlights