VW dodgy dealings

[The Bounty Bar Kid]

I can't belive they've done this. How stupid and wrong. I wonder who else does it.

 

Volkswagen to recall 500,000 pollution-hiding cars in US - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34298259

[JetSet]

18 Billion

 

 

Pete

[Jetpilot]

Rx7's used to have an air pump that would engage at certain revs (emissions zone) that would suck in o2 and pump it into the exhaust, i wonder if that would now be classed as cheating

[Ekona]

Couldn't care less. This is what happens when governments force huge companies to concentrate on punitive emissions rather than a sensible reduction. It's why we have cars with manufacturer MPG numbers that don't even come close to the real world. Everything is done to pass a test, not to actually make things better for us.

 

Good for VW for finding a way round that.

[ilogikal1]

The question remains that if such a magic trick exists that is so effective... Why turn it off at all?

 

Dan's right though, everything driving related is conducted to pass a test not to obtain an end result, from this through to learning to drive.

[Stutopia]

You two aren't towing the line here, cars the are the single biggest threat to polar bears! Aviation, heavy industry, fossil fuel energy generation are only a teaspoon compared to dirty cars

[ilogikal1]

It's okay Stu, every single person in the world ever will be driving electric cars in 6 months time so the polar bears are safe.

 

Come to think of it, the polar bears will all be driving Teslas too by then, so I hear. Well, the ones that live that long anyway.

[Shenley]

Does this mean that RFL's for aforementioned said vehicles will be 'adjusted' in the UK???

 

....or should I put the iPad down, pay more attention to the BBQ and open another beer........

😄 🚗

[Jetpilot]

The question remains that if such a magic trick exists that is so effective... Why turn it off at all?

 

Dan's right though, everything driving related is conducted to pass a test not to obtain an end result, from this through to learning to drive.

 

I am guessing it will be at a specific rev range, somewhere around where the test is conducted, probably massively detrimental to the cars performance hence why its not constantly used etc

[ZEUS]

It's okay Stu, every single person in the world ever will be driving electric cars in 6 months time so the polar bears are safe.

 

Come to think of it, the polar bears will all be driving Teslas too by then, so I hear. Well, the ones that live that long anyway.

 

No polar bears still won't be safe, they will instead get run over by the electric car that they didn't hear coming!

 

[Grundy]

Good guys VW

[rabbitstew]

Interestingly, this last 2 years when my BMW 123d has been for its MOT, its emissions have been so low that the machine has actually been unable to measure them. The garage actually put it down as an advisory?! on my certificate.

 

Wonder if BMW have used something similar?!

[Rock_Steady]

What causes the most pollution are our houses. How often are we crucified for them compared to cars? hardly ever is the answer

[Stutopia]

Anyone got any technical info into what they're actually going to do during the recall to "fix" it?

 

Just re-map them to death until they do 0-60 in 30 minutes like a good old fashioned diesel?

[Ekona]

The way I see it, they have two options:

 

Remap the cars to give the emissions they make on the test, which will kill MPG and power output; or they can simply remove the defeat code which then leaves the cars open to being re-classified at the higher tax rate. Either way, if it was me I wouldn't be taking my car anywhere a VW dealer for the rest of it's life.

[Paddy78]

Raises an interesting question around VED and company car tax. I dare say the Inland Revenue will have a few things to say if the same software has been sued in the UK as they will have been losing £1000's in underpaid tax, including from us when we had a Golf as a company car.

 

Unlikely anything will be done, but you've got to imaging the IR will be considering some sort of action.

[rabbitstew]

If they remove the offending code so the vehicle fails the emission test then I wonder if it will then subsequently fail the MOT emission test? In which case, suddenly you have a huge amount of cars not fit for road use! Or does the MOT emissions test check for different type of emissions?

[Ekona]

I can't see they've got any reason to go after anyone. They can't go after the end user, as they paid the tax that was in force at the time, as far as they and HMRC reasonably believed.

 

Could they go after VW? I don't know, but I wouldn't have thought so. Did they attempt to cheat HMRC of money? Arguably yes in a way, but this is no different to an accountant telling his customer to put his cash off-shore: If HMRC get wind then it's the customer who gets clobbered, not the accountant. The only financial penalty could come from the EU folks who do the testing, as an environmental issue.

 

 

It will always pass MOT. The new code will make it cleaner, not dirtier.

[Jetpilot]

1.3 million cars affected in the UK according to radio news today (vw, audi & seat)

 

Could this potentially bankrupt them?

[Stutopia]

I read they found 6 billion down the back of the sofa for sorting the mess out, probably only affect one year's results.

[Ekona]

Not even close to bankruptcy. Hugely profitable company.

[Flex]

Not even close to bankruptcy. Hugely profitable company.

 

Probably fiddled their numbers too

[Jetpilot]

Hearing £4 billion being banded about, thats a large chunk to loose from the balance sheet.

[Stutopia]

From a Test Strategy point of view am I the only one who naively thinks that setting a Test Criterion of "Produce X amount of badness at Y rpm" is actually the root cause of this problem? Rather then evil megacorp?

[Jetpilot]

I thought all cars were in some way "tuned/detuned" to coincide with emissions test rpm level.

 

As in my first post, rx7's had an air pump that would engage to suck air into the exhaust to meet emissions regs.