Volkswagen shares crash on emissions cheating scandal

cnn ^ | 9-21-2015

[Red Badger]

Why would anybody, except for some of those gender neutered wieners, actually take their car in and have it ‘fixed’ to get worse gas mileage?............................

[CommerceComet]

Could the EPA be hinting at a massive buy-back program?

Didn't some agency in the federal government recently require Fiat/Chrysler to repurchase Chrysler products with some particular defect?

[RayChuang88]

The ONLY way Volkswagen can make those 2.0-liter I-4 TDI engines street-legal again is to engineer and install selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, where urea liquid is injected into the exhaust stream in aerosol form to chemically break down the NOx gases, which makes it easier for the catalytic converter to remove the remaining NOx emissions.

That's how BMW and Mercedes-Benz does it with their US-market turbodiesel engines and how VW does it with the 3.0-liter V-6 TDI engine; VW will need to install SCR on all turbodiesel engines sold in the US market. (Indeed, one reason why Mazda delayed the SkyActiv-D engine to the US market was they couldn't make the engine meet US emission stardards without using SCR; Mazda is likely to introduce the SkyActiv-D engine on the CX-3 and CX-5 models with SCR installed.)

[AdaGray]

Probably. Some woman in Tennessee expressed her sincere disappointment because she thought she was helping the environment.

[AdaGray]

Just check with my dealer. They will not change the software on a TDI during a service unless the customer requests it because it is not a safety issue. According to them, the software change is entirely voluntary. Of course, there will be some weenies who request it.

[Paladin2]

"“Only then did VW admit it had designed and installed a defeat device in these vehicles in the form of a sophisticated software algorithm that detected when a vehicle was undergoing emissions testing,” the EPA said in its letter to VW Friday."

Chrysler got caught a long time ago using the hood-open-underhood-light-on mercury switch to go into EPA mode. It wouldn't take a very sophisticated "Al-Gore-rythym" in a digital control system to change things when out on the highway instead of being in traffic in town like the EPA test was designed for (LA City Traffic).

[meyer]

I think we now know what the whole “UAW or bust” effort was all about.

V-Dub tried to force workers into the UAW despite the vote going otherwise. I think that was the “quid pro quo” for getting around the EPA.

[Cboldt]

From what I’ve read and recall, the alleged VW defeat is hooked to steering input. Absence of steering input means the vehicle is being tested for emissions.