Google FinancePosted on 09/28/2015 8:55:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The weekend break has not helped Volkswagen.
Shares in the troubled German carmaker are crashing again, down 8.5% at 12.50 a.m. BST (7.50 a.m. ET).Google Finance
Volkswagen shares have been diving since it emerged that software in the company's cars was juicing the numbers on diesel emissions.
On Monday, news broke that the scandal was even worse than first thought — over 2 million Audi cars are fitted with the same emissions-cheating software as Volkswagen's cars. Audi is owned by Volkswagen and produces higher-end cars.
Bloomberg is also reporting that Volkswagen executives in Germany were directly involved in the faking of emissions, and former CEO Martin Winterkorn is facing an investigation by German prosecutors.
Earlier on Monday, the Financial Times warned the scandal could be "worse than Enron." Volkswagen named Porsche CEO Matthias Müller as its new boss late on Friday — he's got an unenviable job.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
By the time that the EPA gets their fine, the state AG’s get their loot, and the lawyers in the US do a class-action episode....that’s probably in the range of 30-billion. Then the Europe and Asia episodes will occur. In the end, figure a grand total of fifty to sixty billion that it will cost to make people happy.
And they said that VW’s were bulletproof...
I see 2015 VW TDI sedans in my neighborhood and think: that car probably cost $35K... now what is it worth?
All owners of these cars have to have a class-action suit ready for submission. What is that going to cost VW?
Wow. Dear Lord, thank you that I don’t own a VW dealership.
I’m confused. Is the EPA mandating that owners of these vehicles stop driving them? What’s the calamity here? I get that it affects resale value, but why is this such a big deal?
I’m asking out of genuine curiosity.
GM was fined a mere $900 Million for a faulty ignition switch that has killed over 150 people.
VW is being fined nearly $18 Billion ( that’s a B ) for software that tried to by-pass EPA emission standards.
GM killed people, but Volkswagen killed the air!
There are those companies that have been bailed out by the US Government, and then there is everyone else.
You tell me whether that’s fair.
VW’s big mistake was not contributing to LOBBYING EFFORTS like GM did. VW might be a great engineering company, but they’re leagues behind when it comes to playing politics.
At some point if the extortion becomes too much, won’t it be better for VW to simply abandon the US and refuse to pay tribute?
So VW and Audi just stop selling on the US market. What percentage of their world sales are in the US anyhow.
The US government wants to shake down VW, like they do with virtually every large industry. The solution is to not do business in hostile territory.
You just unintentionally answered the question posed in the post immediately before yours.
Liberal Math:
Killing people < “Killing” the Air
Dismembering unborn children < Hunting a lion
My best guess is that the software will be modified so that the engine runs the same all the time. Then either its' will mileage will go down or its' emissions will go up. VW is not doubt opt for a decrease in mileage.
The Germans will, however, be far more vigorous in prosecuting the executives involved than prosecutors here were in pursuing GM for its faulty ignitions.
>> GM was fined a mere $900 Million for a faulty ignition switch that has killed over 150 people. VW is being fined nearly $18 Billion ( that’s a B ) for software that tried to by-pass EPA emission standards.
Logic dictates that in exchange for their $18 billion payment, VW should be allowed to kill (18/.9)*150 = 3000 EPA employees.
If I were president, I would make it so.
Where’s: TOO BIG TO FAIL?
Need some bail-out here.
Here’s the thing...once they install the upgraded software and your diesel engine goes from 40-odd miles mpg....to 24 mpg with clean-output...how much would you be upset? I’m guessing per owner....you could be talking about $5,000. Trying to sell your clean air-producing diesel with the lower mileage? Figure you lost half the resell value.
Now, here is the scenario that you ought to consider. What if you allow them to upgrade the software, and find yourself Geeky George the computer wiz, who has the previous VW version, and he reverts your car back to the 40-odd mpg situation. I can bet that hundreds of guys will be doing this and making $500 for each reversion episode. I think the EPA will get all hostile when they start to notice this happening.
Well, “resale value” is a pretty big calamity for VW if you multiply 10-15K by however million cars, plus penalties. For the owners, I guess they have to decide if they’re happier driving a VW/Audi “turbodiesel” that performs like an economy car or taking the refund and whatever they can get for it and putting that down on something better.
Short version: VW faces something like $30,000 in fines for EACH of 11,000,000 vehicles which were built to cheat on their emissions test.
Local emissions tests will probably stop the driving of a large percentage of these vehicles until fixed, which means VW will pay for the recall/retrofit - a repair which will leave the vehicle with severely reduced performance. By “affects resale value” we’re talking _destroying_ resale value.
Facing a third of a trillion dollars in realistic fines, plus funding recalls on this scale, would destroy pretty much any company.
Scenario: tomorrow you get a certified letter stating your vehicle will fail its annual emissions test. Driving it will be illegal, repairing it to passable will be costly and leave the formerly peppy vehicle downright anemic, and the manufacturer won’t be paying for the repair because it’s too busy trying to pay a $0.3T fine. THAT is a big deal to you the owner, multiplied by tens of millions of owners.
Supposedly these VWs do meet the European standards. Less restrictive than US, I guess. I thought European was much stricter.
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