Posted on 09/22/2015 2:20:54 PM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
Has anyone at GM gone to prison for causing the murder of unsuspecting drivers of their ignition switch problem? NO.
Has Gina McCarthy been FIRED, ARRESTED OR SUFFERED ANY FORM OF PUNISHMENT for causing the horrific toxic spill into the Animas River? NO.
But I'm trying to muddle out what VW did. Did they just switch programs for the EPA emission test cars and then run a higher performance program in the production cars?
GM got away with paying a paltry $1.5 billion.
http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/09/17/gm-said-to-settle-criminal-case-over-ignition-switches
Which is why a guy like Musk is pretty clever. No worrying about emissions across a ton of powerbands, cranks, rods and or other components failing and thousands of hrs of dyno time. Work with your suppliers in the "E" arena, buy the stuff from them test and not have to go through all the EPA BS. No one gets how he has changed the paradigm by going around the obstacle...
Forget the "maybe", DO IT!
No, the engine control software is the same and somehow (there are innumerable ways to accomplish this) operates differently on the road than in the test cell. It’s NOT clear if it meets emissions while while driving on city streets in LA and doesn’t while driving in the mountains surrounding the Basin enough to have somehow annoyed the EPA (and CARB, I assume).
My car was a 1.8L fuel injected flat 4. The suspension was stiffened for slalom competition. It would turn on a dime. I purchased it from a slalom competition. He took the 2.0L engine normally aspirated engine from my car and put it into a much stiffer "shell" for competition. The 1.8L was a sort of downgrade. By the time I sold it, I had replaced the exhaust, clutch, fuel injection computer, fuel pump, all 4 rotors/calipers, added a 911 brake cylinder and stainless steel brake lines. I miss driving the car, but it isn't practical for life in Idaho.
VW's outcome on this doesn't look too promising based on the HD diesel case in 1998.
http://jalopnik.com/how-the-epa-won-1-billion-from-diesel-cheaters-long-be-1732109485
But he EPA will have a fit than because all them horse apples left on the road would become another problem. The horse apples would draw flies. Wait the President already draws flies so maybe it may not be a problem after all!
By that logic, it's okay to rob a bank if you don't get caught.
Ah, thanks, can’t quite get my mind around how they did it but then my car electronics tweaking is limited to inserting the handheld into the OBD port and mashing a few buttons (grin).
I am not sure whether to take my TDI in for dealer service anymore. It’s great car with plenty of torque. I am afraid they will return it to me with limp wrists.
Has anyone seen anything, anywhere, that shows whether these cars would actually have not passed emission tests as configured?
I think most of us would want a high performance vehicle that passes smog tests.I have a higher opinion of VW since this came out.
I have not seen such. I am interested in learning the details of the “trangression” however. My 2005 TDIs were recalled for an emissions update some years ago, but I’m not going in to get the “update”.
They rigged their cars to operate in one emissions control mode when the emissions were being tested and in another emissions control mode when it was on the road. The second mode produced forty times the emissions as the first. It was a deliberate design of the car meant solely to beat pollution control. I'd say that's wrong.
Those poor drivers who suddenly had their motors turn off while on the road, STEERING WHEEL LOCKED AND UNMOVABLE, BRAKES DO NOT WORK.. There SHOULD be LIFE IN PRISON sentences for everyone at GM who allowed these vehicles to stay on the road. Ticking time bombs they were.
Sell them in Kansas. We don’t have regulations.
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