VW Is Said to Cheat on Diesel Emissions; U.S. to Order Big Recall

The New York Times ^ | Friday, September 18, 2015 | Coral Davenport and Jack Ewing

[xp38]

To say nothing of their audi luxury division slogan...from wiki

Vorsprung durch Technik (German pronunciation: [ˈfoːɐ̯ʃpʁʊŋ dʊɐ̯ç ˈtɛçnɪk]; roughly "Advancement through technology"[1]) is a German language phrase and the main advertising slogan and company ethos for the German car maker Audi. It has been used in Audi advertising campaigns all over the world,[2] except in the United States where the slogan "Truth in Engineering" is used

[bboop]

I think it is a sleazy move by the EPA. Again. $1B fine for a computer glitch? They will put VW out of business. Obama is a chump. He fines (and pockets) money from foreign banks, foreign companies, etc. It’s Shakedown on an international scale. Who would EVER want to do business with the US?

Don’t let the NYT slant your understanding.

[bboop]

Absolutely, the EPA needs to go. Who are they in the international bribery games? Lost a bunch of money on the Animas River mess; make it up on the Germans? Disgusting sleaze-bag thugs they are.

[ConservativeMind]

I doubt this is the issue the EPA says it is.

My bet is on the EPA figuring everything wrong, but they are wanting to get attention away from their mine waste spill issue, so this is a stop-gap issue until the truth (that there is no problem) comes out.

I just can't imagine VW has been cheating world-wide and that only the experts at the EPA were smart enough to catch this. The EPA is filled with incompetent workers.

[AlaskaErik]

I don't even look at VW when buying a car. The 2015 Passat is basically 2005 technology. No adaptive cruise control, no lane departure warning, no blind spot monitoring, no rear cross traffic alert. Pretty much no technology whatsoever. For less than the price of a new Passat I was able to get all that and more. It's no wonder their US sales are so abysmal.

[Sequoyah101]

So what do the SOBs do when we the sheeple don’t bring our cars in? Do they come get them?

I thought the problem is CO2? If you burn less fuel you emit less CO2. Simple as that. The VW diesel runs like a dream and carries 4 in comfort over hill and dale at 80 mph and at least 45 mpg. You don’t get much better than that.

I hate the feral gubment.

[9YearLurker]

No, I think the owners of all these cars will get less mileage when they’re out actually driving instead of just having their emissions tested.

[Big Red Badger]

Brilliant,

just BRILLIANT!

[Jack Hydrazine]

Ja! Diese Worte sind toll!

[VTenigma]

[They will put VW out of business.]

I don’t think VW will go out of business over $1bil. They are the largest or 2nd auto manufacturer in the world depending on the day.

Although it is interesting how VW gets a billion dollar fine over some perceived heath impact when GM gets a $300mil fine for causing over 100 real deaths and knowingly covering up a defect. Double standard much?

These are just the opening salvos in a case based on an EPA claim. This suit will undoubtedly extend far beyond the Obola administration and if settled in VW’s favor that fact will be buried on B19 of the NYT.

[IncPen]

Sounds like a sleazy move by Volkswagen.

Maybe so, but I'm gonna go with a big FU to the unconstitutional EPA while we're talking about it...

[dennisw]

I would to hear the case for Volkswagen. That in the real world these 40x more nitrogen oxides emitted really don’t cause that much harm plus the diesel fuel was burned more efficiently so less of those normal diesel pollutants were put out per mile.

I’ll bet that Volkswagen is so scared/cowed/intimidated by billions in EPA fines that it will not make such a case publicly but an independent investigator can.

I smell a rat. Rat #1 is that nitrogen oxides are greenhouse gasses

[dennisw]

SEE THE GLOBAL WARMING TIE IN>>>>

From NY Times Comments:
According to a similar article in the WSJ, these cars emit 40X the legal allowable amount of N02, a very powerful greenhouse gas. This is an incredibly deplorable act worthy of nothing less than jail time for numerous players. For this to have been implemented for 6 years, I can only imagine the number of researchers and employees who have had their hands on this, before and during implementation. This is not a program that ostensibly implements everyone from the CEO to the engineers to the high-level technicians.

[SES1066]

VW will give out a software patch to remove the offending program. Then all the folks who own these cars will not be able to pass their emission tests.

No it will be worse. The software that needs to be removed allowed the car to run in emission reduction mode during testing but reduced the controls during normal driving. This likely means that having the car in emission reduction mode all of the time will mean lower fuel mileage, slower acceleration and lower top speeds.

Next problem for VW/Audi will be owner lawsuits because they essentially lied about these claims and thus the cost-per-mile and resale values of these cars will go down.

[dennisw]

alleged Volkswagen used software that activates full emissions controls only during testing but then reduces their effectiveness during normal driving. The result is the cars can emit nitrogen oxides at up to 40 times the allowable standard, the agency said. Diesel-powered cars are a small part of overall U.S. car and light-truck sales.

Not always 40x but at up to 40x!!!!!!

[Yo-Yo]

Isn’t it funny how an air pump that injects clean air into the exhaust to dilute it is an Ok method to achieve ppm, but this isn’t.

An air pump didn't inject clean air into the exhaust to dilute it, it injected clean air so there was enough oxygen to burn remaining hydrocarbons in the catalytic converter.

Nowadays, fuel injected engines control the oxygen levels in the exhaust by controlling the fuel/air mixture electronically. That's why there's an oxygen sensor in the exhaust manifold.

[familyop]

"The recall involves 4-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi vehicles from model years 2009-15."

A big class action suit will probably follow the sad remedy of radically restricting engine power and mileage. Discussion boards relating to cars will also light up with ridicule against European auto manufacturing.

[cyclotic]

As I understand it, the “correct” emissions leads to lower fuel mileage. VW gives a benefit to customers in exchange for meeting spurious and nebulous emission numbers.

I wish I had one of the affected cars. I’d love to see EPA try to force me to take my car in to get it fixed.

[FunkyZero]

You know, that’s the second thing today I’ve been corrected on. I was told that story on the air pumps by a GM tech years ago and just believed it. It sounded just stupid enough to satisfy the EPA so I believed it

[palmer]

I just can't imagine VW has been cheating world-wide and that only the experts at the EPA were smart enough to catch this.

Not even close. First, VW was not "cheating", at least they have not said so (the so-called admission is nothing of the sort). Second, CARB only found out because some university researcher (I think WV) did a test. The test still needs to replicated and validated. CARB told the EPA. The EPA is mad because they look so utterly stupid. Hence, the large fine and angry words. But they have nothing but someone else's research paper and an alleged "confession"