Posted on 09/25/2015 8:08:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Volkswagen is confronted with a monumental challenge.
The company has admitted that 11 million of its cars used illegal software to cheat emissions standards.
Now, many owners are demanding that the offending cars be fixed.
That's easier said than done, and Volkswagen has already tried — and failed — twice.
Here's the issue, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency: Cars with Volkswagen's 2-liter TDI turbo-diesel four-cylinder engines include software that detects when the car is undergoing emissions testing and turns on a suite of pollution-control systems.
But as soon as the test ends, the controls switch off, leaving the engine free to emit up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide, a highly polluting gas. According to the California Air Resources Board, Volkswagen admitted to using a defeat device during a September 3 meeting with the agency and the EPA.
The problem for Volkswagen is that getting the engine's emissions in line with pollution standards probably means sacrificing something else.
"Building an engine involves balancing four factors — performance, emissions, durability, and fuel economy," explained Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports' director of automotive testing.
Right now, VW has sacrificed emissions to create a TDI engine that offers great performance, incredible fuel economy, and solid reliability.
"Whatever the fix is, it will likely sacrifice fuel economy and probably durability as well," Fisher said.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I'm really confused; when did the EPA take over for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who I thought still conducted and did the certification for the sticker city and highway MPG numbers? And if the NHTSA still conducts those tests, when did they start doing emissions testing during those exams?
Why should VW owners be any different than the Chrysler stockholders who lost everything when he gave Chrysler to Fiat?
There’s a huge difference between “unethical” and “illegal;” what VW did was ILLEGAL since the law expressly forbids doing what they did.
Buy back or “campaign contribution” to the right people or party to make the problem go away.
As Will Rogers said, “We have the best government money can buy”.
Great prediction!
However I have one correction.
The $500.00 “fine” will be called a “TAX.” That way the USSC Justices will go along with it.
I refer to all of my taxes as fines now in keeping with the changing of the words.
Actually, the componuds formed are all of the oxides of nitrogen, in varying quantities: NO, NO2, NO3, etc. thus the usage of NOx to describe them.
They are primary components of photochemical smog, as well as tending to form nitric and nitrous acids when combined with moisture in the air.
Let’s say, I was involved in that line of work with various manufacturers of cars and trucks for 35+ years...
As a teen I drove Dad's 1973 Beetle, with 3 speed "semiautomatic" stick shift. (No clutch, it would disengage when you moved the stick) Good times!
Can you still legally buy aftermarket computers/chips that do the same thing that VW did here?
Until we know exactly how the vehicles detected they were being tested and went into test defeat mode, obviously it is speculation on my part. But Government emissions and mileage testing are done at the same facility:
The problem posed in your first paragraph should be trivial; eg, on one of those plug-in testers, there should be a way to either read out which firmware version is installed in any given car, or get a checksum, which amounts to the same thing.
Of course, let’s not kid ourselves, the state of CA will impose a $37.50 (Or $137.50!) “Firmware verification fee” for the guy at the smog joint plugging in his deal and getting the readout in about 17 seconds. That much is a certainty!
What VW did was utterly unequivocably unethical!! That doesn’t mean I think they are evil or make bad cars. But cheating on the tests is cheating on the test. I can’t overthink that one. I am sorry they did that, IMO diesels, from what I know, which is 100% anecdotal though from folks I know and respect, are pretty cool.
what’s the precise wording from the law that makes it illegal? i’m curious. i know it’s being reported as “illegal”, but i no longer trust journalists to know what they are talking about. and if it’s just a regulation somewhere that is being violated, is that still strictly speaking, “illegal”?
The law defines “defeat devices” from back when emissions were mechanically-controlled, and prohibits the use of any such device that is “intended to render the (emission) controls inoperative in normal operation.”
It’s quite clear, and everyone in the business knows it.
Yes, simple, fast, easy.
It should be implemented by installing a plug on the port where rest instrumentation is plugged in.
That was the customer can remove it and have a real car again when they get home from the mechanic.
No, not legally, and the know-how to do it is closely-guarded.
There are, however, "tuners" operating on the fringes of the auto industry who have the know-how due to their day jobs...
in CO, “taxes” are now called “fees” to get around our TABOR laws, which used to shackle our legislators from raising taxes without going to the voters first.
yet another of the Machiavellian tactics of the cultural marxists and professional politicians... changing the meaning of words to get around the spirit of the laws.
Some guy came to a hot rod and classics car meeting a couple weeks ago here in Queens, NY, with a customized bug. He did a fair amount of custom body work on it (flared out fenders, etc), but the car still very much retained the classic VW Bug look. He did or had done a flashy 2-tone paint job. And he installed a large-as-would-fit chromed out, souped up engine...in the front! It was pretty wild. Unfortunately, no camera at the time to take pics.
Instead, the agency gives its test protocols to the auto companies and lets each test its own cars and trucks. It accepts as true the "EPA estimated" fuel-efficiency numbers each car company submits.
Link: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/how_tested.shtml
Somehow, I would doubt that the tests would be conducted in the so called 'test mode' emissions, since it was conducted by VW.
When Kia and Hyndai were 'caught' submitting higher numbers (which they blamed on the tests) than consumers actually experienced on the highway, the settlement included a debit card given by the car company to the consumer based upon the difference in MPG and calculated on miles driven and local gas prices for two years. Wouldn't surprise me if this too becomes part of the VW settlement.
And yet they are: test mode will give the highest numbers since it will show the best emissions numbers - unburned hydrocarbons = wasted fuel.
Maybe we need to change the EPA, not the cars.
In Germany the cars get even better gas mileage. Democrats and environmentalists are so eager to find a way to cure “climate change” but they conveniently forget the rest of the world is not even close to EPA standards.
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