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 ...
I am convinced that the EPA and other testing authorities knew of this cheating. I worked in the diesel industry for 35 years and know the difficulty of meeting the emission standards and the methods used to achieve them.
CARB and others were willing to turn their heads at problems if the public impression was one of CART achieving even higher levels of regulation..they worried about the appearance, but not real reduction emissions. Back when smog was a real problem their work was effective, but once that objective was achieved the rest has been just for show.
It is also possible that VW was paying off govt officials. German companies have often used illegal payoffs to achieve market share.
I think there is a lot of uncertainty...especially if you own a car in a state with emissions inspections. The ‘fix’ that people will be forced to get is anticipated to either rob horsepower of fuel economy.
Also, VW parts are a little hard to get already...if VW quits operating in the US or goes belly up altogether, getting a brand new car serviced and repaired will be tougher/more expensive.
My dad owns one of these cars...I’m sure he will hold off as long as possible, before submitting to a ‘fix’, but it seems inevitable that somehow, someway, he will be forced to do it.
Short VW and Audi!
The un-faked emissions are something like 40x passable. Opting for decrease in mileage is probably impossible as gas burned per mile means far more gas burned and thus greater emissions (handled by an already overloaded emissions control system). They MUST get the emissions down; the only sufficient way is to decrease performance.
In its zeal to fine VW, the government could set off a financial carmageddon, wiping out a major car company and destroying a major asset of VW owners. This could have financial ripples which cascade out of control.
I'm suspicious of the timing. Was this done now to deflect attention from the EPA poisoning a river with heavy metals?
How many games have the Asian car makers played, huh? At least the gas pedal never stuck on my VW!!!
The EU standards are equal to or better than US standards. AND, their standards have been in effect longer than those in the US, like ULSD standards for example.
The EPA does NOT want diesel engines in US passenger cars, PERIOD!
This has been the unwritten mandate for as long as I can remember, and was the mandate since I left the auto industry a decade ago.
US passenger vehicles get far worse mileage than they did 25 years ago, and it is all due to EPA “emissions” requirements.
The dirty little secret is that current US vehicles are worse polluters now than cars built at the end of the 20th century.
There are no emissions tests where I live (Ohio)
One-Two PUNCH!! First, kill'em with the flood of Islamists, then kill their car companies!
Vw will get ran through the ringer by this regime.
Every since the VW employees shot down the uaw in Chattanooga and then VW rewarded the city with a 2nd plant and 2000 more jobs. They have been on the obama hit list ever since.
How many states do emissions checks? I remember here in Florida they did emissions back in the 80s, but they haven’t done them since. I don’t see that being problematic in states where there are no emissions checks.
18 billion in fines is nothing short of criminal. I’ve been told the adjusted emissions are also passable. So how much harm was really done? Punishment yes, capital punishment no.
“They MUST get the emissions down”
Why?
Many states don’t require smogging your car.
The European NOx standard is 10% of the US standard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_testing_scandal#Emission_standards
Yeah. Instead of getting two gallons to the mile, you should be getting three gallons to the mile. ;-)
One big problem with them de-tuning the engine for emissions purposes. They publish a advertised horsepower and torque for the engines.
In the olden days, those numbers were just made up out of thin air and could be significantly more or less than actual. GM was famous for hand building engines out of the best parts and then selling on those numbers.
Ford found out that you can not do that anymore some years ago when some Mustang owners put their new cars on the dyno and it failed to make advertised power.
..........why wouldn’t it be more fair to the general publics around the world to jail the exec’s and engineers (for 5-10 years) that pulled this off and fine VW one dollar!
The US could simply say to Germany “give us 18 billion or put this list of creeps in prison”.
This message of JAIL is long over-due for Corporate Execs around the world!
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