Seems like a shakedown to me.
They used the engine’s computer to detect when a “test” was being done and ran the engine in a very clean mode.
The engine doesn’t run that way when actually being driven.
In other words, they designed the engine control software to cheat on the test.
Hopefully, if a Republican wins the Presidency, Winterkorn will be appointed to head the EPA.
If it was GM, it wold not make the news.... They wish they did it, but aren’t smart enough.... Remember the Cadillac diesel
Volkswagen emissions violations
In September 2015, Volkswagen admitted to using illegally installed software to change emissions test results for 11 million of its diesel engine cars sold between 2009 and 2015. The deception resulted in engines passing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards and yet having vehicles emitting up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides. The company has apologized for creating the emissions scandal while the disclosures have brought into question whether VW diesel engines were actually cleaner for the environment than regular gasoline engines.
The software "defeat device" came to light after a series of investigations of Volkswagen's diesel engines by the EPA and the California Air Resources Board. The scrutiny focused on Volkswagen AG's use of engine control unit firmware programming techniques in vehicles equipped with TDI diesel engines to skirt vehicle emissions compliance laws in the United States.
more....
I own a Jetta TDI, but it predates the “clean diesels”. It is a 2006.
Even though it probably pollutes the same as, or more than, the vehicles that will be included in the recall, it will be deemed kosher.
Poor guy. Probably only has a $100 million contract buy out. My heart bleeds for him.
Good thing it wasn’t Japan. He’d have to off himself.
The real crime is that the communist politicians are using the EPA as a tool to slowly reduce the private ownership of automobiles, all in the name of the environment. Totalitarians know that physical mobility equals freedom.
Mileage and pollution standards will be increased until they cannot be legitimately met by anything large enough to transport more than one person.