Posted on 03/29/2018 10:18:48 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
It resembles a car park at an enormous open-air venue - but it is actually a knock-on effect of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
Dramatic aerial pictures show row after row of diesel VWs and Audis sitting in the baking California sun, awaiting either repair or destruction in their desert graveyard.
This is just one of 37 storage areas the firm has around the US, housing almost 300,000 vehicles.
In addition to the pictured site in Victorville, other facilities include a disused suburban football stadium in Detroit and a former Minnesota paper mill.
The German company needs plenty of space because it has spent more than $7.4bn (£5.3bn) buying back about 350,000 US vehicles, following the scandal over software that switched engines to a cleaner mode when they were being tested for emissions.
They are not all being stored, though. In December, VW said it had destroyed about 28,000 vehicles and resold a further 13,000.
It has offered, in total, to buy back about half a million vehicles in a scheme that will continue until next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
I never considered a diesel car for one reason: finding a filling station used to be an issue. Besides, my 2015 Honda Fit gets great fuel economy (40+ mpg on the freeway for a non-hybrid car with modern safety features is pretty good).
“Really? Hard to believe.”
Do the math. Every one of those cars took the output of trucks trains, ships, and factories to build and ship. Now everyone of those owners had to go buy some other car that also took all that manufacturing to make. Now compare all that waste to a tiny increase in emissions from each vehicle. Keep in mind they are diesels that already get great gas millage.
And another thing:
I used to work for a company that did a lot of work where cement was made. If diesel emissions are so damned bad, why were we allowed to run diesel-powered equipment a mile underground in that mine?
Gasoline engines? Don’t even THINK about it.
My take is this: What would make a multi national car producer take this enormous risk? Could it be the standards were just unrealistic and outrages to the point that risking many millions and having hell rain down on you was worth it to remain competitive in the market? I for one would like to have one of these cars. To get these cars to be in compliance you have to strangle their motors.
Or convert them to burn Natural gas, make gen-sets with them. Set them up for emergency power in backyards. Even use them to compress natural gas into LNG for use in motor vehicles.
That’s great question. Wondered it myself, and I have good reason to: I own a VW TDI.
I have thought more than once a gang of pencil-neck regulation writers for the EPA would meet at a Starbucks and come up with nearly unattainable emission standards just to put the screws to anything diesel-powered simply because none in that group really knows anything about the real world, and they all to a geek don’t know how to spell “diesel.”
You nailed it. The idea was that nothing would pass. When VW came up with something that appeared to, they trapped themselves. Think coal plant emission regs for US power plants. VW walked into it.
I haven’t read any reports of what you they run like after the emissions tune but several of the aftermarket guys can make it -really- run good with a performance tune. I’m a big fan of Malone tunes.
I bought one of those tdi golfs that was traded in. Awesome car averaging 49mpg. Tones of power. I’m very happy. 17k out the door for a car that should go 300k miles with no sweat.killer warranty too.
My 2015 golf tdi runs great. Tons of power.
I think Darius is correct. The emissions spent to build the vehicles, transport them, destroy them, and recycle or landfill the waste has to far outweigh the small amount of emissions. Remember, they only failed to meet emissions during heavy load like high acceleration. They met emissions during cruise speeds.
This would be a good study to perform.
Here’s something that just wads my shorts:
VW’s dataplate on these TDI’s say X MPG HIGHWAY and Y MPG CITY.
The software code VW ran had most all the later models EXCEED the stated fuel economy. Pretty cool, huh? VW found a way to wring more economy out of a gallon of fuel. Hell...I thought the EPA was all about MPG. I’m apparently a dummy.
I can tell you that after the fix is done by a dealer, VW does not have to change the stated MPG because the fix does not make the economy fall below those figures.
Are VW and Volvo still financially solvent? Thats a pretty big right off. Im sure other countries with lower standards would give you something for them. Are they “siezed” by the lawsuits?
I would buy one cheap and promise never to drive it any where near Commiefornia or Massaechusets or any other liberal hell hole.
You’ll play absolute hell trying to find what the fixes do to performance.
VW keeps that info pretty well locked up.
Will a factory rep or dealer even work on an illegal one that got purchased without down grading it to meet standards?
“Wow. You’d think it would be cheaper to fix the software and sell them at a deep discount, maybe at or just below cost. I don’t think there were any hardware problems — just software.”
The issue in many cases is that the hardware would never pass requirements. The software was used to run the hardware out of driving spec to cheat the bench emissions test. While you can pass emissions, I don’t think the cars would drive well in that cheat mode
“Why not ship them to Latin America?”
Or Africa, or Asia.
That is where a lot of 4WD truck end up when they will not pass inspection in the US. There are brokers that would buy those cars and ship them to 3rd world countries where emissions are not a problem.
I had two brokers contact me back in 2001 when I was selling my 1988 Toyota Tacoma. They both wanted to buy Toyota and Nissan/Datsun 4WD pick up trucks that would not pass inspection in the US. One guy shipped them to Central America. The other guy sold them to Asia. Not long after that the US sent troops to Afghanistan. All of those TALIBAN guys were riding around in old Toyota pick up trucks. OH WHAT A FEELING!
I don’t know.
I finally bit the bullet and am in the midst of paper work of getting mine “fixed”. The actual work has not been done. I have been putting this off because I absolutely love how the car runs (like a scalded dog!) and am fearful my butt dynamometer will not have that thrill anymore. I have NOT been able to find any definitive claims of what the car will do after the fix other than the economy will likely go down.
I have received no notifications from VW that my car is currently out of compliance and therefore “WE WON’T WORK ON IT.”
If they ever were to come available at fire-sale pricing, I'd probably pull the trigger (Oh! Is that politically-correct to say?)
It will be interesting if you feel anything. Mine had the fix and it runs great, but I bought it used so I have no way to compare.
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