I'm thinking more that the VW management's sackcloth and ashes stance will maybe save them a few billion. Well, that's the ploy, but it ain't gonna wash. All governments these days are looking for cash. Instead of taxing corporations normally, they prefer to fine them. I often wonder how they arrive at these fines. You can't help feeling it's done with a coffee, a pencil and an envelope, and possibly a pocket calculator. It's the same with the banks. I can't think that the fines are in the constitution, so they much just be conjured out of thin air. I'm not fussed though. I reckon the corporations deserve them. But they only amount to a fraction of a year's earnings. Who is really bothered? It's all numbers on a piece of paper to them, it's not as if they are going to lose their houses or livelihoods. Ratner on the other hand just singlehandedly managed to sink his business by admitting (even volunteering) that it was all based on tat. He was almost a Reggie Perrin figure.
Seeing as the green lobby has now seemingly succeeded in making the emissions laws so stringent that cars makers have to "cheat" to pass the regs with clever defeat device software and rumours are rife on the financial penalties to be applied to VAG, will Ducati still be part of the brand next year?
I think the media, yet again, are making a huge deal out of feck all. It's barely news. Wow. They cheated a test, how many normal people (not in media) are actually up in arms about this?
All the people I met today actually, every one of them was talking about it :Wideyed: (but I was at Halewood Land Rover plant)
lol, they have had their owns problems with software, security ones. Just like steeling a chevette in the old days.
Were they worried they were going to get busted for fitting software that artificially increases the inefficiency of their vehicles?
How is this any different from fitting your standard cans when you go for the MOT? Might not be in the spirit of the law,but if the regulationss say the car/bike is tested once a year,then if the car/bike is tested,and it passes, once a year,then it's end of story. I think it shows clever thinking...not morally the right thing to do,but companies don't exist to do anything apart from make money for their shareholders,if they do anything else it's gravy. This whole environmental spouting makes me puke anyway,just another revenue collecting rod to hit people with. Sit at our local level crossing on a week day morning and watch packed trains head towards London in the morning,and ghost trains heading north.Vice versa in the evening.Do all those empty journeys count towards Commuter emission figures? Ditto the packed car parks at every rail station...this means that cars and roads HAVE to exist to enable aforesaid commuters to get TO and FROM the station. In the Eighties,I drove 240bhp 32t gross artics at 70 mph doing a regular 12 mpg,now I have 450bhp 40t gross it's only 8.5 mpg average at a regulated 56 mph max. The emissions might be lower but the amount of fuel used is bloody horrendous,(although bearing in mind the weight of goods carried far more efficient than any Ducati...). Forcing people to buy brand new vehicles? Building new costs the environment far more than running an old one until it's no longer viable to do so...all that new steel/rubber/plastic/employees travelling to the factory to build them etc etc...all those noxious gases conveniently ignored. Boris the twat wants cleaner air for Londoners,but still wants trucks bringing all the supplies in to London for Londoners.Sounds great,yes? His solution is to force British hauliers to replace their,(in my case extremely low mileage/over maintained), vehicles with Euro 6,(every green zone in Europe is Euro 5). Easy solution? Re-register all British trucks in Bulgaria...very relaxed maintenance regime,no issues with smoky old wrecks,and they don't share vehicle ownership data with the UK so no congestion charge either.Not morally right of course. Lower emissions/cleaner environment yes. The way the pontificating idiots are doing it,no.
No one mentioned it at work not even the customers and I can tell you there are some opinionated customers that pop through my self scan The talk on the town is about that bad man Calum on coronation street
Less of the Boris bashing. London is a much better place and has seen much more change for good than under Livingstone. The trucks he's got coming in are building all the new infrastructure he's putting in place. You also have limits on how long you can run a vehicle registered overseas, in the UK. You are right in that changing our pipes for an MOT is similar, but this is deceit on such a grand scale. We have police to deal with is swapping out our loud pipes but they can hardly go around checking emissions whilst you drive.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out across Europe. I believe the emission testing standards & regimes are different to those in the US, in fact it was claimed on BBCR4 this morning that the US is 2 years behind Europe on emissions testing. If there is no provable infringement in Europe, then the question for VW (and possibly other manufacturers) may be how damaging fines from the US will end up being to the business. There are a lot of jobs at stake if the VAG group comes under financial threat, some of them could be in Italy...
How do people on here feel about potentially $18billion leaving VW and ending up in the coffers of the US government ? It could ruin VW, something I`m sure the German government and possibly the EU would not allow and they could request assistance from the citizens of the EU in paying fines to ensure the future of VW. You and I could end up contributing . Lots of maybes in there but dont rule it out.
There is one thing I don't understand yet (and feel free to fill me in): If the EU emissions are tighter than the US ones, and VW didn't cheat in the EU, why did they find it necessary to cheat in the US? It doesn't make any sense. If the cars can meet EU standards as they are, why the subterfuge to get through less exacting US standards?
I think that in the US they have a nitrous oxide test that is not carried out in Europe and the VW mod was specifically to pass that.
I have not seen my VW Tiguan on any list of affected cars but I would be most unhappy if my VW dealership reflashed my ECU without my authority, which I wouldn't give.
don't give em authority lose your warranty. seen it happen before. you would be surprised at the amount of campaigns get done without your knowledge when in for servicing.
