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My guess is a fix for the non-AdBlue vehicles is going to be difficult, costly, expensive—and maybe take 6 months or so to be available. For customers who are upset now, finding a way to get them out of their diesel and into maybe a gas VW seems like it might be a wise idea.
Many are going to want to hang onto their polluting diesels until they are pulled, in Charlton Heston's words, "from my cold, dead hands."
But others would like to wash their hands of this asap. And it happens that VW dealers across the country have an excess of Jetta gas turbos and Passat gas turbos on the lots at the moment. If you can convince the diesel owners that VW's very nice gas turbos are going to give them almost as much torque as on their diesels, while passing emissions, it might help.
Of course, this would assume that VW central can spend several billion dollars trying to make the Americans happy. But if so, perhaps a deal can be made that would also help local VW dealers who are now in such distress?
One possibility might be to give current owners of affected VW diesels "fair market value" for their vehicles, however that might be defined, plus some substantial amount toward a new VW. If you could get current owners to forgo being part of any lawsuit, maybe put c. $8000, on top of all current rebates, on hood? For those unwilling to get another VW, but willing to sign a non-sue agreement, perhaps a cash payment of $5000 for their time and trouble?
"Bosch warned VW about illegal software use in diesel cars, report says
Staff report
Automotive News
September 27, 2015 - 10:00 am ET
MUNICH -- Robert Bosch warned Volkswagen in 2007 that it would be illegal to use engine management software at the heart of the diesels emissions scandal in production cars, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag said.
VW was also warned by one of its own engineers in 2011 about illegal emissions testing practices, a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's Sunday edition said, citing initial results of a VW internal investigation.
Bild am Sonntag said Bosch supplied diesel software to VW for test purposes but it ended up in vehicles on the road. Bosch wrote to VW saying that such use was unlawful, according to the paper's report, which did not cite sources.
Bosch, the world's biggest supplier, is adding up the cost to its business and reputation of the VW emissions scandal.
A Bosch spokesman today told Reuters that the company's dealings with VW were confidential. VW declined to comment on the details of either newspaper report.
Last week, Bosch said it had delivered components to VW that are now at the center of a probe into rigged emissions tests. The components included delivery and metering modules for exhaust gas treatment and common-rail injection systems.
Responsibility for configuring handling characteristics of these components "lies with Volkswagen," a Bosch spokesman told Automotive News Europe last week.
Bild am Sonntag said the roots of the crisis were planted in 2005 when then-VW brand chief Wolfgang Bernhard wanted VW to develop a new diesel engine for the U.S. market. Bernhard recruited Audi engineer Rudolf Krebs who developed a prototype that performed well in tests in South Africa in 2006, the paper said.
Bernhard and Krebs argued that the only way to make the engine meet U.S. emission standards was to employ in the engine system an AdBlue urea solution used on larger diesel models such as the Passat and Touareg, according to the report.
This would have added a cost of 300 euros ($335 in today's U.S. dollars) per vehicle -- a sum that VW finance officials said was too much at a time when a companywide cost-cutting exercise was under way...."
http://www.autonews.com/article/20150927/COPY01/309279989/bosch-warned-vw-about-illegal-software-use-in-diesel-cars-report-says
http://hsrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=A86.ItwHSwhWXakARbzO2FxH/RV=1/RE=1444593671/RH=aHNyZC55YWhvby5jb20-/RO=2/RU=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jaGVhdHNoZWV0LmNvbS9hdXRvbW9iaWxlcy8xMC1jYXJzLXdpdGgtdGhlLXdvcnN0LWFjY2VsZXJhdGlvbi1pbi10aGUtdS1zLmh0bWwvP3JlZj1ZRg--/RS=^ADAe9aD5_6mEU1r0YpPA8L93EzNkHw-
Zero to 60? Who cares? How many USB ports does it have and does it have adaptive cruise?
This morning, coming back from a city and rural area, home to the nearly 50 wineries, we were doing a 5/6/7 lane freeway merge with the 2009 Jetta TDI. Acceleration was effortless to 85 mph. Most slow pokes (keeping the speed low and fostering Seattle like flow conditions you know a white knuckled 55 mph, some to most lanes) were GASSERS.
My daughter made the observation that it was way different in Georgia (where she's now used to driving, where most folks keep right except to pass,) in that the left lane/s seemed to be mobbed with slowpokes. Incidenlly, the passing lanes for this snap shot were the SLOW lanes.
Same goes for out of state trucking companies. They are not tied to the same CARB regulations CA truck companies have to meet. So it is an unfair competition. Main reason several big trucking companies have gone broke here. It is not just diesels. A bill being pushed in CA will make driving a gas vehicle highly restricted. I guess they crush every other vehicle. Or give out gas cards. Should make the wealthy eco nuts happy.
With transportation fuels accounting for 40% of California's greenhouse gas emissions, Brown and De León want to find ways to reduce gasoline consumption. The measure would require the state Air Resources Board, a powerful regulatory agency, to determine how the state would cut petroleum use in half by 2030.
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-air-board-qa-20150906-story.html
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_23619630/carb-is-again-crippling-california-trucking-industry
http://blog.chrwtrucks.com/owner-operators/carb-regulations-financial-challenge-owner-operators/
http://www.vw.com/models/e-golf/?&cid=ssem_sblf4VkH_71271185346_c
And MB made the bar higher, by selling the d (250 BT) for $500 less MSRP.
Inside a Poway warehouse, the first of six school buses are starting the transformation from diesel to electric.
A pilot program inspired by the Clinton Global Initiative spearheaded the initiative, and the first electric buses will be some of the first of their kinds in the world.
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Six-Buses-Largest-Program-of-Its-Kind-in-World-Being-Transformed-to-Electric-in-Poway-309672831.html
Oh yeah, we should follow what France does? 75% of the electricity for the grid is supplied by CLEAN nuclear! Solar and wind is .04% (WAY less than 1%)
"VW could lose big around the world
Christiaan Hetzner
Automotive News
September 28, 2015 - 12:01 am ET
....The crisis also has left VW's stakeholders consumed with soul-searching, questioning the company's uniquely insular culture and an atmosphere that bred unaccountability.....
"In a worst-case scenario, Volkswagen could face close to $50 billion in damage" resulting from EPA fines and investor lawsuits, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, a German think tank.
"In addition," he said, "the VW brand can forget about selling cars in the U.S. market for the next five years."
VW may be forced to accelerate a cost-cutting program to offset billions it expects to lose, supervisory board member Bernd Osterloh wrote in a letter to employees.
The scandal could cost the group its industry leadership in the global sales race after it took the top spot from Toyota in the first half of the year. Analysts are calling on the company to focus on its core business, scrap prestige projects such as the next Bugatti supercar and VW Phaeton sedan and even abandon the U.S.
"An Armageddon scenario -- purely for illustrative purposes -- where we knock out VW's U.S. business, would take more than 20 percent of earnings away," wrote Bernstein analyst Max Warburton in a note to investors.
Warburton recommends VW abandon all efforts to sell diesels in the U.S. -- a "heart-wrenching decision" since the whole U.S. strategy was founded on diesel.
Others are calling on the brand to bow out of the U.S. entirely.
"The crisis lays bare the need to rethink whether the company really has to own noncore businesses like Bugatti and [motorcycle brand] Ducati, and most importantly whether the VW brand would be better advised exiting the U.S. market where it's lost billions," said NordLB auto analyst Frank Schwope...."
http://www.autonews.com/article/20150928/OEM/309289953/vw-could-lose-big-around-the-world
Audi says 2.1 million cars had software to cheat emissions (Washington Post)
"Around the world, the affected Audi models include the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5, but the scope was more limited in the United States, where diesel cars are less popular."
I have been really surprised, over the last several years, to see how poorly Volkswagen was doing in the US market, while growing to become number one world wide. Their strategy seems to work very well in other markets, and not well at all here in the US. Perhaps they would be better off to give up on the US market?
Many folks on this board people probably never really understood why I have always been saying that VW's offer great value/s: albeit, TDI's. With the current crisis, it even screams BETTER value . It is also very obvious that the majority of the folks still will not agree.
I don't know why I'm wasting my time, but here might be some applied logic.
(My) 2009 VW Jetta TDI's major tune will be due @ 120,000 miles. Depending on the FIX, VW will have to /or be required to warranty the emissions fix for a period of years/miles, going forward. So I would ask the question, why would it be guaranteed for any less than that, 120,000 miles: adding up to a grand total of 240,000 miles . ? If anything else breaks down in support of this issue, you don't the media is going to hear about this ?
Now they have already upped the DSG automatic transmission warranty to 10 years/100,000 miles. @ 97,0000 miles, mpg has not fallen off! It feels as tight if not tighter than it did when it was new. They fixed the (HPFP) high-pressure fuel pump issue. On the TDI issue or diesel issue, it's spring-loaded going forward for media attention.
Elon Musk Says Climate Change Refugees Will Dwarf Current Crisis
Tesla's CEO says the Volkswagen scandal is minor compared with carbon dioxide emissions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elon-musk-in-berlin_560484dee4b08820d91c5f5f
"Vehicles built by Daimler AG’s Mercedes division used 48 percent more fuel on average than their published statistics claim, with gaps exceeding 50 percent on new A-, C- and E-Class models, Brussels-based Transport & Environment said Monday. BMW’s 5-Series and the Peugeot 308 produced differences between real-world and laboratory results of just under 50 percent. Across the industry, the gap widened to 40 percent last year from 8 percent in 2001, with the difference between published specifications and actual fuel use costing a typical driver an additional 450 euros ($500) yearly at the pump."
This answers that question we've gotten here in the past: "Why don't they sell all those great MPG cars here that they sell in Europe?" Turns out they WEREN'T "great", after all!
Makes our EPA estimated mpgs look pretty good, in comparison.
I used the like model MB GLK 350,22mpg vs 250BT 35 mpg for 59% more, and this board not only hit the snooze alarm, zzzzzzzzzzz ... Same was true for Acura MDX vs VW Touareg TDI 19 to 22 vs 33 to 37 mpg. Aka JAPANESE nameplate. 75% more fuel! And again, don't get me wrong, I think the MDX is an absolutely awesome vehicle! it really sets the high bar in that CUV segment.
4 Reasons Americans Aren't Buying Volkswagens Anymore (businessinsider.com)
Story is from July 2014. I think the one point that rings most true is the perception that VW's reliability isn't up to snuff.
But leaving the US market would be a drastic step and a huge admission of failure. I think they need to focus on core brands, and forget Bugatti, Phaeton, etc.
I don't think VW has made any big profits in the US since the early 1970s. And they've been losing quite a lot here over the last few years, even as the market has been going up. And so, on a purely dollars and cents basis, they probably should pull out. But abandoning the single richest auto market in the whole world would be such a gigantic blow to VW's prestige that I don't think they'll do it.
My guess is VW will double down in America and make things work somehow, no matter what.
I actually think they probably can do it, which means not thriving in the next year but surviving. It would help if VW had a standard longer warranty (maybe the 4 year bumper to bumper + 6 year powertrain that most luxury brands get?) and then just put a heck of a lot of cash on the hood.
Sounds cruel, but if customers feel like they can benefit from VW's misfortune, by getting a good car at a truly bargain price, they'll probably do it.
While this is not in my wheelhouse, as a consumer, (wallet voting is real ) sooner or later German LABOR unions are going to have to come to grips with:( in these global economies) tbeir ever-increasing monetary contract boondoggles can NOT continue, aka the gravy trains have run their course. Even if German LABOR UNIONs ARE owners of the VW company. Markets in effect are applying massive pressures.
As a matter fact, for these (minority) owners to claim the Sergeant Schulz famous refrain is highly insulting to even people with half a brain. This would also go for the State of Lower Saxony.
Longer story short, they were trying to match their Toyota, et al competitors @ 3years and 36,000 miles.
A lot of that competition is starting to hit the trade-in or boneyards , Mine still won't die. Why is that bad?
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_28887074/low-gas-prices-could-stick-around-into-2017
For those still considering diesel, but with another name plate .
http://www.thestreet.com/story/13302001/1/9-fuel-efficient-diesel-cars-and-trucks-to-buy-not-named-volkswagen.html?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=tstoutbrain&cm_ven=outbrain&utm_term=1062074
It looks like there are a LOT of 2015 Golf TDIs with only a few miles on them. I guess that is how they are getting around the don't sell order. So much for a big discount. They seem to be more than they were new. Asking in the high $20k low $30k range.
Both deals would stimulate used and new car markets.
While I periodically do report what it/they get/s per tank full, I have never driven it/them with an egg between the right foot and drive by wire throttle, like you would with Pious or EV or gasser. To post higher #'d mpg.
sutliffvolkswagen.com/searchnew.aspx?make=volkswagen&model=Golf&trim=TDI+SEL&rm=trim%3aTDI+SEL
https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/
A buy back would cost VW billions and billions of dollars. They won't do it unless they feel they have no other way to survive in the US market.
I hope they do it. I think it's how they come back from this. But it will be a buy back at fair used prices, not new.
So I will be spring loaded to future auto sector brain farts. It promises to be a very good rest of the 2015 year.
If they had the same engine as your Toureg, that'd be a stout powertrain. Probably pull 7500 lbs. without breaking a sweat.
"Of course nothing will happen, the smog in the LA basin is mostly due to cargo ships and little is done."
Cargo ships are not the main problem and things are getting better.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-0218-port-pollution-20150218-story.html