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VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

reuters.com

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#32
post #24

General Motors - which knew about their broken ignition switches for over a decade - got away with a 900$m fine. That defect killed at least 124 people.

And they got bailed out by the US taxpayers.

I am just astonished at the outrage over some skirting of an arbitrary number in an emissions standard, in contrast to the comparative yawn over the things other automakers have done that they knew would actually kill people.

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#33
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He wasn't fired, so he shouldn't be getting a "severance package". He resigned. He shouldn't be getting anything for the tens of billions of dollars in damage caused to the company. I wish CEOs stopped being rewarded for screwing up. What's worse is that VW is still pushing the narrative that only two engineers are at fault here, and it refuses to blame the CEO, even though it keeps finding millions and millions of o…

I wish CEOs stopped being rewarded for screwing up. CEOs typically aren't rewarded for screwing up, they get rewarded for signing up. Any severance package is most likely negotiated before they they take the job so as to get them to show up in the first place. Now why it's that way is a different discussion. Want me as CEO of GroupOn or Yahoo? Damned straight you're giving me a severance package whether I screw up or…

> Want me as CEO of GroupOn or Yahoo? Damned straight you're giving me a severance package whether I screw up or not, otherwise I'm taking a less risky job.

Why? Tons of employees take on this risk when joining a startup, and they don't get a huge severance package. Risk should be aligned with reward - if you succeed you should be very well compensated for a risky gig, but if you fail you shouldn't also be very well compensated. The only reason these large CEO severance packages exist is because other CEOs sign these deals, and who doesn't want to be on the "heads I win tails you lose" side of a deal.

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#34

I wonder if we are going to discover similar emissions skirting in over manufacturer's vehicles soon.

Already done. It's funny how the press is only talking about VW but meanwhile there are first tests showing that many other manufacturers do/did the same.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/09/mercedes-...

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#35
post #32
post #24

General Motors - which knew about their broken ignition switches for over a decade - got away with a 900$m fine. That defect killed at least 124 people.

And they got bailed out by the US taxpayers. I am just astonished at the outrage over some skirting of an arbitrary number in an emissions standard, in contrast to the comparative yawn over the things other automakers have done that they knew would actually kill people.

Polluting the environment kills people too.

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#36
post #24

General Motors - which knew about their broken ignition switches for over a decade - got away with a 900$m fine. That defect killed at least 124 people.

VW fraud likely killed almost one hundred Americans but far more Europeans.

http://www.ibtimes.com/volkswagen-diesel-scandal-2015-emissi...

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#37
post #32
post #24

General Motors - which knew about their broken ignition switches for over a decade - got away with a 900$m fine. That defect killed at least 124 people.

And they got bailed out by the US taxpayers. I am just astonished at the outrage over some skirting of an arbitrary number in an emissions standard, in contrast to the comparative yawn over the things other automakers have done that they knew would actually kill people.

Diesel emissions kill tens of thousands of people each year.

It's probably hundreds of thousands across Europe. VW's scam has added to those deaths. VW killed far more than 150 people.

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#38

I don't buy the implication that this didn't go up extremely high in VW. I'm sure they'll find some low level drone(s) to take the fall like normal, but generally speaking if they were engineering and building cars which they KNEW couldn't pass emmissions it had to have been a concerted effort to cheat the system inter-departmentally, which means coordination, which means senior management involvement.

Someone high up is going to prison for this. The Germans are pretty fierce with regulatory failures.

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#39
post #25

I'm surprised that in the US their sales didn't take nosedive, I take that to indicate their customer base has a very enthusiastic and fundamental core... Which is good for them. If this does not shake their confidence, then nothing will, and if this is the case worldwide, VW will survive this scandal largely unscathed, relative to the size of this scandal. For a while it seemed like their viability was very much in…

Fundamentally, I don't really care that they tried to cheat emissions tests. At least when it comes to a purchase decision. The regulators did a bad job at making the testing procedure giving manufacturers a pretty strong motivations to cheat. I expect others to get caught doing similar things.

I'd buy another VW because the one I have has done a good job of getting the little things right in ways other cars I've owned didn't.

Re: VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

#40
post #25

I'm surprised that in the US their sales didn't take nosedive, I take that to indicate their customer base has a very enthusiastic and fundamental core... Which is good for them. If this does not shake their confidence, then nothing will, and if this is the case worldwide, VW will survive this scandal largely unscathed, relative to the size of this scandal. For a while it seemed like their viability was very much in…

VW is a giant company and they're sitting on a giant pile of cash. Anyone that thinks this was going to kill VW is not very bright.

This will affect their status perhaps as the world's #1 automaker, but they'll be around for a long time.

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