Nearly all new diesel cars exceed official pollution limits

Post by guscost » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:57 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #108

guscost wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean VW? All the speculation I've read is that the DEF cars are also being recalled because they don't use the correct dosing. Or do you mean the Chevy Cruze? They must have some strategy that works (so far).

What they are going to do during the recall is different for the various generations of cars. Some of the VWs are getting bigger DEF tanks. For the cars that this isn't an option, I don't think VW has said exactly what they are going to do. They could just disable the cheating mode on the software. Fuel economy and performance would suck, but the emissions would be at acceptable levels.

Post by commenter1239 » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:41 PM UTC

S_A_P wrote: post #105

I don't get the math about diesel. American refineries produce 12 gallons of diesel and 19 gallons of gasoline on average[1] from a barrel of oil(42 gallons). I seem to remember that figure being lower and it looks like googles answer was 10 gallons at one point using the same site reference. I think that there was a push to get most cars off of gasoline and on to diesel before the VW scandal, and that diesel was goi…

Post by criddell » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 6:12 PM UTC

guscost wrote: post #111

criddell wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they are going to do during the recall is different for the various generations of cars. Some of the VWs are getting bigger DEF tanks. For the cars that this isn't an option, I don't think VW has said exactly what they are going to do. They could just disable the cheating mode on the software. Fuel economy and performance would suck, but the emissions would be at acceptable levels.

I haven't heard anything about the latest agreement, other than that it will involve a buyback offer, unspecified fixes, and/or compensation. You don't have a source do you? There's been a lot of speculation all along, will they retrofit DEF systems, will the cars just get super unreliable because the systems can't handle prolonged legal operation, etc.

Post by Someone » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 6:58 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #11

Someone wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit/lot of it may be "optimize for the test", not cheat. They know at what temperature the test is done, so they optimize the chemistry for that case. They know it will be done with new cars, so they do not optimize "emission over the car's lifetime". They also have drivers who are above average. That will help with manually shifted cars. And of course, they pick the best car they can produce, and prepare it optima…

"Dynamometer testing is already supplemented by on-road testing using portable emissions equipment, lab testing of cars borrowed from consumers, audits of other industry emissions labs and examination of vehicles chosen randomly from assembly lines, said Valentine, the EPA spokeswoman." from: http://www.autonews.com/article/20150929/OEM11/150929807/epa... So the manufacturer apparently does not get to chose the vehic…

Post by MadManE » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 7:17 PM UTC

TheCondor wrote: post #59

f_allwein wrote: post #2

> There is no suggestion that any of the cars tested broke the law on emissions limits or used any cheat devices. Since all these cars passed the laboratory test, that means there must be something very wrong with the test and the way the standards are enforced. Or all car makers do cheat.

It's all a bit of a sham, a lot of politics in play with it. If NOx was a real concern, the cars would be required to have realtime sensors, the check engine light would come on when they misbehave. All the manufacturers knew. The testers almost certainly knew