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F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

nytimes.com

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Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#141

Post by eumoria »

sbov wrote: post #90
eumoria wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harley Davidson was caught doing the same emissions scam and no one seems to care. Granted there's less vehicles from them compared to the 11 million Volks but still.

Doesn't seem to be the same from what I can tell. AFAIK the Harley Davidson "defeat device" would still emit unacceptable levels of emissions during an emissions test. And that they were intended for track/racing use. This is very different from purposefully hiding your emissions levels from testers. Whether that difference is material when meting out punishment is up to judgement. But calling it "no different" seems…

I gotta do some searching but it was explained to me that at the factory they would run the engines extremely lean... like to the point they had to add additional cooling. Then when the bikes arrived at the dealer they would reflash the ECU and have it normally tuned again.

EDIT: Not exactly that... from another user "They admit that the modified bikes bypass emissions requirements, whereas the unmodified VWs didn't meet the requirements and had to cheat to pass inspection."

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#143

Post by tn13 »

JohnGB wrote: post #46

I wonder if the same would have happened to an American company in the USA. If so, what's the deal with the bankers that did orders of magnitude more damage?

Bankers are like aspect oriented programming. They cut through a lot of layers. You touch a banker you are touching many people across the spectrum. Sending an automobile scapegoat ceo to jail does not affect that many people.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#144

Post by bflesch »

dba7dba wrote: post #138
bflesch wrote: post #114

This is way overdue. Unfortunately in Germany they don't touch VW executives at all. You could build the same cases here, but there is no political will. Our corrupt ministry of transportation even sends out their reports on the VW fraud scandal over to Volkswagen and lets them review/amend/retract passages of their report. You can't make that shit up. It's a disgrace to Germany and the EU that this company has so mu…

Everybody roots for their local boys. The only court system that gave Apple a major win over Samsung in the patent case was in Silicon Valley, CA. Not in Germany, Japan, and other 3rd party countries...

Then I want to be a local boy one day when it makes me immune to prosecution.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#145

Post by bflesch »

athenot wrote: post #119
bflesch wrote: post #114

This is way overdue. Unfortunately in Germany they don't touch VW executives at all. You could build the same cases here, but there is no political will. Our corrupt ministry of transportation even sends out their reports on the VW fraud scandal over to Volkswagen and lets them review/amend/retract passages of their report. You can't make that shit up. It's a disgrace to Germany and the EU that this company has so mu…

It's called the Home Advantage . Ford/GM enjoy that in the US so if this scandal were to take place at those companies, you'd see harsher action in Europe than in the US.

It's called corruption and cover-up of criminal activities, and should be prosecuted that way.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#146

Post by hx87 »

mikeash wrote: post #140
hx87 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is cheaper than premium gas in most places though, and given the cars diesel engines are offered in, diesel tends to compete with premium, not regular. The obvious exception are 1/2-1 ton trucks, but in those, diesel engines serve a different purpose than the gasoline ones.

Seems to be true in the higher-end diesels, like the BMWs and Audis and Mercedeses, but the gas versions of cars like the Cruze and the Jetta use regular gas. For people who are cost conscious, I imagine that they'd be looking at the lower-end diesels where the gas equivalents use cheap gas.

Not sure about the Jetta, but the diesel Cruze is so much more efficient than the gasoline version that diesel has to be 1.5x the price of gas for the latter to make sense. EPA cycles tend to underestimate the fuel economy of diesel TDIs and overestimate those of gasoline TDIs. They're pretty accurate for non-turbo gasoline DI engines though.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#147

Post by Kankuro »

usrusr wrote: post #68
disiplus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

diesels are popular in europe for one reason that probably somebody from us will not understand. the price of fuel. because the price of fuel is so much bigger fuel efficiency is the biggest concern

In Germany it is not just about the efficiency: diesel fuel is taxed lower per liter than gasoline, for exactly the same stupid reasons personal cars are (were?) often cheaper to register in the USA if you find an excuse to call it a truck.

About the same in France: heating oil was traditionally used to heat houses, but with the development of nuclear electricity it consumption dropped. French government back then helped the refineries by lowering the taxes and pushed the car industry to develop diesel cars. And we have been stuck with these diesel cars since this era.

It's a vicious circle because owner of diesel cars may think twice before voting if a candidate proposes to raise the taxes on diesel, even if year after year we get reports about the number of early deaths because of fine particles…

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#148

Post by petre »

pvlima wrote: post #19

Most amazing is that in Europe VW does not have to pay anything. And car owners are forced to do a software update that reduces engine power and increases risk of malfunction. VW never again.

I'm glad they got busted in the US and I hope they lose market share. They are selling shitty cars that break just outside of warranty. I'd rather buy Peugeot/Citroen or Ford rather than VW/Audi.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#149

Post by petre »

disiplus wrote: post #42
_nedR wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be game over for diesel cars in general, even if you ignore their eventual replacement with electric cars. They have been getting a lot of bad press lately. Their popularity was due to their higher fuel efficiency; But for diesels, it seems that there is trade-off between fuel efficiency and NOx emissions ( http://www.livescience.com/52284-volkswagen-scandal-clean-di... ). With many cities and countries t…

diesels are popular in europe for one reason that probably somebody from us will not understand. the price of fuel. because the price of fuel is so much bigger fuel efficiency is the biggest concern

After my diesel car had trouble starting in -15°C temperatures, I will avoid buying a diesel car again. I like the diesel engine for its high torque and the fact that I pay less for fuel, but gasoline is cleaner and I can install a LPG kit if I want cheap, cleaner fuel. A gasoline powered hybrid vehicle negates all the advantages of diesel.

Diesel is really for trucks, ships, agricultural and construction vehicles and some railway engines. It should be taxed more than gasoline because of NOx, particulate and sulphur pollution.

Re: F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal

#150

Post by hx87 »

petre wrote: post #149
disiplus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

diesels are popular in europe for one reason that probably somebody from us will not understand. the price of fuel. because the price of fuel is so much bigger fuel efficiency is the biggest concern

After my diesel car had trouble starting in -15°C temperatures, I will avoid buying a diesel car again. I like the diesel engine for its high torque and the fact that I pay less for fuel, but gasoline is cleaner and I can install a LPG kit if I want cheap, cleaner fuel. A gasoline powered hybrid vehicle negates all the advantages of diesel. Diesel is really for trucks, ships, agricultural and construction vehicles an…

If you regularly drive long distances on highways, diesel >> gasoline-electric hybrid, since the electrical part of the drive train doesn't do much at constant speeds.

> It should be taxed more than gasoline because of NOx, particulate and sulphur pollution.

Diesel car owners already pay that tax through the expense of urea injection, oxidation catalyst, and particular filter systems, and with those systems diesel is every bit as clean as gasoline. Sulfur is a nonissue with ULSD these days, and if you want to reduce sulfur further that's something you deal with at the refinery, not the pump.

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