VW rocked by emissions scandal as prosecutors come calling

My respect for Germans and Germany has plunged in the last couple of weeks or so.

Looks like the US is in for a windfall.

WOW this could be really really expensive for VW, they were also aiming to be the largest automaker by number of cars sold this year, this may take a dent out of that total, Just of note Toyota while selling about the same amount of vehicles as VW (10million) made about 25% $5 billion more profit.

VW stock dropped today around 20% on the NYSE today. Lost over $14 Billion in market cap, and the Justice Department is launching a criminal investigation. Those 500,000 or so cars are going to end up costing them a fortune.

“defeat devices” — software programmed to switch engines to a cleaner mode during official emissions testing. The software then switches off again, enabling cars to emit as much as 40 times the legal limit of pollutants during normal driving.

Not as bad as Detroit's 'planned obsolescence', but close.

My respect for Germans and Germany has plunged in the last couple of weeks or so.

me too

Those 500,000 or so cars are going to end up costing them a fortune.

The Guardian says that there are 11m cars with the software installed, aside from the 14B plunge, VW is goint to spend 6,5B euros on the investigation

"Not as bad as Detroit's 'planned obsolescence', but close."

LOL. Another baseless, asinine comment. Among the antique/classic market, American models are among the most coveted, not to mention sturdy and durable. Their owners who keep them running in fine fiddle for 50, 60, 100 years are certainly bucking the narrative, arent they?

Further, in the US, I see tons of classic American cars on the road, way, way, way, more than I see in Japan with its "shaken" system that boots pristine cars into landfills with 30,000 miles on the odometer.

But hey, gotta get that anti-US comment in, right? Regardless with what I like to refer to as "reality."

Already, VW has admitted something like 11 million vehicles that use the 1.6 and 2.0 TDI engines worldwide are affected by this issue. Both Ferdinand Piech and Martin Winterkorn could be facing serious criminal charges, and Volkswagen will be lucky if they get off with a 10 billion Euro (US$11.2 billion) fine from the European Commission....

This is going to be pretty traumatic for Volkswagen in general, but consider also the brands they own: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Seat and Skoda. Specifically Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini - while VW is paying out bilions of dollars in fines, these three brands are likely to lose a lot of the R&D budgets that have made their huge advances possible. They certainly don't add much to VW's bottom line, and would therefore be likely targets for the biggest budget cuts. Kind of like a human body suffering some kind of trauma - blood flow is reduced to the extremities to keep more available for the heart and brain.

I think it is time for Mazda to go Zoom Zoom.

The whole idea of clean diesel has long been suspect, and VW seemed to be leading the engineering in that effort. Turns out now that their engineering excellence was just plain old cheating. There are still some diesel players, but not many serving the US market. The big winner out of this whole thing is likely to be .... Toyota... or Subaru. I hear a lot of US buyers are just disgusted with trying to get a green vehicle any other way than going with a tried and true brand. Diesel is expensive anyway, in the US.

By the way, Korea is launching an investigation, and VW is big in China, so its problems are likely to spread to Asia.

VW – AUDI has sold more than 11 Millions diesel engine cars in world wide and 500,000 cars in US. However, there are other Companies which used VW TDI diesel engine and how much those Companies sold cars with VW TDI technology was unknown yet.

Land Rover, Holden (GM) and Skoda have using VW TDI Diesel engines technology in their cars. The VW TDI Diesel cars scandal will pass the record of Toyota recall and Takata Air-bag scandal and many times expensive than any previous recalled and fixing. The TDI engine cover up with software started from 2009 to today.

Car drivers and passengers are traveling on toxic machine and breathing toxic gas. Car owners will launch class action law suit against VW in US and other countries in near future. Also the car Companies which use VW TDI diesel engine in their cars will seek compensation and may need to recall their TDI diesel Engine cars.

This time VW has really screwed up German Technology. Peoples are criticizing Japanese car industry management style and practice in Toyota's unintended acceleration scandal. Now VW TDI Diesel Engine cars emission cover up is bigger and worst than Toyota's unintended acceleration scandal. Toyota problem was poor communication and managing problem and not technology problem. Toyota problem was not worldwide and complaint by only US drivers. Even technicians from NASA can't find any problems in Toyota cars' ECU. Toyota has paid heavy price for its North America stupid Company officials.

VW scandal was technology cheating and it's criminal offense in US. Also, I can see VW stock share owners will launch class action law suit against VW for misleading and seek compensation for their lost in VW share.

Toyota Car Company was wrote and read in the Medias as biggest scandal and expensive recalled in car industry history but they have to change it soon. VW and Audi cars owners were cheated with TDI Green Clean Diesel engine technology by VW for 6 years.

I almost bought a Passat a few years ago but opted for the Camry hybrid and love it. Looks like Germany is having a bad week. Maybe VW should recall all those vehicles and refund the owners and get with Herr Merkel and give those cars to all the migrants so that they don't have to walk or take busses or trains to Munich.

Martin Winterkorn apologized, acknowledging that his company had “broken the trust of our customers and the public.”

Ya reckon...?

@JeffLee

Regardless with what I like to refer to as "reality."

In your "reality", are you a "planned obsolescence denier"? Are you actually saying planned obsolescence was never practiced by Detroit auto makers?

"are you a "planned obsolescence denier"

I look at the real-world evidence, rather than stick to the conspiracy narratives from Mother Jones. I myself have worked on US, Japanese and European cars, and the US ones are the easiest for the layman to repair and modify. Their engineering, with its push-rod engines and RWD, is even described as "agricultural" in contrast to japanese cars' overengineering. Parts are cheap, plentiful and easy to bolt on.

No wonder that US classics from the 50s, 60s and 70s are all the rage these days, from the streets of Harajuku, East LA, Sweden and beyond. Japanese cars in Japan, meanwhile, end up in landfills -- barely after they are get broken in.

@JeffLee

conspiracy narratives from Mother Jones

How about Forbes? Planned obsolescence is a 'reality'. http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/11/06/resist-planned-obsolescence-or-accept-the-financial-consequences/

"Planned obsolescence is a 'reality'."

Yes, nowadays PO is everywhere, in every industry. But Detroit for a long time refused to embrace it, creating cars with simple common parts, many off the shelf. Henry Ford was the pioneer of sublime simplicity. Indeed, the concept is an American invention. More recently, sadly, Detroit has had to bow to the forces of globalized competition, or die.

Pointing to Detroit exclusively as the culprit indicates an utter lack of knowledge and understanding.

What's interesting is that we may have an alternative to the diesel engine coming on the market within the next few years: homogeneous charge combustion ignition, a new combustion process that promises diesel-like fuel economy without the higher NOx levels and diesel particulates of diesel engines. Ironically, Volkswagen is a world leader in HCCI research, and could have a production engine ready near the end of 2016.

But getting back on topic, VW is facing a LOT of legal problems over this fiasco. VW's Board of Directors could face criminal charges in Germany, and there could be massive fines imposed against the company just from the European Commission alone....

Wonder if they have this tech in Audi, Skoda and SEAT diesels, which are all part of the VW family...