Volkswagen - What's got into you???

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by finnbow

In the US, pretty much all BMW's are considered luxury class cars due to only larger engine choices and all the bells and whistles forcing luxury car pricing. In Germany, they tend to distinguish between a BMW with smaller engine, cloth seats and limited do-dads with those with bigger engines and performance options.

We went to BMW-Welt in Munich last week and saw some pretty extraordinary stuff. Most impressive to me were the new i8 and the M6 Coupe. The M6 Gran Coupé on display was quite something with nearly 30,000 Euros of extras piled upon its base ~130,000 Euro base price.

FWIW, Audi has made a big turnaround in Germany in recent years in terms of prestige, quality and performance. I rented an S-line A4 Avant (station wagon) turbo-diesel and that thing just flew on the Autobahn. It's sweet spot for Autobahn cruising was 160-170 kph (95-100 mph) while getting staggeringly good mileage. Very nice.

I hope you were in the slow lane doing 100mph.

[HarmanKardon]

Latest:

--- Winterkorn resigns.

--- The Green Party claims, that the German Government was informed about the manipulations. If this would be true, it would be MEGA COOL!

[Rajoo]

Originally Posted by bobabode

I hope you were in the slow lane doing 100mph.

Probably had a sign on the back window saying 'Tourist'.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

Latest:

--- Winterkorn resigns.

--- The Green Party claims, that the German Government was informed about the manipulations. If this would be true, it would be MEGA COOL!

From what I read, there's one Green who "assumes" the government knew.

"There is obviously a system of fraud and lies," Oliver Krischer, a Greens party lawmaker who had earlier pursued this issue with the government, told journalists. "I assume that the minister was informed that such manipulative devices were used."

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet but, having said that, all bureaucracies are corrupt and no counrty is immune to the sort of "regulatory capture" we see in the US. The Transport Ministry must have known that the cheat technology existed since US manufacturers had been caught using it. If questions had been raised about VW, they would have been guilty of negligence at the very least if they hadn't investigated.

[Rajoo]

From my Post #31:

West Virginia Engineer Proves to Be a David to VW's Goliath

"We actually presented this data in a public forum and were actually questioned by Volkswagen," said Carder.

So this data was presented publicly and VW must have known that their cars were not meeting published specs some time late 2013.

http://www.fullhn.com.s3-website-eu-...node_id=663504

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by BeamOn

http://www.fullhn.com.s3-website-eu-...node_id=663504

That site scares Malwarebytes.

This one works still (again?).

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0RM2D720150923

[Rajoo]

Originally Posted by Boreas

That site scares Malwarebytes.

This one works still (again?).

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0RM2D720150923

No, does not work. I use Malwarebytes (and keep it current) also and did not get a block or warning.

Here is a new link from Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0RM2D720150923

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by BeamOn

No, does not work. I use Malwarebytes (and keep it current) also and did not get a block or warning.

Here is a new link from Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0RM2D720150923

Don't know why our computers are behaving differently. I have Malwarebytes Pro and it's up to date. And the original Reuters site is still working for me as of 30 seconds ago.

[Rajoo]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Don't know why our computers are behaving differently. I have Malwarebytes Pro and it's up to date. And the original Reuters site is still working for me as of 30 seconds ago.

I am at work and probably it's our firewall doing it's blocking algorithm. My original posts were done from home.

[ebacon]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

Latest:

--- Winterkorn resigns.

--- The Green Party claims, that the German Government was informed about the manipulations. If this would be true, it would be MEGA COOL!

Harman,

What is the news regarding VW diesels in Germany? I heard that VW played the same trick on German regulators.

When I learned of this situation in the U.S. I gave the VW software development team the benefit of the doubt. I thought maybe they turned off emission control for a rare and challenging diesel condition. What that might be I cannot guess. I am not an expert in diesel combustion characteristics.

Instead it looks more like someone made a decision to flip the middle finger to regulatory effort. That behavior cannot be treated lightly. Billions in fines sounds reasonable in such a case.

What will be interesting is if VW engineers did not know of the software. That is possible with modern black-box treatment of suppliers. The guilty party might be sitting at Bosch, or Continental, or ?

Interesting problem for Germany. In the U.S. we have bigger problems IMO. We still have too many roads. Funding them is where we fight day-to-day.

I enjoy chatting with you.