Heads are Rolling at VW

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Jetronic
yes, but why should the EPA accuse any company publicly before that company gets a chance to rectify or explain any discrepancies?

We certainly cannot say there wasn't plenty of time.

 

[spackard]

Number in Europe is 2.8 million diesel engines, as reported in Autoweek, via Reuters. "A far greater number of cars in Europe have the emissions-cheating software, the German transport minister announced on Friday."

 

[Jetronic]

2.8million was the number in germany alone, I beieve.... with 11 million in all of europe.

and now audi aswell, with 2.1 million cars so far.

Just waiting for confirmation Skoda and Seat are also implicated

 

[KrisZ]

It's about time the top heads rolled. If one takes all the responsibility and praise for their subordinate's successes, one must take the responsibility and shame for their subordinate's failures.

 

[demarpaint]

What amazes me is did they really think they were going to get away with it? If so that was very stupid. Heads should roll.....

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Getting fired is not enough. The execs who ordered up the stealth defeat software need to see the inside of Leavenworth Federal pen. And in the federal court system, ten years means ten years. Not five years and five years of parole.

 

[Jetronic]

Winterkorn is under investigation from german justice now...

 

[Benito]

The news coming out for VW group gets worse.

It now appears this was widespread and happened in all brands. R&D heads have been suspended.

At worse this was all sanctioned from the top. Even if it wasn't done so directly, I wouldn't be surprised if the underlying cause is that VW's leaders were so intent on becoming the biggest car manufacturer in the world, they created the target and then the pressure on the engineers to come up with clean, powerful and efficient diesel engines and that failure was not an option.

 

[Benito]

Originally Posted By: Jetronic
Winterkorn is under investigation from german justice now...


Wonder if it will affect his $67 million golden parachute.

 

[Jetronic]

if he's found to be not guilty, he'll get more money from VW

 

[hattaresguy]

The kicker here is once they reflash the cars their mileage will probably go down.

Since chances are good a lot of them won't meet the stated mileage on the window sticker they are now open for more litigation.

This is going to be a very costly problem.

 

[Benito]

I'm also wondering if dealers will sue for loss of business.

 

[lubricatosaurus]

Odd, this is like when Lance Armstrong won 7 Tour de Frances, then was caught cheating, and VW-Audi did 7 cheating model years.
The type of lawsuits is even similar. All who marketed, sold, or relied on Lance Armstrong's (or VW-Audi's) reputation to build a "connected" business suffers. Of course VW-Audi customers are pretty peeved too, and Lance's products he promoted like sports food snacks, which I ate, were all eaten under false pretenses!!!! I should sue Lance for all those Honey Stinger Waffles I ate because of him!
Actually, those Stinger Waffles did cause more pollution out the tailpipe, if you know what I mean, so another eerie similarity.....

 

[lubricatosaurus]

Originally Posted By: Benito
I'm also wondering if dealers will sue for loss of business.


I'm not sure there is precedent for that. Consumers may be out of luck for their drop in resale value, according to this precedent spelled out below:
"Class actions suits may recover some of that, but it’s not likely. In 1987, for example, Suzuki Samurai was a popular small on- and off-road vehicle selling at a premium to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price because of its popularity. When it was found to have an unsafe potential for rollover, resale value plummeted as much as 30% (I know, I had one!). While class action suits sought to recover the owner value of $2,000 to $3,500, courts ultimately rejected class action claims to recover those consumer losses."
http://fortune.com/2015/09/28/volkswagen-emissions-scandal-consumer-costs/

Interesting civil suit law though. As in, if McDonalds messes up and ruins their own reputation, affecting all the privately owned-run franchises, can the franchisees sue? Maybe there is something in the car dealer franchise contracts that limits or zeros out liability for future business. ????

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

The irony here is that it is Murican culture that brings the cancer of succeed at any cost into the European business culture which was not practiced prior to WWII. (excluding the UK)

Once you do the deal with the devil (going public) with the stock market you end up with this type of mentality.

 

[cjcride]

I read a story a while back that stated the emission regulations were too strict on auto manufactures. I'm not with the VW idea to cheat, yet if the standards are too tough for manufacturers then you get these types of 'cheat codes'.

VW should and will pay for this stupidity.

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: GiveMeAVowel
The irony here is that it is Murican culture that brings the cancer of succeed at any cost into the European business culture which was not practiced prior to WWII. (excluding the UK)

Once you do the deal with the devil (going public) with the stock market you end up with this type of mentality.


This would be an irony were it only true.
European business is every bit as cutthroat as that in the US.
The long-running feud between Winterkorn and the Piech family for control of VW demonstrates this.
The desire to wring profits wherever possible was a feature of European political economy long before the American Republic was born.
Why do you suppose that Britain, France, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands spent so much money and effort building colonial empires?
I'll give you a clue.
It wasn't to share enlightenment with the heathen.
It was to make money.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Benito
I'm also wondering if dealers will sue for loss of business.

The ironic thing would be that if a CEL code were thrown for an emissions device, it would probably have been replaced under warranty, virtually unused.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: GiveMeAVowel
Once you do the deal with the devil (going public) with the stock market you end up with this type of mentality.

We don't agree on a lot, but on this, I suspect we do. Corporations want a bunch of money from the general public as investors, then a lot of what made the company special at the outset is lost. The boss - as in the CEO - no longer has much interest in his company besides his job. Of course, this is when we're looking at companies without a majority shareholder. There still are publicly traded companies that are a bit different.

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27

This would be an irony were it only true.
European business is every bit as cutthroat as that in the US.
The long-running feud between Winterkorn and the Piech family for control of VW demonstrates this.





No, it wasn't at least during modern Europe until after WWII.
Worst thing that ever happened to Europe was the Muricans
bringing their "culture" to the Old World. That comes from
a born and raised Murican. We are seeing the fruits of that
import as we speak, from extremely corrupt business practices, to
multiKult, the destruction of the nation, and the dismissal of REAL culture and heritage, and many other disgusting things.

It honestly makes me sick to my stomach.