Fun as it is always is to have a good laugh at the Germans expense, I have a certain amount of sympathy for VW and all of the other car firms caught up in this diesel emissions scandal.
Amid all the noise about test cheating and defeat devices, I haven't heard one single criticism of the government authorities that set what are very likely unrealistic, unachievable, arbitrary and often contradictory emissions limits. If these people were solid, down to earth, pragmatic, technically educated policy makers looking to find a reasonable balance between the future environment (which IS important), public health and cost then I might be less willing to criticise but they aren't. As often as not, these people are noisy, populist, here-today-gone-tomorrow, political hacks with an axe to grind.
It creates a potentially destructive 'power without responsibility' thing. They set a target without any responsibility whatsoever for achieving that target. They also abdicate any responsibility for how much these systems might add to the cost of vehicles because the one thing they can't/won't do is force people to buy more expensive cars. Nor do they care if, as a result of their actions, they put a car firm (usually one of the lesser laggards) out of business (like Mitsubishi). Given this scenario, is it any wonder that OEMs resorted to 'alternative means' to square an impossible circle.
Amid all the noise about test cheating and defeat devices, I haven't heard one single criticism of the government authorities that set what are very likely unrealistic, unachievable, arbitrary and often contradictory emissions limits. If these people were solid, down to earth, pragmatic, technically educated policy makers looking to find a reasonable balance between the future environment (which IS important), public health and cost then I might be less willing to criticise but they aren't. As often as not, these people are noisy, populist, here-today-gone-tomorrow, political hacks with an axe to grind.
It creates a potentially destructive 'power without responsibility' thing. They set a target without any responsibility whatsoever for achieving that target. They also abdicate any responsibility for how much these systems might add to the cost of vehicles because the one thing they can't/won't do is force people to buy more expensive cars. Nor do they care if, as a result of their actions, they put a car firm (usually one of the lesser laggards) out of business (like Mitsubishi). Given this scenario, is it any wonder that OEMs resorted to 'alternative means' to square an impossible circle.
