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The VW Number: 475,000 Vehicles Can't Be Certified To Original Legal Limit

3K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  Neanderthal 
#1 ·
The Wall Street Journal
August 26, 2016

VW Fixes For Diesel Cars Will Fall Short

By Sara Randazzo, Aruna Viswanatha and William Boston

Most of Volkswagen AG’s diesel-powered vehicles on U.S. roads can’t be retrofitted to fully comply with air-pollution regulations, though its larger vehicles likely can, an attorney for the company said Thursday. Robert Giuffra also told a U.S. court that Volkswagen is close to offering regulators a fix for the larger vehicles, which he said have better emissions controls than the roughly 475,000 2-liter vehicles covered by a $15 billion settlement reached in June.

“We weren’t able to fix the 2-liter cars to the standards to which they were originally certified,” Mr. Giuffra told a San Francisco judge.

Under the June deal with regulators and consumers, drivers of 2-liter vehicles such as Jettas, Passats and other cars dating to the 2009 model year will receive compensation and have a choice between selling back their cars or accepting a repair. Larger vehicles with 3-liter engines weren’t part of the earlier offer. Volkswagen likely will conduct a recall on those vehicles.

In the proposed agreement for the smaller cars, regulators at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board accepted that the vehicles—which emit up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides—won’t meet the standards to which they originally were certified. CARB estimates that a fix will lower excess emissions by between 80% and 90%.

Nearly a year ago Volkswagen acknowledged it installed devices in some 11 million diesel vehicles world-wide that enabled the cars to cheat emissions tests.

Mr. Giuffra said for some 3-liter vehicles, the fix could be as simple as a half-hour software update. Others, especially earlier models, will involve upgrades to catalytic converters, sensors, and other steps. “We are literally talking about 2 million lines of code,” he told the court.
 
#2 ·
Most of Volkswagen AG’s diesel-powered vehicles on U.S. roads can’t be retrofitted to fully comply with air-pollution regulations
VW will probably buy back 475,000 2.0L diesel vehicles. That simply blows my mind. This has kept my interest for almost one year, and time after time after time, as the details continue to come out, I am simply left wondering how this could have happened.

The lights were on in Wolfsburg, but it is inherently apparent; that no one was home. At least the students at the Harvard Business School will have something to study for the next few decades.

And seriously, after seeing VW's new crossover (google: VW Teramont), I am really starting to wonder how this company will survive here in North America.


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#3 ·
Most baffling of all is that VW planned and executed this fiasco not that long after seven HD diesel engine manufacturers entered into a $1 billion consent decree settlement with EPA and CARB for using a defeat device strategy that improved HD truck fuel consumption at the expense of higher NOx emissions. How VW could ever imagine that this wouldn't be found is mind-boggling! They were playing Russian roulette solo with five rounds in a six shooter.
 
#5 ·
kRIKEY! I imagine some of the criminal-genius meetings would qualify for Worlds Dumbest episodes.
 
#10 ·
... I cant believe they had the balls to think they would get away with this ...
Ditto. Everyone at one time or another in their life has encountered one of those complete sleazeball people that will bald-face lie right to your face in a way that is just incredible. (A guy named Bill Clinton comes to mind.) It's just beyond insulting to think they have so much disdain for our intelligence to know the truth.

If the CARB/EPA arrangement with VW doesn't include a full tracking of these vehicles to the crusher and they do indeed end up in some third-world country, then it's pure hypocrisy on CARB/EPA's part.
 
#11 ·
^I wouldn't be surprised to see something like that happening considering the current state of affairs at most agencies of the fed. gov't. The sad part is the total lack of interest from the general public and mainstream media to get the real truth to a lot of these goings on and follow through with the story to it's end and it's resolution.
 
#15 ·
EPA has authority that they could use to limit VWs options. The certification that is required from manufacturers is complete when EPA issues a Certificate of Conformity, meaning the certified vehicles in the Test Group conform in all respects to the regulations. This Certificate is required before the manufacturer can introduce the vehicles into commerce, in the context of shipping them from the assembly plant or port of entry. VW's current troubles are the result of the vehicles they built not conforming to the description they provided in the Certification Application...VW did not disclose the defeat device strategy so the vehicles they built are legally uncertified and entered commerce illegally.

If VW tries to ship these vehicles out of the USA that act could be deemed as a separate introduction to commerce and a second violation of Clean Air Act provisions, opening VW to a second round of penalties. My experience working with EPA and CARB is that they will aggressively prevent reshipment and require either an approved repair or scrapping with allowance to reuse non emissions related parts (for example sheet metal).
 
#16 ·
VW should tell EPA to kiss it and tie them up in court for the next 10 years. It would be worth it.

Of course, if they hadn't done something this idiotic in the first place...:fall:
 
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#22 ·
I believe that was before they determined they could not fix 475xxx cars. A guy I work with has one of them and he was to get like $7k plus a fix. Something tells me this will change things up a bit for the 2.0 vehicles and how much they will get back could be even more now.
 
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