So does the 2014-2015 Passat and its dinged in this.
Germany and the UK have also indicated they are going to investigate the issue.
So you are proposing that VW reneges on whatever EPA fine is levied upon them for blatant and purposeful fraud, liquidates their entire US asset base at a huge loss, violates their contracts with all US dealers, abandons all warranty and customer support for millions of customers, fires all their employees associated with US operations, and terminates all business potential in the world’s biggest single country economy? Sounds like a good plan (?).
Haha yea ohai imagine if they did that. Plus the US could freeze their assets I assume. Not to mention why would anyone in the world spend a dime on a vehicle from a company that has shown a willingness to screw you over if it becomes to financially costly for them. Bankruptcy is one thing, willingly defaulting and exiting a market is another.
This will be a very interesting case study going forward. A chance for another industry besides Oil & Finance to get the hammer dropped on them. There HAS to be some criminal convictions coming out of this.
^ Don’t forget the plants in Mexico and South America that at least partially serve the US market.
How long before a class action civil suit is filed on behalf of buyers of affected vehicles?
Sunk cost, just walk away. 
I assume the buyers would have standing to sue them right now based on this yes? They had been conned into the belief they bought a car that wasn’t choking our atmosphere. I can imagine the vultures are circling above VW right now.
Yes. More so, there is a case for misrepresentation if (as higgmond points out) VW detunes the engines to meet the EPA guidelines. If that is the case, then the cars most likely will not meet the fuel economy or performance metrics with which they were marketed.
As far as I know, VW does not advertise that the diesels specifically emit some low level of nitrous oxides, so I don’t know how this would specifically be addressed in court. I suppose some argument could be made about the product being defective due to non-compliance with US laws.
They are marketed as clean diesel and I think it is fair for any consumer to assume the car they are buying is in compliance with current regulations, so I don’t see any out for them there.
i’m surprised on 1 thing, all the millions of VW’s in the US still pass the EPA and state by state inspection tests year/year, so they’re obv street legal. And I’m sure the car enthusiast magazines run their own performance tests, so performance can’t be that crummy.
So are we basically arguing teh VW’s are just more polluting than advertised, but still within legal realms?
^ I’m under the assumption that the car is detecting its being tested and then runs the lower emissions engine programming. But I could be wrong, as I had the same thought you had initially.
Well first of all, non of the affected Volkswagen cars are six years old, so they probably have not undergone any smog checks yet.
But in any case, the most likely reason that a cheating vehicle would pass smog checks is that it applies the same software when undergoing smog checks as it does for the initial EPA test.
Performance of the cheating diesel cars might be affected only if Volkswagen alters the cars to make them compliant with EPA regulations. This has not been done yet.
There is zero question that the level of pollutants emitted by the cars exceeds legal limits in the US.
The impression I got was that the car can detect when the inspector plugs into the onboard computer and the car automatically switches to test mode. I’m assuming all states have gone to computer-based emissions testing, which is why I was wondering if states might consider switching back to tailpipe testing.
ah I see. damn.
yea that’s go to jail awful. no way that’s an honest mistake…
true - isn’t it up to each individual state to control this
No, I wasn’t short, this is outside my cap range.
No one goes to jail either, let’s try to be serious for a minute. There are probably at least a few hundred public companies that exist so insiders can bilk the public and I have yet to see anyone go to jail that I can recall. If you just cover yourself with generic disclosures in the risk section you are golden. “Hey, we told you it was a risk…” VW is not one of these companies which makes this more surprising but I’ll still take the under on anyone going to jail.
I hope Shkreli goes to jail though, that kid is a doooooooouche.
In 2014, the EPA charged 187 individuals with crimes and sent them to prison for 155 years combined. That is in addition to company and individual fines.
Were any of them public company executives though? You can basically steal money if you are a public exec and never go to jail as long as its disclosed. Non-execs are still accountable though, which I think is your point. But still though, 187/155, big prison time eh? Try harder EPA.
That’s effing ballsy of VW to think they could get away with it. Also, I chalk much of this up to the Obama Administration’s propensity to make an example out of yet another non-US company that can only barely fight back.