Volkswagen is single-handedly killing the diesel reputation in the United States, because they lied to the American public, lied to the Environmental Protection Agency, and lied to advertisers about their “clean diesel” technology.
Diesel engines in consumer vehicles are pretty much dead, at least for the next few years. VW knowingly and willingly misrepresented their emissions reports since 2008 and only recently got caught.
Will the EPA force a recall? Will your local DMV force you to fix it? VW owners should be prepared for anything at this point.
VW owners in the United States are still waiting for official confirmation to a mass recall, which the company has set aside $7.3 billion to help recoup the damages to their brand.
VW is facing fines up to $18 billion for their intentional circumvention of emissions testing and Forbes estimates $40 billion in total brand damage.
One scenario is a full obligatory recall of all affected American TDI vehicles. The EPA and California Air Resources Board would flag the vehicle model in their system and for California drivers, you would be notified that your vehicle is part of a recall, which affects the emissions of your vehicle.
Once your vehicle has been outfitted with emissions compliant programming and hardware, your vehicle would pass, assuming it was in good working order previously.
This also will effect the power output of your car, which is more than enough to change the drive feel of any vehicle. If this is really the case, it’s going to further infuriate VW owners.
VW’s official Youtube channel had several playlists dedicated to the idea that diesel vehicles could be clean and fun, but most of those playlists have been deleted from their Youtube site which shows ‘removed by owner.’
Decisions of this magnitude,such as blatantly lying to the EPA, don’t come from the bottom up. They come from upper level corporate leaders telling their peon engineers to ‘make it work’.
VW has tried to claim ignorance on the matter, however after the truth was revealed it led to the resignation of their CEO.
With allegations of other car companies cheating on emissions, it’s hard to say how far all of this goes. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that VW is a lone entity in cheating the EPA in emissions tests.
The EPA depends on automakers to test their own cars and submit data to them, I can’t imagine all of those records are absolutely flawless, or even honest.
Don’t be surprised if we see a complete overhaul to emissions regulations in the next few years over this.
VW will soldier on and lean on its luxury brands (like Audi, Porsche, and Lamborghini) for sustainability.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to VW owners when the time comes to sell your TDI, you may get a lot less it than you expected.
