Volkwagen Finally Pleads Guilty On 'Dieselgate' Charges (cnet.com) 115
Friday Volkswagen admitted in court that they'd committed fraud in their diesel emissions tests, also pleading guilty to falsifying statements and obstruction of justice. An anonymous reader quotes CNET:
It marks the first time VW admitted guilt in any court in the world, according to a VW spokesman speaking to Reuters. The judge overseeing the case in the U.S. District Court in Detroit accepted the plea and will issue a sentence at a hearing on April 21. "The agreements that we have reached with the US government reflect our determination to address misconduct that went against all of the values Volkswagen holds so dear," Volkswagen said in an emailed statement... The road to Dieselgate's conclusion still has plenty of pavement, though. The company is still under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Internal Revenue Service. And that's in the US alone.
"VW AG is pleading guilty to all three counts because it is guilty on all three counts," the company's general counsel told the judge. Reuters also reports that VW offered to buy back half a million vehicles just in America, and agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the U.S. to address claims from unhappy owners.
"VW AG is pleading guilty to all three counts because it is guilty on all three counts," the company's general counsel told the judge. Reuters also reports that VW offered to buy back half a million vehicles just in America, and agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the U.S. to address claims from unhappy owners.
Excessive reparations demands on Germans? (Score:2, Insightful)
We know how that turns out!
Re:A mystery (Score:4, Insightful)
American cars (except Ford) have barely any presence in Europe, because they are lower quality than most other cars. So I guess Americans buying VW's were looking for quality.
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This really saddens me too.
I used to avoid Ford like the plague because they were the American vehicle with quality issues while GM was the reliable one.
I know from my Saturn with a stick-shift that GM transmissions turned to crap, as did many other things from GM in the recent decade or two. Ford decided to stop building trash and stepped up their game. I now have a Ford Transit Connect outfitted for passenger as a family vehicle. We love it, we get lots of questions about it, lots of people tell us how
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American cars (except Ford) have barely any presence in Europe, because they are lower quality than most other cars. So I guess Americans buying VW's were looking for quality.
That makes very little sense because European cars are among the worst when it comes to reliability. Japanese tend to be the most reliable, with American second, and European third. Volvo, Volkswagen, and Fiat in particular all tend to be horrid.
It's not a quality thing. (Score:2)
That if, if anything only a small part of the issue.
American cars are built with the needs and desires of American customers, American roads, American gasoline and American parking spaces in mind.
Elsewhere in the world:
a) You don't drive a pickup truck to haul your tools and supplies if you're a small business, you drive a van or an actual small truck.
b) You want a car that fits into the local parking spaces. Which in most places are smaller than Am
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They are far less reliable than "Japanese" cars, and probably "American" cars.
You've clearly never owned an American car. Well actually that's not fair, no one ever owns an American car, they are more salves to its workshop needs.
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no one ever owns an American car, they are more salves to its workshop needs.
Axle grease.
I miss my 240SX like the desert needs the rain. That was truly one of the best cars ever made. I now have an Audi ABZ V8 just lying around that would love to go into a 240SX. It would be sad what it would do to the electronic reliability, but at least the rest of the car would still be simplicity incarnate.
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What I don't understand is why anyone in the US would buy a VW in the first place? They are far less reliable than "Japanese" cars, and probably "American" cars. Maybe German immigrants would buy them for patriotic reasons?
You're a troll.
I'm not German and I bought a brand new Golf 6 and 1/2 year ago. Maybe I'm just lucky but it's been ultra-reliable. It now has 64000 miles on it and the only thing I've had to fix was replacing the battery and the rear brakes this winter. Front brakes are due for a change maybe next year.
I think it was rated very highly for reliability at the time I bought it. It certainly was near the top and nowhere near lemon status like you suggest.
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Interesting, how'd you manage to wear out the rear brakes before the front?
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This is pretty standard on most European cars (and in fact true of all modern vehicles with traction control). The braking system is biased towards the rear brakes, which keeps the car from nose diving during hard braking. Also, in slippery conditions prior ABS/ESP kicking in, it allows the front wheels, which steer, to stay turning longer before locking up (and triggering ABS/traction control).
My VW typically goes through 3 sets of rear pads before I have to replace my fronts.
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Not traction control, yaw control. Traction control is when you're accelerating. But that can cause rear brake wear as well; on slippery surfaces vehicles often use the brakes to slow a spinning wheel.
For vehicles whose system is split diagonally instead of front/rear, they also may overapply the rear brakes if ABS isn't working correctly, because proportioning is handled in software.
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This is pretty standard on most European cars (and in fact true of all modern vehicles with traction control). The braking system is biased towards the rear brakes, which keeps the car from nose diving during hard braking. Also, in slippery conditions prior ABS/ESP kicking in, it allows the front wheels, which steer, to stay turning longer before locking up (and triggering ABS/traction control).
All of these conditions are a sign that it's time to ease up on the loud pedal. You should not be activating trac
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Interesting, how'd you manage to wear out the rear brakes before the front?
Are you kidding? Most cars have hugely different front and rear brake systems. They should wear out roughly equally but in many cases the front is far overspec'd. Hell it's quite common on the bottom end of the market to have discs at the front and drums at the rear. And drums don't last nearly as long.
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I'm sure there are lots of differing sources of opinions online, but this site [yourmechanic.com] lists VW just after all of the Japanese brands: So, there's a reason to choose VW over American -- build quality.
Why choose VW over the Japanese offerings? Because the Japanese are always about two years behind everyone else when it comes to incorporating new technology in their vehicles. And, they're boring. Just look at the Camry and Accord --
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If you need your car to bring excitement into your life, perhaps you're doing something wrong?
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If you need your car to bring excitement into your life, ...
... then you need to cut your brake lines. That'll solve your problem right quick.
Old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times.
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If you need your car to bring excitement into your life, perhaps you're doing something wrong?
Usually that something is commuting a long distance. I, for one, do like a car that is exciting to drive on a back road. But because I am getting older, I have a luxo-barge...
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Why choose VW over the Japanese offerings? Because the Japanese are always about two years behind everyone else when it comes to incorporating new technology in their vehicles. And, they're boring. Just look at the Camry and Accord -- how boring and bland can you get?
The logical conclusion if you were thinking about a VW is to buy a Nissan. It's one step better than VW in both of those areas. The styling is more inspiring than VW. That's not saying much, to be fair, but it's still true. In some cases it is saying a lot, like the Juke, although they've taken away some of its personality in the latest refresh. They are a little too enamored of CVTs, but the interesting Nissans are still available without it. I've also found Nissan to be extremely friendly to the garage re
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A lot of folks want to be different (Score:2)
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Yes. A fact that is generally universally accepted. I take it you have had a Japanese car and a bad experience with it? Pick 6 numbers between 0 and 42. I'll make sure never to play them in the Lottery.
Re: A mystery (Score:2)
Re: A mystery (Score:2)
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Re: A mystery (Score:2)
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I've had several Toyotas and they've been incredibly reliable. Took them in for a service twice a year, and nothing ever went wrong. Didn't even need to top up fluid levels in between.
All of the values Volkswagen holds so dear (Score:2)
"all of the values Volkswagen holds so dear"
Profits above everything else?
Everything is relative (Score:2)
1. Whether the penalty is "huge" can only be decided if we know how much VW profited from the deception.
2. They miscalculated the chance of being caught.
Re:All of the values Volkswagen holds so dear (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, the company VW might have admitted guilt . . . but the management, from the top down to the bottom have not. First, the CEO tried to blame it on "a couple of rogue programmers." Yeah, right.
Now all the managers are singing the Sergeant Schultz Schtick: "I know nuh-thing! Nuh-thing!" Again, some engineering manager must have known that something was amiss, and this could only be kept secret by an extensive company internal conspiracy.
The folks who will really suffer from this fiasco, besides the customers, are the simple assembly line workers, who have been or will be laid off. It's the top managers who really need to be torched for this.
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Well, we could also talk about the poor people who have to breath in the pretty toxic stew of emissions gasses that come out of a diesel engine.
Volkswagen apparently values fraud (Score:2)
I'd say things are pretty easy on VW considering what they should have had to produce for all of their customers (complete corresponding source code including build tools licensed under a free software license or, for the cars that never should have been sold in the first place, buy-back of the car at whatever price the person paid).
Management is eager to get this behind them in a way where people think it's over and done with, but there's no reason to trust any of the auto manufacturers involved in the con
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Slightly off-topic, but has anyone else seen the slew of ads by Samsung lately? They are trying to save face by advertising some 8-point battery inspection - while showing videos of a nail being driven through the battery and at least one heat test. The monologue is "we take your safety first which is why we blah blah blah". It's a blatant attempt to save face after the multi-billion dollar fiasco from last year.
I'm more surprised that VW finally admitted guilt after many years of fighting and pointing blam
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Re: Farfegnugen! (Score:2)
They're all guilty (Score:2)
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you're not going to audit the code in your car. you're not going to audit the code in your Instant Pot.
you want the code to be available to the community, so that others can get together and audit it.
and no carmaker is going to permit that unless compelled to, because the code is too critical.
so be focused on real accountability.
i see no VW execs nor engineers yet facing the possibility of real jail time.
Bosch, too (Score:1)
I'm not sure of the extent, but Bosch has reached a tentative settlement with the U.S. courts as well. As a Jetta diesel owner who accepted the buyback, I just received a postcard from the courts saying I'm automatically included in the Bosch settlement, unless I actively opt out. They'll be sending me a check for up to $350 once (if) the settlement is accepted by the courts. The hearing is on May 11.
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They'll be sending me a check for up to $350 once (if) the settlement is accepted by the courts. The hearing is on May 11.
Sounds like someone will be getting a coupon for 5 free pine tree air fresheners.
Good used market. (Score:2)
Hopefully this means there will be a really packed used market of ultra cheap Diesel VW's with patched firmware. The real problem here is the severity of the regulations, not the cars themselves. If passenger trucks were held to the same standard there wouldn't be a single redneck "rollin' coal" out there.
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The real problem here is the severity of the regulations, not the cars themselves. If passenger trucks were held to the same standard there wouldn't be a single redneck "rollin' coal" out there.
"Severity of the regulations" should be the banner of every whining industry that's been forced to clean up their act.
In this case, it's possible to be compliant but VW et al didn't want to implement a system that might have reduced performance or increase cost slightly.
So they chose to lie & cheat. Not the 1st to do this, won't be the last.
The US trucking industry is very proud that more than 1/3rd of medium & heavy commercial trucks are considered near-zero for particulate emissions, up from less
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i haven't seen that yet.
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That's a very good argument for much stricter regulations and enforcement on trucks. But it's a terrible argument for going lighter on cars.
And as I understand it, a software-patched VW diesel is thoroughly nerfed anyway; and will get neither the performance nor the mileage of the one using the Konami code.
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That would be a good thing. Just like people driving SUVs who have no need to, tons of people are driving gigantic trucks who have no need to.
I am not saying they shouldn't be able to, they should just pay more (for more road wear, more pollution, etc.,) and be held to the same standards as cars.
How'd VW plead guilty? (Score:2)
I don't suppose anyone who actually made/forced these decisions will be pleading guilty to anything? A pound of weed'll put you in jail for half a decade or more but I'm guessing these guys will just pay a token fine that's less than 1/3 what they made off the cheating.
Buyback of Cars (Score:1)
Well, I submitted my buyback in December and haven''t heard a word from Volkswagon on the issue.
On top of that, when I call about my car they consistently tell me my signed papers aren't in order, or my papers are blank, or my papers are not received from their settlement portal or they are notorized wrong...the excuses are endless, and of course all false.
It is starting to get sorta irritating and although I signed papers to not pursue further damages, I didn't sign papers with the intention they would lie
STOP USING "-GATE" (Score:1)
I refuse to comment on anything that uses that ridiculous suffix.
Values volkswagon holds dear (Score:1)
Look- it's clear from their behavior that volks wagon doesn't hold any values dear except making a profit.
They are an amoral, asocial corporation.
The instant their feet are not to the fire, they will return to being amoral and asocial.
Put the CEO and management in prison for 6 months.
THEN the volkswagon corporation may have concious because future CEO's and management will know they are personally at risk.
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"volkswagon" here, "volks wagon" there but still you managed to type THEN in all-caps. Function key assignment? Here's a suggestion: add another function key for VW.
Seriously, after "Volkwagon" in the article title, the powers that be don't need any further assistance.
Finally! (Score:2)
Typo in heading (Score:2)
Should have pulled out of the US market (Score:1)
Volkswagen should have told the American authorities to stick their fines wherever they like and pulled out of the US market completely. They may have bought it of at great cost this time, but sooner later the Americans will find or invent something else to steal billions again. Someone should send a message that it is time for them to repair their legal system and that agressive regulatory agencies functioning as a thinly-veiled protectionism tool scares away foreign investors and jobs. Playing along and h
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