VW Officials Knew Since Last Year of Misleading Fuel Economy Claims (reuters.com)

It's not just CO2 levels that Volkswagen manipulated; according to a wire story, Volkswagen officials knew at least a year ago that some of the company's officially-reported fuel-efficiency claims were overstated. From the linked article: Volkswagen's top executives knew a year ago that some of the company's cars were markedly less fuel efficient than had been officially stated, Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag reported, without specifying its sources. ... Months after becoming aware of excessive fuel consumption, former Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn decided this spring to pull one model off the market where the discrepancy was particularly pronounced, the Polo TDI BlueMotion, the paper cited sources close to Winterkorn as saying.

Comments

Of course they did.

[Bovius]

News flash: companies are trying to sell you things, and most companies will lie as much as they can without losing face or legal reprisal to get you to buy their things.

I'm still glad the story is posted, but it's not even remotely surprising.

Re:Of course they did.

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

News flash: companies are trying to sell you things, and most companies will lie as much as they can without losing face or legal reprisal to get you to buy their things. I'm still glad the story is posted, but it's not even remotely surprising.

Except that this is a German company, partly state owned, with German government representatives and workers participating in its management.

It's the kind of model that Democrats and Sanders advocate as a better way of running the economy. Reflect on that.

Re: Of course they did.

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

VW is highly successful, not just in turning a profit

Their stock price basically just follows the DOW; not exactly a stellar performer. And that's with strong political support, subsidies, and protectionism.

but in managing a company that benefits its workers and the general area where they manufacture

Yes, auto workers in Germany are a special interest group with lots of political clout. Unfortunately, other Germans are paying the price for that. And, of course, all those people who spend day in and day out screwing back seats into cars aren't doing anything more interesting, like building the Internet. I can't figure out why people think that we should have more car manufacturing in the US.

Apparently, the ideal progressive vision of the future of the US is a nation of Ph.D.'s (free education!) working on factory assembly lines (in their defense, I suppose, that's really all a social science or journalism degree is good for).

I am aware that VW do manufacturing outside of Germany but this is additional manufacturing, not instead of.

GM is the second largest employer of factory workers in the US (after Ford), and that's despite their US sales numbers having dropped in half over the last decade. Apparently, a lot of GM's cars are for export. So, I'm not sure in what sense your statement of "additional" vs "instead of" would be true.

"Incorrect" MPG numbers

[Will_Malverson]

In the United States, it is illegal for a car manufacturer to advertise any fuel efficiency number other than the one determined by the EPA.

Even running an ad campaign to the effect of "Hey, the EPA says that this car gets 45 MPG, but our testing says it's more like 42. Just thought you should know." would be a crime.

Re:thats strange

[Tailhook]

Everyone you know who has a VW TDI has groupthink inflated MPG. They all get 70 MPG uphill both directions in a headwind and they prattle on about it to anyone that will listen.

Or they use to. Then they found out they are operating a public heath hazard and have become much quieter. Which has been nice.

It only cost GM $11 million so VW did it too

[dbIII]

GM got caught out doing something similar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
They were fined $11 million but probably saved a vast amount more than that by conducting that fraud.

If you look at things in terms of unfettered entirely amoral capitalism Volkswagen had a duty to their shareholders to carry out the same sort of fraud since the financial benefits looked as if they would vastly exceed the penalty for getting caught.

As for reputation - who remembers GM doing this? In a few years time will we still remember this current fraud and jokingly call them FalseVagen?

These frauds are going to keep on occurring unless there is some sort of incentive to convince the people involved to stop. We've seen in China how far these things can go with poison in milk to pass a regulatory test.

Re:It only cost GM $11 million so VW did it too

[phantomfive]

As for reputation - who remembers GM doing this?

Let's be honest though, GM is remembered for a lot of bad things....

Re:It only cost GM $11 million so VW did it too

[AK Marc]

GM settled for $11M. They didn't actually get fined in a judgement against them, it was a settlement. Nobody knows what would have happened. Part of the settlement was civil indemnity, so it was more like a bribe than a fine. A $45M bribe to make the whole thing go away. And few today remember it, and have to be reminded of it. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

So yeah, the "cost" to GM for the whole scandal was less than $100 per car. Sell a car fraudulently, pay the government $100, and be indemnified from all civil actions due to your fraud. Not a bad deal.