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Volkswagen 'Dieselgate' Software Developed At Audi In 1999, Says Report (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader cites a report on Reuters: German carmaker Audi created so-called defeat devices which cut emissions in 1999, years before parent company Volkswagen used them to cheat diesel emissions tests, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday. VW, Europe's largest automaker, admitted in September it had manipulated the engines of around 11 million diesel cars, including its VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat brands. Engineers at Audi developed software capable of turning off certain engine functions in 1999, but it was never used by the VW luxury division, the newspaper said in an advance release of an article due to be published on Wednesday, which cited industry and company sources. Six years later, when VW engineers at the firm's Wolfsburg headquarters were unable to bring nitrogen oxide emissions below legal thresholds, they started to install the software developed by Audi, Handelsblatt said.
Agreed. Cars were advertised and sold as:
1. Performance: X
2. Mileage: Y MPG
3. Emissions: Meets General US and California specific emissions.
Right now, we have 1 and 2, but not 3. After the fix, it will have 3, but most likely neither 1 nor 2.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Tell me where you live and I'll dump some NO2 under your front door.
Sounds like you either haven't owned a well built car or you suck at maintenance.
I own Audi's flagship from 1997, the A8 Quattro. The sticker says that as delivered (with warm and cold packages and 17" forged wheels) it MSRP'd at $69,000 even. With inflation, that's $102,374.50 in today's money. You would hope a car like that would be built to last, but it is not. They gave the transmission a lifetime service interval when it really needs a fluid change (which can only happen from the bottom with the vehicle perfectly flat and level) every 50k. The climate control foam gets sticky when the vehicle is parked in the sun and this can lead to destruction of the climate control servos... $130 each. The servos are connected to the flaps by little nylon-looking plastic widgets which appear to be designed to self-disintegrate. Broke one of them and had to replace it... can't buy it by itself. Like all modern vehicles, suspension link ball joints are pressed in and cannot be replaced, so the whole suspension arm has to be replaced. But TRW (who made the OE parts) is now making parts in China and they are garbage. Sadly, all the competing parts are also made in China, and also garbage. The rear sun screens always fail eventually, little plastic clips in them break. Someone has invented somewhat expensive aluminum replacements. The ABS pump module is mounted in a shit location where the connector can catch water. The fuel pumps fail reliably and are a motherbitch to replace. Evap systems are starting to leak now across the line. Many people have had plastic fuel tanks crack. The plastic sheath for the headrest motor cable expands over time (thermal cycling?) and pulls the cable out. You have to disassemble the seat back, remove the cable, remove its sheath, and shorten it, then reassemble... still stupid. The lumbar bladders reliably fail, too. These are Recaro seats so they're not exactly cheap parts-wise. The ignition coils (it's coil-on-plug) use intermediate drivers which fail somewhat reliably. There is a plastic pipe that carries coolant between the block and the block-mounted oil cooler, which WILL crack and spew. An aftermarket aluminum replacement is about the same price as another shitty plastic pipe from Audi.
This is a flagship, it is the best that Audi could do in 1997, and it still has numerous failures which could have been avoided with adequate design. Don't get it twisted. Cars are crap.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"