What’s with the off-topic flag . . . ?
I felt the @jtsanders comment was ON-topic
@galant
If the gov’t wants them off the road badly enough, let them honor their own documents and fully reimburse each and every owner per the Takings Clause of the US Constitution. And a car that’s “so polluting” that NOBODY had a problem with it until AFTER the cat was out of the bag…
It seems like it would be unfair to ask the US taxpayer to pay for an ill-advised VW corporate decision.
Hey, I didn’t write the Constitution! Hopefully, the Green Crusaders would lose their drive once they realized they would be on the hook for the costs. Besides, then the gov’t could “subrogate” these costs back on VW.
And a car that's "so polluting" that NOBODY had a problem with it until AFTER the cat was out of the bag...
That’s because no one knew how polluting it was. I don’t know about you, but I don’t happen to own air quality testing equipment. By the time my body is feeling the effects of the pollution - it’s too late.
If it was as filthy as people are claiming, a Mk.1 nose would be sufficient, or an eyeball to see the billowing soot. The fact that the nose and eye are fooled, tells us the TDI really wasn’t all THAT bad, after all…
NOx is invisible, no odor, but harmful. No ‘nose’ would detect the VW problem. And the government isn’t ‘taking’ anything - it’s forcing VW to compensate the owners for all the problems VW caused. I see no problem there, they broke the laws.
If it was as filthy as people are claiming, a Mk.1 nose would be sufficient, or an eyeball to see the billowing soot.
Bull…Air pollution can be very very very difficult to detect. Sure there are times you can see it…bit doesn’t mean that if you don’t see it that it’s fine.
European cities have some major pollution problems from Diesel engines. They have many more diesel vehicles then we do. You can’t see it…the particles are far less then the width of a human hair. But health agencies are seeing rises in pollution related health problems.
@meanjoe75fan I think I tend to agree more with others that have responded here. VW has cheated, the owners did not know this UNTIL now. It is not reasonable to expect the US government to pick up the tab (hell, even the Germans are distancing themselves from this saga).
Now, if you are okay with breathing polluted air, nobody can stop you. For the rest of us, we prefer to have the air a bit cleaner-within reason.
There is a lot of medical literature on the damaging effects of diesel & other pollutants. From childhood asthma to lung cancer. One scary one; for the 1st hour after being in traffic/in a car, the risk of heart attack is much higher for the hour after that.
“What’s with the off-topic flag ? I felt the @jtsanders comment was ON-topic.”
I agree. I don’t think that his comment was at all “off topic”.
Maybe the complainer doesn’t like the struck-out word “bribe”. In any case, this is one time that I Ctu ally did post a germane comment. Maybe it’s a reminder that virtue is its own reward.
BTW, thanks for pointing that out. I rarely check the ratings for my comments or those of others. I’m here to have fun in my own way and it bothers others, then tough darts. I don’t curse and don’t write antagonistic posts.
Well, in all fairness, it’s pretty easy to accidentally assign -rep at this site when navigating on a smart phone. I actually got into a bit of a discussion, and it all turned out to be due to an errant ‘click’ when thumbing through the replies.
Anyone offered 5 grand should be dancing in the streets over it. One thing I take issue with is that VW gets a mountain of bad PR over this and VW is not the only car maker to ever set foot in territory like this. Honda and others have done the exact same thing; at times more than once.
Another thing I take issue with is that the lowly mechanic can face criminal charges along with being arrested, fined, and even imprisoned for violating emissions on a single car but in the corporate world emissions can be violated on countless thousands of vehicles with nothing more than a civil fine paid for by the company.
Someone local was talking about this recently and how rotten VW is for this incident. I was met with silence when I asked how much dirtier that diesel is compared to the 2-stroke chainsaws and Weedeaters they use for landscaping.
The VW diesel-engine cars that aren’t meeting emissions standards in the USA , they aren’t totally without value. For the most part they aren’t very old, and all of their parts are likely perfectly functional. To aid VW in the transition away from their mistake, some kind of arrangement could be made I think by the US gov’t to allow VW to re-use those parts in newly manufactured cars which actually do meet emissions standards. Something to consider anyway, provided the re-used parts meet the new-car spec tolerances of course. And as posted above, it may be possible to ship many of those US cars not meeting emissions standards to other locations in the world. There’s lots of variables to play with, no need for US owners to get the raw end of the deal, and neither is there a reason VW should be driven by the cost factor completely out of business. The CEO and top executive – well, imo they should take a bit of a financial bruising that will sting their wallet for quite some time.
That will NEVER happen
I might be wrong, but I think it’s illegal to install used parts on new vehicles, and still label them as new
I doubt any part of the US government would allow such an arrangement
And I as a consumer would never consider buying a new car, if I knew that used components were installed
The only way for the consumer to NOT get a raw deal is to take the $5000 offered AND get the “authorized” repair, which will likely lower power AND fuel economy. At least the car will then be in compliance, and the owner can think about selling or trading in
I believe this incident is not enough to drive VW out of business, not even out of the US market. But it will take them some time to recover. And that’s the way it should be
@George_San_Jose But, there’s no reason to do that, seeing as the Feds (and most states) are perfectly fine with the owners driving their cars, for as long as they may last. Just “game on!”
Very true @meanjoe75fan . If the Feds are ok with the emissions levels , no need for VW to do anything about re-purposing the existing US diesel-equipped cars.
If anything, I’d expect the used VWs that get repurchased to be shipped to countries where they meet the regs. Or be repaired and sold once they meet specs (if any repair is ever developed, none yet). Or be scrapped. No other option, is there?
Many vehicles that get bought back by “the factory” are eventually repaired and put on the used car lot
I believe they have to be labeled as being bought back and repaired. Every once in awhile I’d see such a car on a dealer’s used car lot
The deals are usually quite good for such a vehicle . . .
@jtsanders, I took out the off-topic flag.