… From VW. At least they claim to have done it with minor modifications to their offending diesel vehicles. The fix involves reprogramming the emissions system and adding a larger catalytic converter. The EPA/NHTSA hasn’t weighed in on it yet. If it works, it would save VW a whole lot of the estimated $15 billion the fix was supposed to cost. I guess we will find out in the next week or two if the government will go along with it. I’m skeptical; anyone else have an opinion?
I suspect that their fix is correct. Too many people/organizations watching this.
The big question is will it happen again by either VW or someone else.
Well, I’m glad the world is safe again. What next? Takata air bags?
Meanwhile, I’m stuck behind this pickup truck with a smoke belching stack in the bed, I find it necessary to get around him just so I don’t have to breath that black cloud of diesel smoke only to get stuck behind a couple of Harley’s that the owners have jetted so rich that you can smell the exhaust when you’re behind them.
My Toyota dealer tells me that my Takata airbag will be replaced by September. The program is well underway and moving from East to West.
My 07 Mustang has had the Takata inflator replaced… Twice! My recent acquisition of a 13 Mustang has not had its inflator replaced even once. The recall is out but the parts are not yet available. Maybe they figure corrosion is not so bad on 13’s so it’s farther down the list to be replaced.
I can hardly imagine how hard a fast the assembly lines are running at Takata.
I think this will fix VW’s problems… Agree with Mike, way too public to offer a bogus fix.
I just got the interim recall notice for the passenger side airbag for my Toyota. Until the fix is available, Toyota advises not to carry a passenger.
My plan is to not have a wreck.
B.L.E., you’ve touched on a point that I’ve long commented on. The family man with his sedan is being pummeled to death with emissions mandates while truckers, get a pass. You referred to a smoke-belching pickup, but at least he’s only operating a few hours a day. The roads are cluttered with huge smoke-belching dump trucks and other large truck pouring out far more crap and doing so eight, twelve, sometimes sixteen hours a day continuously. A single such truck pushes out many thousands of times the crap that any VW Jetta ever could.
I don’t think the fix will save VW much money. They still have to pay the extra money to each owner and buy back any cars the owners don’t want to keep.
I bet a lot of the owners will still want to keep their cars, and leave the emission issues unfixed as well if it means somewhat lower performance or economy.
Well, it was President Reagan who told us that diesel engines emit so little pollution that they contaminate the air less than trees do. The head of The Sierra Club then offered to lock himself in a room with a tree if the POTUS would lock himself in a room with a running diesel engine.
Apparently Ronnie declined the offer, but the reality is that there has been a long-standing willingness to ignore diesel pollution from big trucks, and it seems that this willingness to ignore isn’t going away anytime soon. I think you can probably credit a bunch of lobbyists who are lining the pockets of Congressmen and Senators for the continuance of this situation.
Big Trucks are carrying groceries and products that people need to live comfortably and economically, too.
Not all car drivers are on the road out of necessity. Most of my trips are to play golf or go bike riding, pull boat trailers, etcetera. I should be polluting less.
It’s not like we aren’t doing anything to address vehicle pollution. It needs to continue to be a slow, gradual evolution process, not some overnight change.
Where does the targeting of different vehicles and pollution generating machinery (and the people who operate them) end?
My neighbor cuts his large lawn twice as frequently as I cut mine. His automatic sprinklers run even during a soaking rain.
I don’t have AC in house, don’t want it. I can survive and I’m conditioned to sweat from all my exercise. Think of all the people (my friends, relatives, and neighbors, included) that run AC for months every year.
I don’t want a government intruding on all aspects of our lives.
I’ve said before that if we want real progress toward reducing pollution that we can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar…
… incentivize people to reduce pollution, rather than spy on them, hunt them down, make criminals of them and fine and penalize them.
CSA
After the fix the VW diesel still won’t meet EPA standards.
It also may not bring the cars fully back into compliance with the allowable emissions levels that applied at the time. Under the Volkswagen Group’s June 28 proposed settlement, any proposed solution doesn’t necessarily need to meet previous emissions targets. It merely has to come close enough that Volkswagen can atone for the differences through payments that would finance other environmental reparations.
The idea that diesel engines in commercial vehicles are still getting a pass is not exactly true
That may have been the case for a long time, but no longer
Our fleet has had to spend ungodly amounts of money in the last few years, to keep our trucks compliant
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Yes, Tier 5 emission standards are pretty tough and truck manufacturers have voiced their opinion on this.
Nevertheless there are many older trucks still on the roads and they cannot retrofitted. The owners are advised to keep then in good tune.
You’re right, db, commercial trucks are finally beginning to be addressed. 46 years after the EPA began cracking down on cars. 
In those years, trucks have always pumped thousands of times the crap into the air than any passenger car ever did. And, as doc pointed out, there are still countless thousands of local trucks (dumptrucks etc.) dumping many thousands of time the crap into the air that are “grandfathered”.
They definitely received a “pass” for a long time . . . meaning sky high levels of soot were allowable
And then, just a few years ago, almost from one day to the next, it seemed as if “somebody” snapped their fingers and said “Starting tomorrow we’re going to impose strict emissions standards on commercial diesel engines. And manufacturers will have to figure out a way to comply”
I feel it should have been implemented gradually, over the years, as has generally been the case with your average passenger car or light truck
The smog belching old beaters driven by sanctimonious old hippies are just as “grandfathered”.
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I am surprised that you are still waiting for the airbag inflator replacement. Parts have been available for several months but in limited quantities. Dealers normally reserve limited inventory for regular customers but if only you still had your Long lost Magliozzi brother badge you could be moved to the top of the list.
True, B.L.E., but the new cars weren’t… and the new diesel trucks were. For over 40 years trucks drove on unaddressed while the average man’s car kept getting hammered. Compound that by the fact that I drive my little 4-banger putting a few molecules of unwanted emissions perhaps two hours a day and these trucks were/are dumping enormous quantities of NOx, CO, carbon, and unburned HC into the air continuously nonstop for eight to sixteen hours continuously, sometimes seven days a week. I’d bet that if you compared the average driver’s family car contribution to the average dumptruck’s contribution you’d find that the dump truck was putting many tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, the amount that the car was contributing over the course of a week. Yet they went on for decades totally uncontrolled while the car owner got continually hammer with tighter and tighter restrictions.
It’s all about political influence. And the average man like myself has none. 
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Heavy duty diesel emissions standards have progressively tightened over the last thirty years, I have to wonder how the east coast has avoided these changes.
While waiting in line for ASE testing in 2009 I listened to the mechanics from Republic Waste Disposal about the difficulties with the diesel particulate filter regeneration procedure on the garbage trucks, no different than the rest of us working on light trucks at dealers. Diesel particulate filters have been around for 9 1/2 years now, these diesels are clean enough to go unnoticed as diesel powered.