Posts by PriusPete

Not good enough, VW: California nixes toxic mix fix in strict interdict

Re: More bad government

It is VW that is corrupt for scrimping on pollution control in order to increase their profits. Yes the engines in question were certified by the EPA, but VW cheated on the tests by using software that fits the Clean Air Act's definition of a defeat device. That is fraud. There is not a requirement for cars to meet the emission limits "in all driving conditions". The regulations realize that in certain situations emissions may need to be higher, for example cold weather, climbing hills etc. The cars do have to honestly meet the limits during the EPA test cycle. VW/Audi's in question did not.

Other governments as well as other US government agencies are also investigating VW, contrary to what you say (Korea, Sweden, Canada, New York State etc.). Yes there are a lot of possible lawsuits -- that is what happens when companies break the law. VW should have made sure that it was obeying the law. In Germany it might have sufficient influence to get away with things -- not so in the US. Why do company executives make the big bucks? Because they are responsible for what the company does. If the company does well, the execs do too. If the company breaks the law and hurts people, the executives need to bear responsibility for that too.

Yes VW's actions have hurt customers and investors as well as people walking their dog beside the road. Those who can prove they were hurt as a result of VW's fraud have the right to sue.

Serious corporate environmental crimes, like this, require serious punishment. In the last 8 years, while committing this fraud, VW Group has grown rapidly and has swallowed up quite a few other manufacturers. Why should it be allowed to keep the fruits of its crime?

VW floats catalytic converter as fix for fibbing diesels

Re: Dirty Diesel

The high temperatures and pressures at which combustion occurs in a diesel engine cause a lot of nitrogen oxides to form, even if you burn vegetable oil or biodiesel. I think that biodiesel is considered preferable to fossil fuel from the climate change point of view since the carbon has been captured recently on a farmer's field rather than in a dinosaur's backyard. From the NOx and PM point of view, I don't think there is much difference, but correct me if I'm wrong Most people just use fossil diesel fuel anyway.

Re: Ludicrous lawsuit. No tangible injury.

We all die eventually. The people most vulnerable to illness due to air pollution are the elderly and young children, as well as others with weakened respiratory systems. So, sure, some of those deaths were old people who would have died fairly soon, like maybe your grandma. There have been many studies on the health effect of vehicle emissions and they seem to use the term "premature death". I agree that obesity is also a health problem but I don't think that excuses VW for its serious environmental crime. I have some control over what I eat, but I can't help breathing city air with its diesel fumes.

Re: Ludicrous lawsuit. No tangible injury.

The fuel efficient technology from VW's biggest competitor is the gas-electric hybrid so I think the comparison is appropriate. Here in Canada, a Prius costs about $1000 more than an auto-shift Jetta TDI, but I calculate that over 11 years and 220,000 km a Prius would save about $7000 in fuel (@$1.20/l), $3500 in repairs (according to data on truedelta) and $900 in maintenance (since brakes last longer). The Prius has more passenger volume and a lot more cargo volume than a Jetta.

You may think a hybrid is more complex but it actually has fewer moving parts due to its simple eCVT transmission and lack of a turbocharger. A Toyota hybrid is just like a regular gasoline car with a large starter motor, large generator and large battery. A diesel needs a complex emission control system with sensors and valves that can fail. With the Prius, Toyota uses reliable electric motors controlled by reliable electronics and computers. The batteries rarely fail during the expected life of the car.

Volkswagens have been particularly unreliable. Site tradeinqualityindex has stats on power train issues in almost 1M US trade-ins. VW scores very poorly as do other German makes Mini, Smart, Audi, BMW. Even Mercedes scores worse than Chevrolet. Toyota, Lexus and Honda rule here. I analyzed its data on 34 compact/midsize cars from 14 manufacturing groups for model years from 2004 to 2010. For each model year, the Prius was among the 5 best, while VW models usually were among the worst.

If you don't drive much, fuel efficiency is not too important and you can just get a cheap gas car. If you do expect to put over 150K km on the car before getting rid of it, you should consider a hybrid. No only will it save you money but it has much lower smog-causing emissions.

Re: Which cave did they dig you out from?

VW group is a huge rich corporation that has been buying other companies in the last few years. It might have to sell Bentley or Skoda but it will survive. The punishment must be large to provide a deterrent. Ideally executives should go to jail. VW market share in the US was pretty negligible anyway so US makers won't benefit that much. As breathing people, we should hope for strong air pollution laws with teeth that are enforced. Throw the book at VW.

Re: Ludicrous lawsuit. No tangible injury.

The EPA failed to catch VW for 7 years so this is not a great success for them. However, the Clean Air Act introduced in 1970 has been successful in reducing smog in US cities. It seems to be one of the few examples of environmental laws in the world that has some real teeth. Ralph Nader and others tried to get criminal penalties added to the Clean Air Act but were not successful. The rules in this case are clear and VW admits breaking them. The only question now is the penalties. My understanding is that the EPA does not set the fines. The EPA indicates what laws were broken and what penalties those laws allow. A judge then decides what penalties will be imposed. Of course VW may have broken other laws too, such as false advertising related to their "Clean Diesel" claims. Individual states are also going after VW. I hope the Americans throw the book at VW group since the environmental laws elsewhere may not be strong enough to do very much.

Re: Ludicrous lawsuit. No tangible injury.

MIT attributes 59 premature deaths in the US from the illegal extra emissions from VW/Audi diesel cars. Extrapolating to 22 times more of these cheaters globally gives about 1300 deaths, plus many more cases of respiratory disease. And the 11 million pollution machines continue to spew out toxins all over the world.

The US Clean Air Act was passed in 1970 and emissions rules have been tightened several times since then. As a result, smog is now less of a problem in US cities. In Europe, on the other hand, manufacturers lobbied to get governments to promote diesel cars and loosen emission rules for them. As a consequence, UK and European cities still have a bad smog problem and many health problems from air pollution.

A 2010 Prius emits .0015 g/km of NOx. The US maximum for cars and small trucks (SUVs) is .042 g/km and almost all (except VW/Audi) achieve that. The Euro 6 maximum for diesel cars is .08 g/km. A cheating VW/Audi emits .56 g/km or more. The EPA rules are very achievable. The Prius beats them by a factor of 28 and also emits less CO2 than a TDI.

The Prius shows that the strict rules for both NOx and CO2 can be met with an affordable, practical car. VW chose to back the wrong technology with diesel and now has a product line that can barely be legally sold. It needs to keep adding expensive, problematic pollution control devices to its cars just to be able to scrape by the legal limits. Toyota hybrids, on the other hand, have been able to easily beat the limits for the last 15 years and are cheaper to own and far more reliable than VW diesels.

The current leaders at VW group continue to believe that diesel is a good vehicle propulsion technology despite the fact that it is clearly the dirtiest one and has no place in new cars. They need to apologize properly for the deaths they have caused, renounce diesel and start building clean, reliable cars. They have done none of that. Throw the book at them with huge fines and jail time.