Volkswagen Not Prepared To Cover Full Costs Of Diesel Retrofits

[Pavel + 384]

Volkswagen is not prepared to cover the full cost of hardware retrofits for older diesel vehicles in Germany, a source at Volkswagen said, contradicting a deal announced by the German coalition parties on Tuesday. “If hardware retrofits are accepted by customers, then we will participate (in the costs) to the extent agreed,” the person said. Under the coalition parties’ deal, owners of older diesel cars in German cities where the air is particularly polluted will be able to choose between trade-in incentives and a hardware upgrade.
 

[rainman + 263]

VW controlling shareholders were prepared to reap the benefits and the management its bonuses for selling dirty diesels. Make them all pay.
 

[damirUSBiH + 327]

" VW will cover some costs of hardware retrofits for diesel cars......"  Why only part payment, the cheat was 100%?!

[50 shades of black + 254]

VW  claim they don't want to retrofit because they will be accused of breaking the cars? Another slap in the face of the customer.... 

[pinto + 293]

Management VW acts as a car - cartel. Excellent cover from Der Spiegel

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

What has always puzzled me about the way the settlements unfolded was this insistence on individual repairs to very small diesels, which individually did not contribute much to the pollutant nitrides of oxygen, but did inflame all those passions.  The remedy that would have made sense, and not forced the shareholders to take such a hit, would have been to require VW to purchase and scrap a certain number of old heavy trucks (Class 8), those big beasts that are over-the road tractors, or heavy dump trucks.  My reasoning is that one such old engine, in poor shape, with play in the piston rings, gas blow-by, burning oil, lousy compression, and pumping black smoke and particulates, pollutes far more than 50,000 small VW car diesels.  Therefore, for a relatively small amount, a decent number of these old wheezing heaps could be retired, the owners replacing them with modern equipment, the planet is way ahead, and everybody is satisfied. 

But people, and thus the politicians, did not want to do that.  Instead, they wanted VW to change the software, a "fix," on each and every single car, even though the change would provide only a tiny improvement.  I view this as illogical, as it creates a vast cost for small gain - when you can have a great gain for little cost if you focus on scrapping old heavy trucks.  I would guess that the scrapping of say 1,000 of those old trucks would do more good than rebuilding 5,000,000 of those little VW motors. 

Under US rules, which go by year of build, a 1980 Detroit Diesel (GM) two-stroke 8-71 engine is allowed to have 100% smoke opacity upon acceleration load.  100% means that thick black smoke pours out the exhaust, to the point that you cannot see anything in the smoke cloud.  And that is perfectly legal, as the Regulation is by year of manufacture.  But let's get real here: getting at old engine off the road and replacing with a new machine is going to do far more in pollution abatement than screwing with those 2-liter VW diesels ever will. 

Nobody said the world was logical.  Oh, well. 

[John Foote + 1,135]

8 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

But let's get real here: getting at old engine off the road and replacing with a new machine is going to do far more in pollution abatement than screwing with those 2-liter VW diesels ever will. 

Part of the TARP, save the economy was the buy up the guzzlers program. If you had something getting less that 16MPG it was worth good money. Broke my heart, but my Volve 960, with a super sweet straight six, was traded in, and the motor destroyed. But that was the best economic return for it.