VW cheating on diesel emissions.....

[67jason]

weird...i pressure wash my engine and engine compartment regularly (around once a month or so), never had an issue getting it started right after and still very very wet. i use bosch plug wires and bosch distributor cap only. I do avoid spraying directly onto my air cleaners - dont want to flood the 45 dells with water
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67 bug x3
67 ghia
64 bug

[mark tucker]

next thing you know fiat will own it and not have to deal with all the crap vw did or any liability . like gm did after the bail out and it was not the same company and did not have to take responsibility of the past crap. it's coming just mark my words the explosion in china was just the first phase so they could scam the insurance and cover up more mess. so...face it we have a dying beard....oops bread?breed??? crap... the last of a species. they will be ex stink sale on air fresshoners starts today!!! darn it's cold out side today.

[Bennym777]

Carbed VW Aircooled engines didnt have the problem it was the Fi engine with its more delicate electronic system.

Also the the very heavy tropical rains in Mexico.

[GArBa]

there are no unprotected "electronics" exposed under the engine lid, except for the already mentioned ignition transformer which was problematic in itself. of course there are much more electric connections in the compartment so it's better not to pressure wash the engine...

there is difference between a wet distributor after rain and a "fried" engine. the first is an occurrence once very common on many cars (fiat 127 and mini spring to mind), and is easily owner-solved by just cleaning and drying the distributor itself, the second involves damages beyond the scope of DIY maintenance, and there is simply no way rainwater enetering the engine lid vents could cause such damage.

1600i bugs have been driven for years now in the heavy rains of britain and under the snow of the alps, their weaknesses discovered, and poor factory rustproofing is clearly much more of a problem on them than that dreaded vented lid.
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cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
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moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[Bennym777]

if it wasn't a problem then no-one would have bought the plastic covers for the vents (a lot of bugs have them).

The VW sedan was a a low cost vehicle and owners generally didn't spend any money on them, just ran them into the ground.

They would never buy a vent unless it was necessary.

Lastly they were offered by VW Mexico..why...for aesthetics?

[GArBa]

this is my last reply since we are heavily OT.

yes, the rear plastic cover is mostly for aesthetics. carmakers do actually sell accessories just for that. alloy wheels are offered on any kind of car, most of the times they don't give any actual advantage in lowering the unsprung masses or the advantage is negligible for that model, but people buy them nonetheless as they look good (they were also available on the bug, btw). they are sold for aesthetics.
for some accessories, the buyer may be convinced to get some real benefit even if he actually isn't. It's called marketing.
_________________
cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
-------------------------
moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[Bennym777]

So this is one of your typical VW owners in Mexico who is so concerned with aesthetics that he hasnt repaired dents or made a single change to the exterior except a go faster vent cover.

[GArBa]

you keep missing the point... just like an otherwise clueless owner would put alloy wheels on a car because "everyone knows they are better", the same kind of owner, if told by someone that his vocho's engine was at risk and those grilles were the solution, would put them on thinking of doing good. but that's just heresay. or marketing, if you prefer.

how much people buy fuel magnetizers? or read horoscopes? does it mean they work?

again: 1600i problems and issues are well known and this is not one of them. so, to go back to your original post, I simply don't think this specific issue is a valid reason to think VW was trying to deceive customers.
_________________
cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
-------------------------
moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[Floating VW]

I gotta say, this whole scandal is almost restoring my faith in the human race. I mean, I can still remember the days when you changed the oil in your car and then dumped the old stuff on the ground out back behind the shed, and nobody gave it a second thought. And now here we are, just a few decades later, raising holy hell because some car manufacturer fibbed a little about NOx emmissions on a car that otherwise gets outstanding fuel efficiency. And I bet most of us, including the P.I.C. (People In Charge) who made the policy, don't have the first clue just what exactly NOx even is! Well, I say good on you, good people. The only way the world ever changes is when enough people get together and stop tolerating the bullshite!

Of course, having said all that, I must admit that I find it ironic that the US is leading the charge against VW. I used to work at a shop in California that did smog testing, and you would not believe some of the things I saw my fellow Americans do to try and fool the sniffers! It seems like ever since emission testing first became obligatory, every Fast Freddy in North America has been trying to find some way around it. Hell, didn't good ol' Georgie Bush and the US Senate tell the entire world where they could shove the Kyoto Protocol back in 2000, and Canada in 2012, for the very reason that the proposed emissions standards were too strict and would hurt performance? And yet, there is the EPA, throwing the first stone.

I guess it just goes to show that the only thing worse than lying is getting caught lying.
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"It's time you started treating people as individuals, rather than mathematically predictable members of an aggregate set, regardless of how well that works."

[ach60]

This is hardly a "new" issue, VW's with old/bad ignition parts like distributor caps , or ignition wires short to ground when wet. Spray with WD40, and move on with your life.
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Good Luck
Al

[itskyle]

4 grams.

That's the additional amount per year of particulates that vw was covering up.

It sounds like a lot, but, a gram is way smaller than a pound.

Saw the article on flip board today.

This amount, deemed minuscule by some scientists and regulators, isn't enough for them to lose their green status and tax privileges in several European countries.

Vws stock rallied today over this news, they were supposed to do a press conference.

Interesting hearing about their strategies to make it right.

Again, it should be interesting to see what car manufacture gets caught out next in doing something.

Kyle
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--
69 or 72 Autostick Bug current
66 Bug (We both miss it)
74 SuperBeetle Auto Stick (I miss that car)
73 SquareBack, Straight Stick (Wife misses this one.)

[sb001]

[itskyle]

[Patty B.]

Under the Influence is a CBC radio show on marketing--in this episode Terry O'Reilly talks about companies who lie like VW, Volvo, Hoover and can they recover the brand. Here he talks about the diesel deception.


http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/listen.html?au...type=audio

Terry often mentions VW in his radio shows, the ads of the 60s were the reasons he got into advertisemenr to be begin with and he drives a '62 Beetle himself that he has mentionned in previous installments of his show. He also mentionned his Karmen Ghia in the earlier version of the show The Age of Persuasion.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence

[GArBa]

I think the reputation/brand damage will be mostly confined to north america in the end, also due to the specific "TDI clean diesel" marketing strategy adopted on those markets.
At least here in Europe, as other carmakers' methods of circumventing emission rules are uncovered (most recently, renault, daimler and GM-opel, with varying levels of denial all suspiciously similar to the attitude VW kept at the early stages of this matter), this issue is switching in perception to an industry-wide one.
_________________
cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
-------------------------
moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[Zeen]

[Zeen]

[Mike Fisher]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[GArBa]