Car-maker VW in cheating in emissions test shocker

[Robertb]

I wonder if it will affect the tax paid by company car drivers... maybe HMRC will restate peoples P11Ds :?:

 

[Shurv]

Glad I don't own a VW right now, I estimate that the average Golf residual values ,diesels more,will drop between £1000 and £2000 between now and Christmas. Could be a good time to buy one!!
Think about this, large dealerships will often have 100 used cars, if each one drops by £2000, that's the year's profits gone in a flash. Loss of confidence in VW means more customers buy other brands, so the dealers turnover falls and the value of their businesses plummets. These businesses are run on borrowed money, if the turnover and profits drop, so will their ability to borrow money and they'll have to sell the business or go under.
VW will have many thousands of cars on PCP plans, many of these will be worth less than the Guaranteed future values, so customers will be unable to trade them in and will exercise their right to hand them back. VW will make a huge loss on these disposals.
With VW residuals lower, the cars will become much less competitive to sell against VW's rivals, resulting in more lost sales.
The whole thing is one massive sh*tfest for VW. Good, they shouldn't have been so arrogant and cheated. They deserve what they get.

 

[Shurv]

I'm not sure about the tax situation, as benefit in kind is worked out on co2 not nox emissions. If it does effect the tax payable, then a whole load of company car drivers will want to change their cars very quickly, or will expect VW to make up the difference in cost.

 

[mrgrey]

Thanks to New996buyer and Shurv for a balanced and concise summing up.

VW admit to breaking important rules and are suitably contrite, regardless of EU regs and fall out here, they WILL pay a high financial price in the USA for their stupidity because the US is like that.

No one mentioned the possible sale of subsidiaries such as Skoda, Seat or perhaps Porsche, let's see best offers might come in from China or Russia or USA Noooooooo !

 

[Alex]

VAG will get a hefty fine, pay up and life will go on. Nothing will get sold off, especially Porsche, seeing as Porsche se own VAG.

Then the dirt will will start getting dished out to all the other car manufacturers who've also been playing the same game.

Then the criteria will change in the UK and everyone can wave good bye to reduced road tax :bye:

 

[Alex]

Alex,
God knows what you were doing in that Prius to get 32 mpg, last time I drove one, with a load of city centre crawling, and 100 miles of 80 to 90mph motorway, I averaged 59mpg. I tried a Yaris hybrid and got 68mpg out of that in mixed driving. Hybrids need a specific driving style, if you drive them like a normal auto, you won't get the economy.

80-100mph from nice to St Trop on the A8 then 60mph down the D road. 4 adults, 4 trolly dolly cases. driving round St Trop all weekend with 4 adults, urban driving, then driving Miss Daisy style back to the airport on Monday.

Car was b100dy awful to drive, handling like a balloon full of jelly, serious lack of power and a dash display like something from the millennium falcon telling me how many nano-volts were going into the battery everytime I braked - like I wanted to know.

ps. My style of driving was something similar but a lot slower than I'd have been doing in my pork chop. :nooo:

 

[Robertb]

And if VW cheated on NOx data, is the CO2 data reliable or could the ECU have spoofed that too?

 

[Alex]

Hybrids need a specific driving style, if you drive them like a normal auto, you won't get the economy.

Pointless then.

 

[Shurv]

It's possible the whole vehicle taxation system will be reviewed and done differently. The whole issue of nox has been up in the air for a long time, and smog levels I many major cities has increased due largely to so many diesels on the roads. We all bought (well, I didn't) diesels on the basis that they were clean and efficient. Now, they are massively complicated, and getting more so, to meet the emissions regs, I wonder if the days of diesel are coming to a close, as manufacturers cannot make them cheaply enough to compete with petrol. The Germans and French are massively reliant on diesel car production, and Europe as a whole seem to like the things. Few places elsewhere in the world have the love for the diesel powered car. In the UK, we only started buying them due to a tax system that encouraged it. If the tax system changes, then we may all be back in petrol engines cars.

 

[Shurv]

Hybrids need a specific driving style, if you drive them like a normal auto, you won't get the economy.

Pointless then.

Quite the opposite Alex. They don't go dagga dagga dagga, they are very quiet, they switch themselves off when not moving,they have no clutch,turbo, particulate filter, gearbox, (about 10 grands worth there) to go wrong when they are older, they are cheaper to service, and until recently they were cheaper to fuel. Look what the minicab firms are all switching to, yes, Hybrids. That's because they'll do half a million miles with very little expense. They are all switching from (largely) Skoda diesels with the old (and very good Pd engine).
I had a Prius for 18,000 miles as a company car a few years ago. I didn't particularly love it, but I admired it's cleverness and would have another hybrid if I went back to a company car. I now know how to drive one properly,so I'd get a lot more mpg than I did then. The last diesel golf I drove (for 6 months as another company car) was a horrid thing, couldn't wait to give it back. Each to their own. :thumb:

 

[coomo]

I do not own a VW.They by their own admisson have been caught cheating.
I empathise, with those who might lose their Jobs.
Im not going to enter any debate on the financial ramifications,or Americas agenda.
VW have been caught.The cars are spewing out known toxins, that are known to cause disease.They knew this would happen,yet decisions were made to
allow it to happen.People may have died indirectly due to the Krauts *****.
FU.CK EM.In fact FU.CK EM TWICE!
Let the legacy, of some wonderful cars, die under the memory of these vile
disgusting people who made/let this happen.

 

[Alex]

In the UK, we only started buying them due to a tax system that encouraged it. If the tax system changes, then we may all be back in petrol engines cars.

I thought we started buying them way before that. From recollection, the craze started when they started putting turbos on them back in circa 1993. The 306 tdi was a great example of this.
Before that, 0-60 times were well up in the 20s and top speeds of rubbish like 95mph.

Whack a turbo on and bingo, 0-60 closer to 10 seconds and 110+ mph with mpg figures 50% up on petrol equivalents.

Add that to the cheap price of diesel at the time and boom!

The tax thing only came along when some muppet in the Labour party wondered how they could easily increase the deficit back in 1999, 6 years after the boom of the turbo deisel.

 

[Alex]

Each to their own. :thumb:

I'll stick with my 996 and I'll quite happily purchase yours off you too if you want to go back to a mongrel :thumb:

So long as the price is right :grin:

 

[wizard993]

I do not own a VW.They by their own admisson have been caught cheating.
I empathise, with those who might lose their Jobs.
Im not going to enter any debate on the financial ramifications,or Americas agenda.
VW have been caught.The cars are spewing out known toxins, that are known to cause disease.They knew this would happen,yet decisions were made to
allow it to happen.People may have died indirectly due to the Krauts *****.
FU.CK EM.In fact FU.CK EM TWICE!
Let the legacy, of some wonderful cars, die under the memory of these vile
disgusting people who made/let this happen.

VW are saints vs the buses/operators who spew vast amounts of pollution into our city centres without so much of a raised eyebrow by our authorities.

 

[Nastymatt]