VW News: Volkswagen Gets Fined A Billion Euros By the German Government

[William Maley]

We're coming up on three years since the Volkswagen diesel scandal came to light. It caused the German automaker to spiral downward with various fines, lawsuits, people either stepping down or being arrested, and sales tanking. By now, you would think that the pain is done and over. But you would be wrong.

Reuters reports today that prosecutors in Germany have fined Volkswagen a billion euros ($1.18 billion) over diesel emission cheating. In a statement, Volkswagen will accept the fine, therefore admitting responsibility for the cheating.

"Following thorough examination, Volkswagen AG accepted the fine and it will not lodge an appeal against it. Volkswagen AG, by doing so, admits its responsibility for the diesel crisis and considers this as a further major step towards the latter being overcome," the company said.

By accepting the fine, Volkswagen hopes "the active regulatory offence proceedings" being conducted will come to an end. It will unlikely end the various criminal cases that German prosecutors are working on against various Volkswagen executives.

Source: Reuters

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[G. David Felt]

Wonder what other countries will go after money from VW?

[smk4565]

VW has crazy cash, so this isn't even going to hurt them all that much, but I think no car maker will make diesel anymore because of stuff like this.  It isn't worth it.

[riviera74]

That 1 billion euro fine: where do the proceeds go once VW pays it?

[daves87rs]

Still going to hurt a bit.....

[Drew Dowdell]

[G. David Felt]

Seems all those bought back VW diesel's are prime picking for stealing and shipping out of the country. Guess they just need a smarter crook to do it.

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/03/13/dieselgate-vw-audi-thefts-pontiac-silverdome/

[Cmicasa the Great]

Crazy to me that if this was GM or Ford.. the news would report on it everyday here in the US. I asked several people have they heard about it.. and each one of them said no. I asked a few about the Firestone debacle at Ford from 20 years ago.. or the GM 4-6-8 engines from 35 years ago.. and each one of them remember it.. and they were all no more than 30 years old themselves

[Robert Hall]

I'm sure in Germany and other markets in Europe this was a Big Deal in the news, but in the US the diesel VWAG models had such a tiny market share that they didn't get much media attention beyond the automotive press... the Explorer tires issue, Takata airbags issue, GM ignition issue were all fatal flaws and affected millions of vehicles in the US market...a few diesel VWs with poor emissions?  Not a big deal here. 

Edited March 15, 2019 by Robert Hall

[G. David Felt]

Still interesting that someone has not thought of cherry picking auto's from the numerous lots that are unguarded and doing what those crooks tried to do just smarter in shipping them out of the country.

Course, I see no reason for VW to not just dump them all on Pick n Pull lots and let the public pull and pay for the parts they want from those auto's. 

Money is there to be made.

[Cmicasa the Great]

9 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

I'm sure in Germany and other markets in Europe this was a Big Deal in the news, but in the US the diesel VWAG models had such a tiny market share that they didn't get much media attention beyond the automotive press... the Explorer tires issue, Takata airbags issue, GM ignition issue were all fatal flaws and affected millions of vehicles in the US market...a few diesel VWs with poor emissions?  Not a big deal here. 

Wow.. way to minimize a blatant criminal act by a major multinational corporation. CRIMINAL. Defrauding the consumers and the gov'ts of the entire planet. AMAZING. No.. Sorry Robert. It wasn't just about poor emissions. I won't even get into the situations where the foreign makers are having as many, if not more concentrated recalls than Ford and GM these days. BMW.. cars fires.. Toyota.. acceleration deaths.. Honda.. ****ty transmissions and airbags.. Hyundai/Kia/Gen.. for just being liars about everything.. VW.. diesel issues.. Fiat.. just for being a POS. YEAH YEAH.. GM had its ignition recall debacle. But as messed up as that was.. it literally boiled down to a cheap fix to a cheap problem that wasn't necessarily an engineering issue so much as a budget issue, and people with common sense avoided anyway simply by not having as many keys as a janitor at a 200 room facility on their rings. I won't belittle it.. again it was a dumb move on their part.. but MY GOD.. VW literally went so far as to create a device to fool emissions standards into allowing their cars to pass.. then once the OBD port was disengaged.. VIOLA.. back to poisoning the air we breath.. But to U.. Its no big deal. Gotcha. 

[Robert Hall]

16 minutes ago, Cmicasa the Great said:

Wow.. way to minimize a blatant criminal act by a major multinational corporation. CRIMINAL. Defrauding the consumers and the gov'ts of the entire planet. 

<cynical>That's what large multinational corporations do...corruption is standard business.  The public doesn't care, they are too busy w/ reality TV.. </cynical>

Edited March 15, 2019 by Robert Hall

[Cmicasa the Great]

47 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

<cynical>That's what large multinational corporations do...corruption is standard business.  The public doesn't care, they are too busy w/ reality TV.. </cynical>

That made me laugh.. causing me to amend my other vote on your last post. It is standard.. but I think it should get as much press if its a foreign co as it does when its an American based one

[Robert Hall]

Just now, Cmicasa the Great said:

That made me laugh.. causing me to amend my other vote on your last post. It is standard.. but I think it should get as much press if its a foreign co as it does when its an American based one

Agreed.    I'm pretty cynical about corporations in general, regardless of origin.   Like this latest fiasco with Boeing has pissed me off..they were a company I respected and have some past experience with...I contracted for a year with one of their subsidiaries in Colorado during the drawn-out launch for the 787..I worked on the software systems for in-flight flight charting software.   Lots of shenanigans there..

[riviera74]

The only difference is that, in the good old USA, we are less forgiving of GM/Ford/FCA mistakes than foreign automakers' mistakes.  Even if those mistakes really cause major issues down the line.

As for Boeing, why put a new engine on a plane that was designed 50 years ago?  Just start with a clean sheet of paper and do it right with the best technology available.

Edited March 16, 2019 by riviera74
misspelling

[oldshurst442]

That and European countries, other than England, stand by their automotive companies no matter what they do...

Germans will never turn their backs on the German makes. 

Proof: Diesel sales in Germany are on the uptick and Im willing to bet the farm the German brands are profiting from that...

https://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/january-diesel-sales-increase-bucks-trend-germany-07-02-2019

 

As far as Boeing goes, I read:

https://nationalpost.com/news/heres-the-terrifying-reason-the-737-max-8-is-grounded

 

Quote

 

There is nothing wrong with the basic mechanics of the aircraft: Its engines, wings and control surfaces are all believed to be working fine. Rather, the passenger jet may have killed 346 people for the terrifyingly modern reason that human pilots were unable to override a malfunctioning computer.The cause of the Lion Air crash — and the suspected cause of the recent downing of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — is a little-known piece of software known as MCAS, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.The 737 MAX 8 has heavier and more fuel-efficient engines than prior editions of the 737, a change which causes the aircraft to pitch upwards ever-so-slightly after takeoff.Rather than instructing airlines to warn their pilots of this quirk, Boeing simply equipped the MAX 8 with MCAS, a program that would automatically tilt the nose downwards to compensate.In normal circumstances, the system is not a problem, but it only takes a minor maintenance error to turn MCAS into a deadly liability. In the case of Lion Air Flight 610, the 737 MAX 8 had a faulty “angle of attack sensor”; a small blade sticking out of the cockpit that records the angle of the aircraft in flight. The sensor was wrongly telling the MAX 8’s flight computers that the aircraft was climbing much more sharply than it was. As a result, pilots were left wrestling with an aircraft that was repeatedly plunging itself towards the ground for no reason. A pilot can counteract the dive by pulling up on the control column, but MCAS will kick in again after only 10 seconds and once again tilt the plane downwards.

“If this is left unchecked (it) can lead to a potential nose heavy situation where it becomes almost impossible to manually raise the nose,” reads a November assessment of the Lion Air crash by Akan Bassey, a commercial pilot and blogger.

Indeed, the final minutes of Lion Air Flight 610 show the plane veering crazily up and down as the pilot fought with MCAS for control of the aircraft.

“The airplane tends to oscillate in this conflict between the software and the pilot,” Garneau, himself an experienced airman, said Wednesday.

Ultimately, the Lion Air 737 pitched itself forward 26 times before pilots ultimately lost control.

Adding to the confusion were stall warnings, in-cockpit alerts and faulty instrument readings, making it likely that the Lion Air pilots didn’t even know what was happening.

 

And apparantly the last accident, the 737 Max 8 was bobbing up and down as well, but the reasons for it doing that is still under investigation. 

And THAT is another reason why I dont think autonomous driving for cars will EVER happen! 

Airplanes have had computer flying the aircraft and controlling its flight characteristics for as it seems nowadays...forever. And as you can see, still not perfected.

Awesome tech, as a  F-117 could not stay in the air  without computer control, but accidents do happen, as we could see...and pilots themselves are furious when they cant physically themselves control the airplane...

Pilots, are still in the cockpit making decisions on flight controls, yet silicon valley thinks that an autonomous pod without a human being being aware of the driving situations will work out?  

 

 

[Robert Hall]

30 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

 

As for Boeing, why put a new engine on a plane that was designed 50 years ago?  Just start with a clean sheet of paper and do it right with the best technology available.

Cost..way cheaper to upgrade an existing, established model than design a new model..the costs in airplane development are astronomical..they've evolved the 737, 747 and other models over many decades with new engines, new avionics, etc..

And there is a very real human failure w/ the 737 Max 8/9 in that Boeing did not train pilots on the new MCAS software.. 

Edited March 16, 2019 by Robert Hall

[oldshurst442]

Just now, Robert Hall said:

Cost..way cheaper to upgrade an existing, established model than design a new model..the costs in airplane development are astronomical..they've evolved the 737, 747 and other models over many decades with new engines, new avionics, etc..

And that is why the deliberately tried to sabotage Bombardier's C Series and the sales they made to Delta...

Forcing Bombardier, because although the 3rd largest airplane manufacturer in the world after Airbus and Boeing, still very very small, to partner up Airbus. Airbus gets a brand new, state of the art aircraft filling a very lucrative niche, for peanuts and eventually will be buying up the the rights to the airplane...

Bombardier dumped billions on this, pissing off many Canadians in the process... (there are many reasons for this though) 

In other words, Boeing phoqued Canada (Quebec) because they did not want that competition, but got it anyway, allowing their bigger rival to acquire the airplane for free practically...

And now ironically, Boeing is in deep doodoo over the Max 8