We need to kick VW and Audi out of the USA for a minimum of 2 years

[Outrun]

I remember reading about the VW Polo back in the early 2000's. It caught my eye because it was a little shitbox diesel that got 50mpg-70mpg if I remember right. I thought to myself, wow, why is this not here yet? Turns out, they could not pass emissions. I didn't read into it any further.

So I don't know if you guys have been following what is going on right now with VW and Audi. But from what I understand, they released diesel powered Jetta's and Passats here in the USA and obviously some Audi's. These two cars get about 32 mpg in the city and 43+ mpg on the highway. That pretty fucking impressive IMO.

So, yeah, they released these cars here and I remember thinking to myself...good for them. They figured out a way to pass emissions or whatever and still produce a car that gets really good mileage.

Turns out that was a bunch of bullshit.

VW had some ultra nerds write some programs to detect when the car was being tested for pollutants. When it detected that, it put out false readings to trick the machine into making it think it was good when in fact it was polluting the shit out of the atmosphere. When you have a diesel that gets good mpg's instead of releasing carbon dioxide it releases more nitrogen oxides which produces smog. You guys ever go to a place with smog? It fucking sucks. It's just like that person that walks by and crop dusts you. All of their shitty gas has gone through your nose, mouth, and is now sitting in the lungs. You can't escape it once it has you. Just like smog. Some of the air you breathe in a city like LA, is poison, which these cars helped produce under a deceptive disguise.

Now I'm not some sort of fucking tree hugging hippy trying to impose some stupid laws here, but look at that facts. Smog is a problem. Lying companies are a problem. VW went out of their way to deceive everyone intentionally to sell these cars in the USA. So they could make more money and their stock price would increase. Cocksuckers. They basically said, yeah, fuck the Americans and their health.

It's not like this is a fucking switch or faulty power seat switch. This wasn't made overnight. Something like this takes tons of time to develop the program itself and especially testing their gear against the newest forms of pollution detecting systems.

And now, VW and Audi have put aside 8 billion dollars for this? Did they just have 8 fucking billion sitting around, or have they been preparing for this? They have to pay fines, and penalties, and blah blah blah. All of which will disappear into something that we will never see.

I know this is harsh because people work for them, but as a company you need to understand the risks of your decisions if you act like a shady motherfucker. I vote we kick them out of the USA for a minimum of 2 years. Or put an 85% tax on ALL of their cars sold here. You shouldn't be allowed to do this sort of thing without some sort of serious consequences.

Does anyone else think this a pretty serious issue? I don't know about you guys, but I know a certain degree of pollution is going to exist no matter what, but this is all wrong. They should be fined, people go to prison, and suspended from doing business for 2 years. Otherwise, what's to prevent this again? More fines? I doubt it.

[Mike R]

I would expect nothing less from those over engineered Nazi pieces of shit. Welcome to the 4th Reich

[tim]

I agree Nick. I sell diesel powered equipment and the last few years have been an absolute nightmare as we have rolled out new technology to meet the EPA's ultra strict Final Tier 4 standards. When we could have been designing new features that customers want we were instead trying to meet requirements all while keeping a quality product for the end user.

I think these fuckers should be held completely accountable as any business should when they make decisions that they know are wrong and then get caught.

[mnstang]

I just think it's funny. VW is such a half assed company. Buddy at work used to work for vw dealer, you should hear some of the shit and how they operate. Of course that all trickles down to the dealers too.
They won't shut them down but I'm sure they'll pay for it dearly, the fines is one thing but they will come out of this smelling like the shit that they are. That is such a shady thing to do.. It's one thing to skimp on the cheap part and get burned. They deliberately went out of their way to build this scam car. You have to think maybe they should focus those scam efforts on just building something that is legit.. But you could say that about any scammer crook.

Bottom line vw is a joke anyway, those cars are the biggest piece of shits on the road. It used to be fun to hop in and pick them apart but after a while you just lose faith in this species because people apparently actually buy those failures.

[Drunko McMoppo]

Any VW I've looked at newer than 2005 has been a complete pile of shit.

[jp67stang]

Kick them out of the usa come on. How is this worse than gm with the ignitions? Or ford with the pinto or explorer(roll over i think it was)? Actually i think this is less of a crime, both ford and gm killed people and just let it go because it was cheaper than dealing with it. Or what was gm's excuse under new management so not at fault. I feel like everyone that dislikes audi, vw is basing it off of never owning more than one. Its like any car i can show you one that lasted 300k with no issues and some that had problems at 40k.

[Akromix]

Kick them out of the usa come on. How is this worse than gm with the ignitions? Or ford with the pinto or explorer(roll over i think it was)? Actually i think this is less of a crime, both ford and gm killed people and just let it go because it was cheaper than dealing with it. Or what was gm's excuse under new management so not at fault. I feel like everyone that dislikes audi, vw is basing it off of never owning more than one. Its like any car i can show you one that lasted 300k with no issues and some that had problems at 40k.

I don't think anyone mentioned gm or ford.

[jp67stang]

I don't think anyone mentioned gm or ford.

I was getting at that i am sure if you look at every single car company at one point everyone of them probably did a cost analysis on something messed up such as killing people, lying to people ect and determined it was a better option to not fix it the right way. Im sure vw did one and determined it was worth it to lie, but why do people expect them to be above any other company. What are we going to do kick every single car company out of the usa.

[Akromix]

I was getting at that i am sure if you look at every single car company at one point everyone of them probably did a cost analysis on something messed up such as killing people, lying to people ect and determined it was a better option to not fix it the right way. Im sure vw did one and determined it was worth it to lie, but why do people expect them to be above any other company. What are we going to do kick every single car company out of the usa.

You act like this is something new. Ford pinto? Ford crown Victoria? Toyota gas pedal? Those are the 3 that pop into head right off the bat. I'm sure there are a lot more. All paid out the ass. But it's a different issue, and the scope of that is gauged differently by every individual. Someone could say oh 100 people killed by an ignition switch pales in comparison to hundreds of thousands from pollution. And that's the way its probably going to go. Don't take my statements as me agreeing with it. I'm just playing devils advocate if you can call it that.

[Max Power]

Picture yourself as an important decision maker in the government who gets the final call on this. React emotionally and kick them out, one of the few auto manufacturers that actually builds plants here and creates American jobs? Is that reeeeaaaalllly what you want to do? Would you rather chase their new 2 billion dollar plant and the thousands of jobs that it creates to Mexico over a 2 year chest thumping. Might as well boot em for life, since they ain't coming back.

Not sure what the right punishment is, but I think the penalty box is probably not the most thought out solution.

Besides, we really need them to clean up their cars so we can chip em on day two.

[68GTO]

Emotional arguments run amok.

VW broke the laws and got caught. GM ignition scandal - they broke the law (discovered flaw and did not report it) and eventually got caught. There are remedies for these actions and they are severe. VW will pay Billions to fix the cars and Billions in fines. They will have their reputation pummeled, consumer confidence drop, stock value plummet. Their punishment will be severe beyond measure. Kick them out? Don't be a plastic banana, 420, misguided blatherskite.

They will be judged harshly by the consumer. They will be judged harshly by government. They will pay dearly in real profits. They will fall behind other manufacturers because $ that would have gone to R&D are now gone...

[Fernanernie]

Emotional arguments run amok.

VW broke the laws and got caught. GM ignition scandal - they broke the law (discovered flaw and did not report it) and eventually got caught. There are remedies for these actions and they are severe. VW will pay Billions to fix the cars and Billions in fines. They will have their reputation pummeled, consumer confidence drop, stock value plummet. Their punishment will be severe beyond measure. Kick them out? Don't be a plastic banana, 420, misguided blatherskite.

They will be judged harshly by the consumer. They will be judged harshly by government. They will pay dearly in real profits. They will fall behind other manufacturers because $ that would have gone to R&D are now gone...

VW isn't the only company either. It appears that more German companies are failed EU standards as well

[CAMSS30]

Every auto maker cuts corners and or cheats here and there, atleast in this case no one got killed like with the GM (ignition)/Ford Explorer (firestone tire)/Toyota (sticky throttle) and the list goes on and on and on. Kinda weird how this all comes out a month or 2 after VW is labeled as the #1 auto maker as far as sold units worldwide.

[Scorpner]

Hmm... After something like this, legislation should be passed to make Vehicle manufactures source code available for owners to review.

[SVT5LITER]

I guess there's 2 sides to every story/action here. One side I kind of chuckle because they found a way to beat the strict EPA bullshit and give the customer just what they wanted. The other side though is the long-term pollution you mention, something I actually didn't take into consideration since I've never lived in CA where you have to deal with large scale smog. IDK what the best answer/action is, so I'll just quit here so as not to be possibly viewed as a 'blatherskite'.