A month after questions arose regarding how Volkswagen measured CO2 and fuel consumption in their cars, the troubled automaker says all is well.
Per VW’s PR machine, the automaker found “no unlawful change to the stated fuel consumption and CO2 figures” in the majority of its European lineup, with only nine vehicles for the 2016 model year having slight variations in conflict with their originally stated fuel consumption and CO2 stats.
The nine vehicles found out of step?
- Polo: 1.0L TSI BlueMotion 70kW EU6, seven-speed (DSG)
- Scirocco: 2.0L TDI BMT 135kW EU6, six-speed manual gearbox
- Jetta: 1.2L TSI BMT 77kW EU6, six-speed manual gearbox
- Jetta: 2.0L TDI BMT 81kW EU6, five-speed manual gearbox
- Golf Convertible: 2.0L TDI BMT 81kW EU6, five-speed manual gearbox
- Golf 2.0L TDI BMT 110kW EU6, six-speed manual gearbox
- Passat Alltrack: 2.0L TSI 4MOTION BMT 162kW EU6, seven-speed (DSG)
- Passat Variant: 2.0L TDI SCR 4MOTION BMT 176kW EU6, seven-speed (DSG)
- Passat Variant: 1.4L TSI ACT 4MOTION BMT 110kW EU6, Lix-speed manual gearbox
The above nine will be re-evaluated via a “neutral technical service under the supervision of the appropriate authority by Christmas.” Vehicles whose originally stated fuel consumption and CO2 figures remain true can be sold with no worries, while those needing adjustments to stated measurements will see those changes occur down the road through the “course of the normal processes as required.”
Though Volkswagen Group AG originally stated as many as 800,000 vehicles were on-notice about their fuel consumption and CO2 output, the parent company was unable to confirm its suspicion. The nine model variants with problems account for only 36,000 — 0.5 percent — of the total volume produced by the VW brand annually.
The findings were presented to Germany’s government and its Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). Audi, Skoda and Seat are undergoing similar internal investigations into their own lineups for possible deviations from the stated norm.
It’s good they’re letting Christmas decide which authority they’ll use. A nice impartial party.
>>> The nine vehicles found out of step? <<<
From the listing of the out-of-step vehicles, it seems that VW considers each combination of body, engine, and transmission a different vehicle. With this method of counting, VW has hundreds of different vehicles, so nine out of compliance isn't very much. (If nine is indeed the correct number.) It's also not clear by how much they are out of compliance. You would think there would be great cries of anguish if they were off by a lot. That certainly was the case of the Ford CMax and a bunch of Hyundai vehicles.
VW has decided that a scant 36,000 vehicles out of a possible 800,000 have issues. Give VAG another few weeks and they’ll prove, with statistics and geometric logic, that the whole flap was caused by a Passat TDI that happened to be driven by a heavy smoker in Dusseldorf.
Yup, that’s about it. VW is so wonderful, they have almost erased their own admission of guilt in inflating mileage figures just like that. They misspoke earlier, that’s all. All the affected vehicles, well they’re ones nobody buys anyway.
And the EA189 NOx problem? Hell, just needed a plastic mesh for the 1.6l diesel, and a couple of lines of Bosch code for the 2.0l. All legit ’cause The German Transportation Ministry said so, and we all believe them, after Merkel’s public worrying about VW dirtying up the grand international reputation of infallible German vehicle engineering. Something had to be done, and there was a bucket of whitewash lying unused in the corner.
All that’s left now is plea bargaining with the EPA and CARB down to a minor misdemeanour, a baccanalian night out for the bureaucrats with VW’s new HR director and his er, escorts a la Schmitt’s stories, and the promise of a free medium size DQ soft ice-cream for EVERY American, VW owner or not.
Problemo solved!
Probably sub-limited to only brown cars.
Apparently they’ve hired Tommy Flanagan to act as spokesman.
BZZT nothing to see here, I did the maths wrong
Now that’s Daring Greatly!
I see what you did there and I approve.
My buddy in high school did a “neutral technical service” with the automatic transmission in his Gran Torino… his step-dad was not pleased with the result.
Lies upon lies.
They must be taking lessons from the politicians.
I don’t understand why is everyone on VW’s case about some overstated fuel economy claims. I’m not a VW fanboy by any stretch, but i did own a few VWs in past (2003 Golf and 2006 Passat, both purchased new), and if anything the fuel economy was understated. I routinely got 2 or more mpg than stated numbers.
Now diesel emmissions i can agree with; i’ve long wondered how VW could be selling all these diesels without the urea injection, while MB and BMW had to use that. However, why should american pickup truck makers escape similar fate? I don’t know if they found a loophole, but I don’t think they’re held to same standard as VW when it comes to diesel emissions. The new tractor trailers use urea/DEF, as well as most passenger diesel. I can’t believe that passenger mid/HD trucks’ diesel engines are so clean that they don’t need that.
It’s all in how you spin it….public’s attention span is such that this scandal will be a non-issue in 6 – 12 months.
If VW said it, why it must be true.