JCC Volkswagen's massive consumer fraud

Yikes. My parents considered an Audi but wound up with a BMW diesel SUV.

The amount of additional pollutants these cars put in the air is truly shocking.

 

That's really not that much of a surprise about overlap between Audi and VW. Audi falls under the VW AG umbrella. Actually, I seem to remember some Audi's sharing parts numbers with their VW cousins.

I'm not going to lie, as much as I love BMW engines and their diesels (fantastic torque and remarkably smooth), I would snatch up a V10 TDI Touareg if I saw one for a reasonable price. I have no need for an SUV, but with roughly 300 hp and 550ish lbft of torque I don't think I would care.

 

watch them become BMW Drivers, solojones.

jabberwalkie - if I lift the bonnet of my GTI, many of the parts will have the VW and Audi logos on them. So yes, there's huge overlap.

 

Not surprised, I'm pretty sure the numerous coil packs my friend went through in his GTI shared parts number with coil packs that were also used in Audi engines as well. Just hope that one of those parts doesn't have a Porsche logo on it, that's the premium.

 

I had to look up this stereotype, because it's not a particular stereotype here. Sadly the examples were all things that *everyone* in LA does on a daily basis. For a car city, people really can't drive.

Anyway, my dad's car is a lease and he's considering getting a Tesla after.

I can't imagine how pissed off owners of these cars are. And have a right to be.

 

I'm expecting the other shoe to drop and for all of the Germans to be in on this, similar to most of the main Euro-players in on the LIBOR fixing scandal.

 

Do you mean other German manufactures being in on it some how? Like they are all skirting or bypassing the regulations in some way?

 

Yes?

 

Seeing as how Mercedes and BMW are both running the urea exhaust additive I'm not sure what they would be looking for unless those are running even dirtier with the systems in place....

 

I highly doubt it dp.

Let's break this down: VW are the top seller of cars globally. In part this is because of the success and price point of cars like the Golf and Jetta, which are high quality German sedans but not nearly as pricey as their stablemates Audi, and cheaper of course than BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

Their workforce vehicles - trucks and vans - also account for substantial sales and allowed them to eclipse both Toyota and Ford.

In order to meet both demand and to retain that spot, especially with such a tiny US footprint, they appear to have contrived to thwart EPA regs on diesel vehicles. Audi, which has seen an upswing in sales thanks to things like the A3 Sedan, A1, Q3 and Q5, is also on a back foot relative to BMW and Mercedes. It makes sense that they would be caught up in this - they're trying to take market share.

VWs, unlike Audis, are often sold at cost or even a mild loss.

BMW and Mercedes, however, have no need to compromise. Their market is a fairly limited segment but they're not operating at a break even. They have solid margins on their vehicles and the quality of the 1 and 2 Series BMWs as well as the new A-Klasse Mercedes Benz has meant they can lower their entry point to the brand whilst delivering the reliably and performance both are known for.

To give you an idea, let's take four roughly comparable cars in terms of performance and type - VW Golf GTI, Audi S3, Mercedes Benz A250, BMW M135i. in Australian dollars, the prices are roughly as follows - Golf GTI AU$39,000. Audi S3 $55,000, Mercedes A250 $65,000. BMW 135i $62,500.

(to be fair, the M135i is probably best compared to the A45 AMG, RS3 and Golf R, but nothing really sits in the same bracket for BMW).

The Golf R is about AU$55,000 whilst the A45 AMG Mercedes is about $80,000 and the Audi RS3 $80,000 too.

So you can see there's two things here - 1) massive price differences, and 2) a clear advantage to VW in providing reliable, high performing cars substantially cheaper than their competition. Even Audi is cheaper than BMW and Mercedes (and I would say the same is true in Great Britain, Europe, and the US). They're pushing for market share in the luxury German car market.

So you can see incentives to rig the testing and undermine the established, prestige German marques right there.

 

That's fair, I'm just going with a general sense of anti-Euro sentiment right now.

 

Hush you.

 

You should come here (and we can drink beers on the roof deck and hang out) and make me!

 

If the alternative are cheaply made, bad cars forged together by alcoholic unionistas in Detroit, I'm not sure America wins out.

 

Most of the German cars are made here now, no?

 

But not in Detroit. And my Golf is a Wolfsburg.

 

Yeah, the German and Japanese cars sold in North America are often made on the continent, but by non-union employees in "right to work" Southern states (who offered exorbitant tax benefits for the factories their economies will never get back) or in Mexico, so it's okay.

 

I mean, if you look at American cars, they're generally crap by comparison. The goddamned Corvette is mostly plastic, like a Kardashian. Obviously there's something to be said for those other marques and the quality of their employees - not overweight drunks named Chip or Skip or Bud.

 

Jay will be so disappointed it's not a Hapsburg.

 

Tesla. The only excellent American car.

 

... for rich, white people.

(not that German luxury cars are any different...)

Also, Tesla has some significant problems when spouting energy efficiency vs. gasoline models.

 

Yeah, but they are well-made. That's the only criteria I was going by.

 

You mean the Tesla Roadter, or the Model S? Because the Roadster's aerodynamics are courtesy of the Brits...

 

The first paragraph makes no sense to me.