Meanwhile back in the good ol' US of States, GM have announced the specs for the 2016 Chevrolet Silverado, the country's second best selling pick up truck. You can either have it with a modest 6 litre Vortec V8 or a slightly bigger 6.6 litre Duramax V8 turbo diesel.

They are ALL cheating the regulations. As is usual with high-profile cases involving the state vs a major international corporation - the alleged infringement is insignificant next to the politics surrounding it.

No different to the EU's incessant targeting of IT companies such as Microsoft and Google.

No one seriously believes the EU is motivated primarily by the customer's interests. It's all politics.

Pick up trucks rule in the USA. They could run on uranium and spew weapons grade plutonium from the exhaust and it would be legal.

The latest ford focus runs with 5 times the maximum NOx, compare that with the shady VW golf (2013 flavour) which was only 4 times more, the golf also achieved much closer to its stated mpg www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34425306 As above, they're all at it, just that one got caught and will of course be made to pay big time whilst the others will get off relatively Scot-free if punished at all. It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.

The latest ford focus runs with 5 times the maximum NOx, compare that with the shady VW golf (2013 flavour) which was only 4 times more, the golf also achieved much closer to its stated mpg www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34425306 As above, they're all at it, just that one got caught and will of course be made to pay big time whilst the others will get off relatively Scot-free if punished at all. It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.

Quote: knockersbumpMKII " It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.'" Vehicle usage is largely irrelevant compared to veganism vs meat eating freakonomics.com/2011/11/16/agno ... -not-cows/ and that's without factoring in extra calories to be consumed if replacing motorised transport with physical effort.

Quote: knockersbumpMKII " It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.'" Vehicle usage is largely irrelevant compared to veganism vs meat eating freakonomics.com/2011/11/16/agno ... -not-cows/ and that's without factoring in extra calories to be consumed if replacing motorised transport with physical effort.

Indeed. If only the population of Ludhiana would switch to nut cutlets, the place would be like a forest glade

Quite apart from all the hysteria, finger pointing and basically "throwing a dead cat on the table", surrounding the VW revelations, is the stupidity in expecting engine emissions recorded on-test to be replicated in "real-world" driving conditions.

When an engine is submitted for Type Approval emissions testing, it is tested on an engine dynamometer, programmed to replicate different drive cycles. The test is a multi-thousand stage programme and although different stages are included for different vehicle types (passenger car, commercial vehicle, bus etc), it is common and standard across different engine manufacturers. It is not there to show what actually comes from the tailpipe in "real world" application, it's there to provide a minimum standard to achieve and also to make comparisons, so that consumers can make a more informed choice.

The problem with "real world" testing is that one "real world" is never the same as another.

This whole charade is based around comparing apples with oranges

The CEO of VW US has appeared before a Congressional Committee and claimed the problem was the fault of "a couple of rogue software engineers". Absolute, total garbage.

Having worked with and for Daimler Benz, I can categorically state it is not within the German industrial culture or even the German psyche, to allow such a situation to ever occur. No software engineer would be ever allowed to make such a decision without various managers approval, probably reaching to those directly below board level, if not higher

Oh don't worry a German leader in a sector of the global market that the Americans don't dominate won't be able to get away with the same kind of lies and bull excuses that the banks were.

There aren't enough ultra wealthy Americans heavily tied up with VW for them to be given leniancy.

These "lone nuts" have a lot to answer for ...

Indeed.
Let them produce the rogues, and even if said rogues were heavily rewarded in secret to fall on their swords and cop the blame,
I bet very simple procedural checking of production processes would show quickly that they couldn't have done it unnoticed and as soon as two becomes three etc the game's up!

You conspiracy theorists should be locked up.

The software was written by Bosch who now claim they warned VW that if they installed in cars for sale then it would be illegal. You have to ask what were Bosch doing selling this cheating software in the first place? Did VW commision the project? How much did they pay for it? Who authorised it?

IMO this was a deliberate policy to cheat the system and the public and it must of had approval all the way to the top as VW sought to overtake Toyota as the No1 car producer in the world.

VW are now open to major 'class' actions for fraud among other things as they charged a premium price justified by their claims to be greener and more economic than their competitors.

But fraud is part of capitalism, it's what greed is there for, and you love capitalism QED you love greed.

Is what VW have done any different to say Coca Cola funding organisations or "research" saying sugar doesn't cause obesity or likewise the research funded by the mobile 'phone industry saying how safe it is and the suppression of research that shows otherwise? All the companies should be taken to the cleaners by governments but they won't be.