Back in 2013, the wheels were set in motion that would lead to one of the great car scandals in history. Volkswagen and other manufacturers of diesel-powered vehicles were found to have been cheating emissions tests through the use of defeat devices. Yet, the craziest part wasn’t the fines and arguably wasn’t the discovery of the cheating either, but how the cheating was found out.
Today, Thomas wrote about how the fallout of Dieselgate is continuing more than a decade later. It started innocently enough, with the International Council on Clean Transportation commissioning the West Virginia University Center for Alternative Fuels Engines and Emissions to test diesel car emissions. Holley:
It’s still crazy that Dieselgate was discovered by accident. Like holy shit imagine being those researchers, just trying to troubleshoot an issue you’re having and it leads you to uncover one of the biggest industrial scandals in decades.
Tbird:
College grad students asking questions no one else did.
Michael Beranek:
So, they would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those damn kids?
Harley-Davidson has been secretly working on a $6,000 motorcycle since 2021, and we’re due to see it next year. That’s great! In that article, I noted that one of the greatest uphill battles is getting an American rider to buy a new motorcycle when a used one will have low miles and be cheap. I didn’t elaborate further on this, but StillNotATony did:
This right here. SO many people buy a bike, then discover they don’t like riding when it’s cold.
Or hot.
Or raining.
Or when there’s traffic.
Or…
And the bike sits. Then it needs a new battery and the fuel system flushed and the tires replaced, even though it’s only got 2k miles.
Why would I buy a new bike for $10-15k when I can buy a nearly new one for a third of that (plus a few hundred in parts)?
Mark Tucker published a fancy Shitbox Showdown featuring a battle between a 1970 Lotus Elan vs a 2005 Lotus Elise. Melendez69:
2005 Lotus Elise (its real name) – $34,000
Now, that was funny. It caused me to chuckle audibly as I sipped on coffee.
It’s gold, Jerry.
Finally, Jason wrote a hilarious post about how the GOP bragged about making American cars great again with a photo of a Lada 2101. Now, I cannot nominate political posts for COTD, but I laughed so many times going through that comment section. Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man:
Well it appears to me that whomever made that post didn’t have a lot of time and was russian to get the job done because they didn’t have a lada time.
Have a great evening, everyone!
I had recently started working as a service advisor for a VW/Audi/Porsche dealer when my service manager called most of the service department in to let us know about VW’s cheating.
I was able to quickly fire an off an email to TTAC with some formal documentation so they could break the news. They only had a few minutes to get something together because while I was the first, I wasn’t the last source that day.
TTAC got some much needed attention as they were then credited throughout the initial coverage!
The following years were wild because I don’t think I have met a more smug group of people than the better part of VW diesel buyers.
Some dumped their cars immediately because of “hurt feelings” because they, apparently, had deluded themselves into thinking that driving a diesel was, somehow, saving the environment.
People would come in with their VW gift cards to get them activated and shout at us like we had something to do with the scandal.
Owners were given two $500 Visa gift cards and the one was only good at the dealer and would expire in like 12 months, or something, but then they would forget and try to use the card after it expired and start shouting at us about it.
Sooo much work went into modifying the fleet and VW bought back a lot of their vehicles, so much so that resellers would get involved and buy them off owners to then sell back to VW for a tidy profit.
When the Audi’s and Porsche’s came up for repairs, most needed new tires, brakes, fluids, batteries, wipers, etc. to be ready for resale and we were in a prime spot near a large auto auction, so my sales numbers were astronomical at over $300k in parts and labor for several months as we worked on all of the vehicles and got them ready for resale.
Wild times!
Ooh, I’d love to hear a service manager’s take from the other side of the counter. I don’t think there’s anybody that ripped people off more than Honda and Stelantis other than Audi or Mercedes, but you also have to deal with some of the worst customers.
I loved the comments on Jason’s post and definitely expected those for COTD, but I appreciate you sticking to your principles.
Thank you for staying classy, Mercedes!
Speaking of Dieselgate, seeing the thousands upon thousands of VWs sitting at the Silverdome parking lot was unreal. It was a great visualization of how large the scandal was.
Yeah, it was nuts. They didn’t even have a plan for them either they just parked the cars next to this decrepit stadium and nobody was certain VW was going to come back for the them. Fortunately the government settlement forced them to either repair or destroy the cars.