That “normal” low speed shudder resulted in my carpool’s 2014 Focus needing 4 clutch replacements in the first 36k miles. And yes, Ford called this “normal operation” during the Lemon law proceedings.

“More width and weight than all other little economy cars”

My old roommates had one of these! God it was ugly, but he got a custom license plate, “ROYGBIV”, that really brought the whole ride together.

Yes! My 4th Fantasy player to be chosen for the “Fantasy Player Who Deserves To Die A Slow, Painful Death” award! Yay team!

All the engines already have a full aftertreatment system. Instead of Urea-SCR and AMOX, VW opted to use a lean NOx trap and H2S catalyst. It is cheaper but less efficient, which makes sense for their inexpensive line of diesel vehicles.

Again, the language in this article leaves out the presence of a Lean NOx trap on the non-SCR fitted engines. This is a filter upstream of the DPF. It is very likely that the LNT is the device VW has turned off in these vehicles when it is not being emissions tested.

Don’t fret, you won’t lose power.

So I haven’t seen an explanation in the comments yet, but everyone should know that the non-SCR 2.0L engines use a lean NOx trap (LNT) for NOx conversion. I own a 2012 Jetta with LNT, and my Dad owns a 2013 Passat with SCR (notice that his isn’t on the list). LNT is a cheaper but less efficient alternative to a Urea…

My carpool has a ‘14 with 36k miles and is about to have clutch pack replacement #4...he is currently waiting on parts because there are allegedly 15 other customers in front of him at the same dealer.

We (3 Packer fans) were in Buckley’s on that fateful day, and based off how much gloating we did during the 16-0 lead, we certainly got what was coming to us for the rest of the evening.

A Demolition Derby isn’t that weird. But I would love to have a beer with whoever came up with the train demolition derby:

I lived in Stuttgart for 6 months for an internship, on multiple occasions the police would blockade the main cross-town street and 20 or so identical black tinted S-class’s would go flying by. The explanation I got each time was that a very high profile leader from the mid east was in town to consider purchasing some…

This is unfortunately more difficult than it seems. Modern diesel engines with PM filters require a regen cycle to burn off the soot built up on the filter, usually with the help of a diesel oxidation catalyst. This in turn requires some form of raw fuel delivery to the DOC to elevate temperatures on the DPF to >500…

The bigger drive for regulating particulate matter from Diesel exhaust is the carcinogenic effects of PM on the lungs. NOx has the bigger environmental effect (creates smog). Overall, with the emissions regs on diesel vehicles down something greater than 80% from just 10 years ago (and stricter regs on the way), we…