Not that I had planned to anyway but I’m pretty sure I wont be buying any VAG products moving forward. This is utterly ridiculous.

But of course, why wouldn’t another apparently partially inept CEO walk away with more money then most will make in a lifetime? I would have thought at this point in history that golden parachutes would have vanished after all the grief companies took for them in the last 20 years... No single person is so important…

yep. like I said elsewhere, GM may have kneecapped the image of diesel cars in the ‘80s, but Volkswagen just put a bullet in its head.

Well I guess I can kiss my dreams of a diesel 6 goodbye for good. I was hoping against reality that mazda would pull it off despite all the delays but if VW couldn’t do it without urea I doubt mazda can. And at this point, why would they? Diesel will be a dirty word to most consumers for some time to come now.

So here we are with more technology than ever and more ability to make power with fewer emissions than before, and we’re just done? No more need to improve? Jalopnik had an article here a few months ago about how the EPA regulations have forced technological advancements in powertrains that just weren’t coming along…

So, this is just like baseball. “They all do it” sounds too much like what my teenager would say when I caught him at something he knew was wrong. Somebody needs to start holding these huge corporations responsible for the indirect costs of what they consider to be ‘acceptable business practices’. I’m starting to see…

Shift Up > Shift Up > Shift Down > Shift Down > Steer Left > Steer Right > Steer Left > Steer Right > Brake > Accelerate > Start Engine

I am guessing the time improvement came from the weight loss from the 10 gallons of gas burned in the first run...

Getting better MPG than #1, and still quite fun. I rarely say this, but the list is missing something.

But according to diesel advocates, the cars are just emitting unicorn farts! Everything’s okay, everybody!

You can go fuck yourself.

Many cities have actually been ‘choking’ on diesel fumes, VW spewing multiple times over the (current) limits certainly doesn’t help. And even where there isn’t huge smog, the repercussions are still a real thing and do in fact affect lives. Maybe not by an easily measurable amount, but with these kinds of things…

Thanks, Wættherman.

From a comment I made yesterday in reply to @Nathanael:

why would they get any slack? Is that a great legal defense? “But your Honor. I may have lied, cheated and stole, BUT I DIDN’T KILL ANYONE!”

Cut them slack for lying to customers, lying to multiple governments, and then building their entire diesel marketing strategy around that lie? This ain’t gonna end soon.

You could argue, as with Al Gore, that advocating to any audience larger than themselves has the potential to drastically overcompensate towards a positive in environmental awareness than “just staying at home.”

There is something placed between the Pope and the door. This may be some basic kevlar armor that they insisted he use even if his window is not armored. I bet that could stop a rifle round.

Meanwhile, at the EPA

Don’t be an idiot. His parents told him that fumes from diesels were bad for the kids because his parents are old enough to remember when diesels put out a lot more fumes than they do now, and were in fact, worse for carrying kids around than a regular gasoline car. His parents were actually equating the TDI with an…