How long before VW does not exist? Historic plates here I come!

Get ready. A scandal involving VW where they don’t kill anyone... joke fodder for years.

I'm just absolutely shocked right now, Doug. Staggered. Who would have thought you were going to make a VW emissions joke!?

You know its a VW diesel just looking at it, and VW admitted they are all programmed to cheat the test. Moreover, in my state the results are submitted to the state electronically, so they know the vin model and make of the car being tested. Doesn’t sound like it would be hard for a state to refuse the tests of VW…

Michigan has the same type of restrictions, if you have those plates on you can only be going to or from a car show or other event.

This is one of the worst ideas I have ever read. It’s the automotive equivalent of telling someone to buy Lehman Brothers in mass quantities in early September 2008.

But you have to add the limitations to register as a collector or historic vehicle. What are those for DC? In NJ my dad registered his 86 911 as a historic and although you don’t have to get emissions testing, there is a modest mileage cap and you literally have to be going to/ from a car show or some other type of…

I am soo glad I read this article, because I was about to trade my TDI golf for a cheeseburger on Tuesday, now - I will hold out for a double-double

Your analogy fails — the difference with “If the government outlawed the making of new Dodge Charger Hellcats because of some technicality that says no new sedan can have over 700 horsepower” — is that the 700 hp legal Hellcat is amazing and works great and is perfect legal today, and if grandfathered in by a later…

I have a hard time envisioning building my financial empire by flipping diesel Volkswagens. But, if the prices dip, and someone is in the market for a decent car, and they are not worried about ramifications of whatever fix VW ends up being forced to make on their engines in a recall, then it might be a good purchase.

I don’t think the values of these cars will ever really recover. I do think they’ll dip lower than they end up, but I think the PR stink from this will hang around for quite a while.

I can’t consciously recommend buying a TDI. People ask me for recommendations on cars all the time, based on my day job. I’ve recommended VWs to many people. They made me/us all look foolish, they lied to their very dedicated customers and the environment is the biggest victim.

No way... the only people who will get great deals on TDI Jettas are car dealerships.

The other issue is whatever “fix” VW comes up with. It may cause significant reliability/performance issues.

Somebody, somewhere at VW coded this thing and that code was signed off on by someone above him. I find it hard to believe that something as egregiously illegal at this was not sent way up the ladder.

As for US companies separating boards and executives, their was a minor shareholder revolt at ExxonMobil a few years…

But VW didn’t “build to the test.” They found that they couldn’t do that without drastically raising the expense of their entry-level diesels and instead just rigged it to cheat the test. That’s quite a bit different, though I see the point you are trying to make.

BMW and Mercedes-Benz and GM built to the test. Their…

However, German boards tend to be far more involved in operations than simply showing up every few months for a hundred thousand dollar paycheck, a sweet meal or two and lots of patting each other on the back.

They typically have board members related to such specific things as engineering, design, factories, labor…

It doesn't change the emissions, it just changes the emissions reading... so they look low enough to pass federal standards.

the diesel cruze isn’t exactly setting the wold on fire.

Surprised they can find anyone at VW that knows anything. I suppose they were all following orders.