VW Emissions Scandal

[The True Adonis]

Cali tough.  Cars must have all original emission equipment.  NO mods.  Only cars 1975 down exempt.  Heavy pressure to change even that exemption, with very little resistance to meet (classic car collectors, more or less).

Specs will change as a car ages, but nowhere within reality of matter.  Almost no 80s, 90s cars around Cali in most counties.  They can't pass, usually because of rings and/or v.gs or because they've been so far removed from original state.

If people would just stop having babies, we could have never ending supplies of 1967 Lincoln Continentals.  The problem is not cars, its too many humans.

[Las Vegas]

If people would just stop having babies, we could have never ending supplies of 1967 Lincoln Continentals.  The problem is not cars, its too many humans.

I agree.  It comes from the cheap value of people, which is the wrong way for us to be.

[Palumboism]

By Bob Lutz
Ferdinand Piëch, the immensely powerful former chief of Volkswagen's supervisory board, is more than likely the root cause of the VW diesel-emissions scandal. Whether he specifically asked for, tacitly approved, or was even aware of the company's use of software to deliberately fudge EPA emissions testing is immaterial.

I sat next to him at an industry dinner in the Nineties, just after the fourth-generation Golf had debuted at the Frankfurt show. I told him, "I'd like to congratulate you on the new Golf. First of all, it's a nice-looking car, but God, those body fits!"
"Ah, you like those?"

"Yeah. I wish we could get close to that at Chrysler."

"I'll give you the recipe. I called all the body engineers, stamping people, manufacturing, and executives into my conference room. And I said, 'I am tired of all these lousy body fits. You have six weeks to achieve world-class body fits. I have all your names. If we do not have good body fits in six weeks, I will replace all of you. Thank you for your time today.' "

That's the way he ran everything. It's what I call a reign of terror and a culture where performance was driven by fear and intimidation. He just says, "You will sell diesels in the U.S., and you will not fail. Do it, or I'll find somebody who will." The guy was absolutely brutal.

I imagine that at some point, the VW engineering team said to Piëch, "We don't know how to pass the emissions test with the hardware we have." The reply, in that culture, most likely was, "You will pass! I demand it! Or I'll find someone who can do it!"

In these situations, your choice was immediate dismissal or find a way to pass the test and pay the consequences later. Human nature being what it is—if it's lose your job today for sure or lose your job maybe a year from now, we always pick maybe a year from now.

That management style gets short-term results, but it's a culture that's extremely dangerous. Look at dictators. Dictators invariably wind up destroying the very countries they thought their omniscience and omnipotence would make great. It's fast and it's efficient, but at huge risk.

Volkswagen

This diesel fiasco is immeasurable in terms of damages—so much worse than Toyota acceleration, Ford Firestone tires, or GM ignition switches. In all those cases, tragically, people died, but it wasn't premeditated. You settle with the victims' families, pay the fine, put in the new parts, and for $1.5 billion, it can all be contained. But this Volkswagen mess is like the disaster that keeps on giving.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a27197/bob-lutz-vw-diesel-fiasco/

[sync pulse]

This is the result of company executives/bullies who have the impression that if you work hard enough and are smart enough you can contradict physics and chemistry.

For every scion of industry with the reputation of hanging his ass over the edge and through testicular content pulling it all off...there are others who have hung his ass over the edge and his testicular content was brusquely removed.