I should feel lucky. I’ve owned several VWs over the years, but never considered a diesel option. Not that I had any prejudice against a different kind of engine — I owned one of Mazdas original rotary engine cars in the 1970s — but the value proposition just didn’t make much\u00a0sense to me.<\/p>\n
Here’s why: A car with a diesel engine costs several thousand dollars\u00a0more. Depending on fuel prices, diesel fuel may cost more too. Right now, we’re talking of up to 15\u00a0cents per gallon more than regular here in Arizona, although that state of affairs can be reversed as prices change. The picture may be very different where you live. \u00a0So in Europe, it’s more advantageous to buy a diesel car.<\/p>\n
Supposedly diesel engines last longer, but a VW service writer I have known for a while told me that scheduled maintenance is\u00a0more expensive. Recent VW diesels also require that you also add a diesel exhaust fluid, usually\u00a0called urea,\u00a0at regular intervals\u00a0to help control emissions. Despite routinely getting\u00a0more than 40 miles per gallon on the highway, the diesel engine proposition is not as economical as it seems to be for a passenger car or SUV.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it may well be that the initial refusal to set up a system requiring urea\u00a0is why VW engineers decided to cheat the system beginning in 2009. So when the vehicle was placed on a dynamometer to test emissions levels, the vehicles would pass with flying colors. But the software was designed to turn off emissions controls under normal use, thus emitting up to 40 times the legal limit.<\/p>\n
Outrageous!<\/p>\n
And it wasn’t just for VW vehicle sold in the U.S. Millions of cars around the world were also programmed to cheat the system, and VW has been forced\u00a0to pay through the nose for its transgressions. The fixes are less severe in Europe and are already being performed, but the authorities in this country wanted to exact blood in the form of a settlement exceeding\u00a0$15 billion. It means that people who bought the offending vehicles can sell them back to VW, or break their leases without penalty. They will also receive up to $10,000 in good will payments. In addition to fines, VW must invest billions to develop electric cars. But that’s where the industry is moving anyway.<\/p>\n
Those who want to keep their cars can still get the free fix from VW — when and if it’s approved\u00a0— and still be eligible for the goodwill payments. U.S. dealers are also getting chunks of cash\u00a0to help compensate for lost business. So far this year, sales in this country\u00a0down over 13% for the first 10 months of 2016 compared to the previous year. But that’s not as bad as it seems, because 25% of VW’s U.S. sales were diesels before the ax fell.<\/p>\n
While it appears most customers will take the settlement, some will, and can, opt to sue, and individual states can also take separate legal action.\u00a0So far, it doesn’t seem any other car company has pulled a similar stunt, although some, such as Ford, Hyundai and Kia, have been accused of faking fuel economy ratings.<\/p>\n
To be fair, I think VW should be forced to pay\u00a0billions of dollars to European customers too, but that might be enough money to sink the company, thus leaving hundreds of thousands of people out of work, and abandoning tens of millions of loyal VW customers. So the eye-for-an-eye approach isn’t practical.<\/p>\n
But even after the settlement is history, VW will have to find ways to keep customers with an expanding lineup that is meant to\u00a0appeal to changing tastes. At a time where regular\u00a0passenger cars aren’t doing so well, VW has announced the Atlas, a three-row SUV that will debut in the U.S. next year. It’s designed to appeal to a class of customers that VW has not, as yet, been able to reach, but represents a major growth segment of the market.<\/p>\n
And what about those responsible or this outrage? Well, VW initially claimed\u00a0it was all the fault\u00a0of some wayward engineers who confronted a problem not easily solved, to tame diesel engines to meet tightening emissions requirements around the world. But it’s hard to believe key executives didn’t sign off on this scheme — even though they deny it. So the corporate bloodletting may not be over, but if some executives have to be fired, or imprisoned, because they cheated customers, so be it. Large corporations are generally treated far-too-lightly when it comes to breaking the law.<\/p>\n
But what about the cars themselves?<\/p>\n
Well, VW still has a lineup of unique vehicles that have an offbeat appeal. Believe it or not, they still sell a car labeled Beetle, but it has only a passing\u00a0resemblance with the rear-engined classic that made the company famous. The version sold in this country, dubbed A5, is built in Mexico and based on the Jetta compact. It’s actually a pretty good car, though hardly space efficient if you need to carry passengers in the rear seat. It has a starting price of just under $20,000, but prices can soar\u00a0to over $32,000 for the fancier R-Line SEL.<\/p>\n
I nearly bought a Beetle once, several decades ago, when it cost around $2,000. That car had a manual transmission and forget about air conditioning. As I recall, even the radio was optional.<\/p>\n