Cheating!

[whiteshark]

Anybody else watch or hear the news today. How far does this go back as it is now petrol cars as well.

[haddock_n_chips]

11 million cars affected!

But how many other manufacturers are doing the same but just not found out yet?

Looks like it could be cross-marque software....!

[mark1gls]

So would that mean they would have to "de tune" the car so it produces lower emissions but would this of not been picked up on the cars first MOT as the emissions would be higher with all new cars?
Could they not just charge more for road tax and having these sort of cars with £30 road tax driving 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000 miles a year by rep drivers damaged the road etc and us paying £230 for the 3,000 miles I do in my Scirocco in not right! Sorry rant over.

[james butler]

I agree with mark1gls I don't think it's just vw doing things like this.
It's about time they shook up the whole tax system and just put it on the fuel. If you drive 20000 miles a year and drive a gas guzzler then you will need more fuel thus paying your fair share of use of the road and damage to the environment.
If you only use the road 3000 miles of the year you will only pay for what you use in the tank.
Thisway it doesn't matter what you drive it's just a fairer way of paying for what you use.
However some cars have been found to be 40 times the emission amount vw stated it would be and that's blatant abuse of tax banding and consumer trust.
To be honest this isn't the first time vw has disappointed in this area.
When they first introduced blue motion tech many people reported older cars being better on fuel than the blue motion stuff, even though blue motion was cheaper to tax and advertised as low emission.
Was it really?

[whiteshark]

Totally agree with Mark and James. You drive a 25 year old motor, maintain it well and get taxed to the hilt for the pleasure. Bring on a classic tax policy that reflects your mileage and your true yearly emissions. Which big manufacturer is next?

[jim91]

I'm sure they've all been at it, it's just that VW got found out. It'll all come out now though!

[Dr. Dub]

If VW with all their resources needed to do this to get emissions 'under control', you can bet the farm that other manufacturers have too.

All you have to do to cheat the ECU is plug in an Xbox controller and input L R L R U D U D X Y right trigger A.

[unknownmale]

With the carbon footprint of new cars being built we really should have tax exemption. Should be 30 not 40 years!

[haddock_n_chips]

We were talking at work today about how they managed to trick the testing process

we came up with either:

A.) The car could detect when it had been plugged in for testing and thus switch the ecu to "eco" mode
or
B.) More likely the ECU has a built in program that detects the car is running at a certain RPM (i.e. 2400,3200 or whatever the test process runs at) but not moving, i.e. the speedo isnt moving, if this happens for more than "x" amount of seconds the ecu clicks into "eco/testing" mode and thus passes stringent emission tests.

Its just to get it to fit into low tax bands for certain countries, it could run rough as shit but as long as its restriciting the emissions for the testing procedure then who cares, once the testing is finished it can switch back to normal mode and run smoothly, albeit not as "eco" friendly

As we say, if VW have done it you can be sure as shit that there will be more companies getting found out!

[the edmundator]

Anyone who's driven a modern car knows that everything pertaining to economy and emissions claimed by manufacturers is a load of old toss. This isn't really news.

[stormin]

We've been discussing this at work also!

When modern VW's and Audi's are emission tested say for an MOT, during the 'rev test' when stationary, they will only rev to around 2500 revs as a maximum! This is often too low to even trigger most diesel smoke testers. As soon as the wheels are turning, they will rev to the specified maximum. I can't believe this is the 'fix' though as its pretty obvious and has been known about for ages. The DVSA brought in an exemption for diesel smoke testing if the said vehicle wouldn't trigger the smoke meter allowing it to pass the emissions test without actually receiving one, by adding an advisory note to the MOT stating that, 'vehicle would not trigger smoke meter!'

As I've said, I can't believe this is the 'fix' though as it wouldn't be the most closely guarded secret going!

[the edmundator]

Yes - the 2011 Passat TDI I had earlier this year avoided emissions testing at the MoT because of this.

[james butler]

So what happens now?
Are the cars revaluation according to their true readings and taxed accordingly?
As it stands the vw brand has basically avoided via deception paying the correct tax.
If that's true then will the customer have the right to return the car with full refund due to the vehicle not full filling its description at point of sale?

[duggers]

This pertains to manufacturer testing prior to sale as in getting the figures using standard tests in a lab before the model is sold not MOT. The only test on UK MOT is smoke. The scandal is about levels of nitrogen dioxide and other nasty lung malleting shite.
It affects 1.6 and 2.0 litre diesels but not sure yet which years or engine codes.
Lawyers are already queuing up to provide class action at a price.
Thing is people driving the cars, Guardian readers and Green voters apart, probably wouldn't know what the whole thing is about as they are still getting 55mpg.
The best way to cut diesel emissions is make all buses electric and do diesel smoke testing on commercial vehicles.
Anyway i'm off out to rag my 182bhp Golf mk4 GT Tdi to ensure the turbo VNT isn't sticky.......