VW will buy back U.S. Diesels

[Soup DeVille]

Too late now anyways that I recently got a Subie Crosstrek. 

Oh, missed that

Nice choice.

[ifcar]

Car and Driver just tested a post-update 2015 Passat TDI. Key takeaway:

Subjective driving detected no anomalies in its operation—not that we anticipated finding any. VW is telling owners to expect few to no driving differences outside of improved accelerator response and slightly different shifting behavior on automatic vehicles. Neither fuel economy nor performance should be affected. However, owners are warned of the possibility of up to 14 percent higher consumption of diesel exhaust fluid, depending on driving style.

That's the most appreciable change brought about by the software, which will also have been stripped of the defeat device code that triggered different emissions calibrations for dyno emissions testing and on-road driving. "For the most part, it's the dosing strategy for DEF" that allows cars with the new software to reduce emissions, says VW senior manager of regulatory affairs Rob Sutschek. No changes were made to other engine operating parameters, he says, specifically naming boost pressure, exhaust-gas recirculation scheduling, fuel-rail pressure, and injection timing. Which would indicate that at least for the third-generation diesels, the main benefit VW gained by cheating was merely stretching the DEF refill interval to coincide with a 10,000-mile oil change.

However:

Engine design for the generation-two TDIs, or 2012–2014 Passats, differs from the third generation's but still uses DEF to curb emissions, so the fix for those vehicles will likely follow the same path as the 2015 models, relying on greater DEF dosing to lower NOx emissions. All the diesels should eventually get completely new emissions hardware. In fact, this is required by the consent decree for the first-generation TDIs, or 2009–2014 Jettas, 2010–2014 Golfs, 2013–2014 Beetles, and 2010–2013 Audi A3s. These earlier models do not use DEF, however, which makes the fix more challenging. These cars employ a NOx trap that requires periodic purging; this is accomplished by running a rich fuel mixture, which will likely result in reduced fuel economy.

So, to recap:
- Early dieselgate TDIs broke the law so that they could get the EPA-beating gas mileage that owners expected.
- Later dieselgate TDIs broke the law for a fairly pathetic convenience reason, costing VW billions.

Full article: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-fix-is-in-we-test-both-fixed-and-cheater-vw-tdi-diesels-feature?src=socialflowFB&mag=cdb&dom=fb

[Tave]

I'm really glad I took the buyout then, my Jetta was a '14 model year.

Got my $350 check from Bosch last week.

[JWC]

One of my chemo patients took the trade deal from VW for his Passat. It was enough that he could throw in tax and license and get a Audi A8L. He got more than what he paid for the Passat originally.

[AutobahnSHO]

One of my chemo patients took the trade deal from VW for his Passat. It was enough that he could throw in tax and license and get a Audi A8L. He got more than what he paid for the Passat originally.

so insane. I just wonder how VW (or any company) can suffer this kind of whammy and survive.