New Slant on VW
I was talking last night with a close friend about how much I despise Volkswagen for the crime it committed vis-à-vis the environment, and he pointed out, kindly but firmly: Wow, that’s a lot of hate you’re carrying around, and it sounds so weird coming from you, especially. You might want to consider throwing it away.
Holy cow; he was so right. In an instant, I realized how childishly stupid and indefensible my position was and, in particular, how misplaced it was, when 99.9% of those 200,000 employees did nothing wrong. I was punishing people for something they didn’t do.
That’s not who I am, and that’s why I’m writing this post: to accept VW’s apology, and, more importantly, to make one of my own, to all those I affected negatively with my vitriol, including my friends and 2GE readers, not to mention a few completely innocent people at the dealership.
VW is sorry–and so am I.
Now that’s behind us.
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P.S. Frequent commenter Peter Buck writes: I agree that hate isn’t called for but I believe that VW owes us and the environment more than an apology. It may not be possible to calculate precisely the dollar value of their lies (and although they were the lies of a few, the entire company must take responsibility), but surely a ballpark dollar value can be arrived at and the proper amends agreed upon.
Oh, to be sure. I will be very surprised if the justice system doesn’t tear them apart. I expect a fat check, which I will well deserve, given that my car is now worth far less than it was before, not to mention the disappointment of knowing that I am unwittingly polluting our skies. I’ve lost the hatred, but my demand for justice has not been blunted.
I once had the privilege of providing transportation for a special speaker from the airport to our church. It was raining. When we got to my car which happened to be a 1965 VW beetle, he was aghast. He had sworn to never do business with the Volkswagon company because of their involvement with the Natzis during WWII. After a very brief discussion I brought him to the rationalization that he could accept the fact that the leadership and the workers in the company had nothing to do with those atrocities. It helped to know that his alternatives were catching an expensive cab or walking in the rain. It was a long quite ride to church but I think he learned from the experience. I know I did.
Terrific story, Larry. Thanks.
I meant to say that the current leadership had no responsibility for the atrocities. It is well known that VW had responsibility for a lot of evil during the war.
Right. I inferred that.
Henry Ford I was virulently anti-semitic. He even bought a newspaper to air his anti-semitic views. I wonder how many people refused to buy Fords, Mercurys, or Lincolns because of that.
The noted pianist, Artur Rubinstein, was disgusted by the anti-semitic behavior of Germany and stopped playing there.
Hi Craig,
Very true ! Hate makes a prisoner of us all. The actions of a relatively small number of VW employees involved was undoubtedly reprehensible. The actions were also a betrayal of the decades of hard work and dedication by many hundreds of thousands of their fellow employees. It was also a betrayal of loyal customers, investors and millions of others livelihoods rely on VW’s good reputation.
But I doubt whether these employees saw themselves as “evil’, “villains” or even criminals. However indignant you may feel, these people are just humans, and as such are subject to human folly, weaknesses, bad judgement and self-delusion.
Hate and resentment are counter-productive and only prevent positive progress.
I appreciate your remarks, as always.
I have always been a VW fan and have owned over 25 examples of air cooled and 3 water cooled . I never generated much hate for Vdub as it seemed like the fanatical Herr Piech pushed them to create magic from which no reality was attainable .While I have no love of diesels Vw made nice ones up until the issue years ,but their handling of the problem has shown a lack of character .They should simply by back all the cars and move on .I don’t think the reason they did this was to make more money (although they surely did against the competition) but more to satisfy a hellish taskmaster .Probably 5 to 10 people out of many thousands actually participated in the fraud
A reader notes: Craig: good morning. As I attending the L.A. auto show last fall, as a friend and I approached the VW area, viewed the display, we both thought: why isn’t there a big sign “We are sorry”… When I read your note today I thought maybe we aren’t the only ones who believe your thoughts… Have a major league day.
I understand. Trust me, I’m never buying another VW, but I just needed to let go of the hatred I felt for them and how I was inflicting it on innocent people. What’s more, these are people who were injured far worse than I was; they have to work there five days a week, working with infuriated customers.
“Major league day.” I like that! Thanks.
Craig: I agree that hate isn’t called for but I believe that VW owes us and the environment more than an apology. It may not be possible to calculate precisely the dollar value of their lies (and although they were the lies of a few, the entire company must take responsibility), but surely a ballpark dollar value can be arrived at and the proper amends agreed upon. – Peter
I will be very surprised if the justice system doesn’t tear them apart. I expect a fat check, which I will well deserve, given that my car is now worth a lot less than it was before, not to mention the emotional trauma associated with unwittingly polluting our skies. I’ve lost the hatred, but my demand for justice has not been blunted.
Sorry, but I’m not sorry for holding VW accountable for one of the biggest and most damaging environmental frauds in history. Corporations are devices for spreading and hiding liability, and we can’t allow the people in this corporation who did this to walk away with an apology. VW needs to fix or replace the cars so they comply with emissions standards, push aggressively on e-cars, and do much more to make up for the damage done to our atmosphere. And, some people need to go to jail.
I’m thinking about Larry Lemmert’s comments. Many years ago I owned a VW Beetle. And, I worked with a Jewish lady who had escaped from Germany. She was appalled that I, as a Jewish person, would have considered owning a VW. But then I thought about the VW dealership where I had my car serviced. The service manager was Jewish. How could he work for a place like that? We know the answer. Political leaders create situations that citizens can’t avoid. What were ordinary German citizens to do in 1939?
My first new car was a 1964 VW. Later I had a 1971 Porsche 914. A coworker had a Porsche 411. I could write a book about all the problems I had with my 914, the problems my coworker had with her 411, and the irresponsible behavior of VW – Porsche – Audi and the two Porsche dealers in Minneapolis – St. Paul. Instead of fixing known problems, the manufacturer repeated them from year to year. Probably I will never buy a VW product again. One could say that they have probably changed policies since then, but not necessarily so. Corporation policies tend to outlive those who created them and can go on for decades.
Regarding multinationals during the war, GM made tanks and cars for both sides under the GM name in the US and Opel name in Europe
At that time, did GM have any control over Opel?
I still have an ’81 Westy that I hope to spend most of my retirement traveling around in. some managers did bad things, but the workers still made good vehicles. And I’m sure today’s workers are not to be blamed for “the sins of the fathers”.
So continue to wave, honk or flash lights at aged hippies putting along the road in “vintage” campers. And we’ll try not to block traffic too much!
I almost didn’t read this email but am I glad I did. Brilliant Craig and the effect will be immeasurable. I know how you feel and you are so entitled to that. Wow! It’s so uncommon to read such positive action. We need more of this awareness in this world. Sincerely!
I am currently driving the best car I have ever owned, a 2013 VW Passat TDI. This is the sixth Volkswagen we have owned over many years and the fourth diesel VW that we have owned. My VW Passat gets a minimum of 34 mpg when I do just in town driving and readily gets 50mpg on the highway. On long trips I have done close to 900 miles on a single tank of fuel several times. It now has 44k miles on it and it has had zero problems and it still has original tires and brakes. I would buy another car like this in a minute.
VW as a company certainly must be punished for this level of deception and unfortunately their independently owned dealerships have felt the pain of this as well. I do understand that the diesel emissions exceed what VW originally claimed, but I fail to understand how I have been personally harmed by VW’s deception. We also own a 2004 VW Passat diesel and it has about 100k miles on it now and while that car gets decent mileage it does have noticeable exhaust emissions when I am accelerating heavily. So from my perspective this newest 2013 VW diesel is a huge improvement from the past. When VW announces a recall/update for this particular car I doubt that I would be interested in doing anything to a car that has performed so well. As far as decreased value, if that is true, it doesn’t matter at all to me since I plan to continue driving this wonderful German car built in the USA. I remain confused by many responses to VW’s corporate deception as my experience does not align with much of what I am reading and hearing.
To be clear I am disappointed and disgusted that the largest car company in the world might be willing to risk their longstanding worldwide credability on this deception. Never the less I remain a very satisfied current owner of a 2013 VW Passat diesel who now has received a $1000 Goodwill gesture from VW. I thought you might benefit from hearing a different slant on this story.
Yes I think we all feel that VW have tried to spoof their customers with electronic adjustments to the emissions equipment, however, I would suggest that perhaps the only way to ensure that we as individuals reduce our carbon footprint is to move to non polluting electric vehicles or even better to either walk or use bicycles.
My son who is living in Shanghai one of the most polluted cities in Asia uses an electronic bike…..are you doing your bit to help the environment?
To be honest, no. But if you saw the way I shop, eat, work, etc. I think you’d be somewhat impressed.
I also think it’s at least somewhat cool that 2GE has brought together so many wonderful people, and that, collectively, we’re making a significant difference.
Craig I liked that you owned up to how their bad actions were stealing from you and who you are. Setting aside your anger at vw like setting aside any bad experience is sometimes the best of actions. I do believe we are all judged by our culmative actions, how we react when we do wrong, and how we make amends or correct our bad acts. Therefore my belief is vw which has some of the best engineers, an outstanding workforce, a big and productive worldwide manufactoring system which provides good jobs, use their talents in pushing the envelope on renewable powered transportation, that would show respect to the offended while making amends in the best possible way
Yes, exactly.
Craig, Your special gift is being able to raise a thought provoking subject and then not go on too long. I am truly impressed at such efficient writing.
It is of course aided by your characteristic “autopilot” that seems to take you to the right course no matter which way the wind blows.
That’s so flattering; thanks very much my friend.
it is not often I write here, but VW is a great make, they have made great cars over many years, and also think that what they done was stupid, but how many cars are out there that the manufactures said does this to the gallon and you buy it on that promise but they have also lied to all of us. but like VW they all use a rolling road to give us these figures, and you honestly think Ford, Fiat, GM or whoever have not done the same cookoo.
remember 20 years ago CFC gas they said it damages the Ozone layer, ok their right, but I pointed out that the chancers of having a fridge with that now are very slim, yet they still say fridges are still dangerous now its the EPS that is the packing in the fridge they had 20 + years to do something about that but they still charge Joe Public for this disposal why don’t they say $10 tax per unit done same with CRTs they say its the high lead content yet flat screens are now classed as a hazard, don’t figure.
I think there are two angles to the VW scandal that are rarely mentioned.
One is that VW (and other automakers) are being pushed to do a thing which is inherently contradictory. To increase the efficiency of a diesel, the technical requirement is essentially to increase the temperature/pressure ratio as much as possible. But the downside of this is the increased production of nox, which is a function of temperature. The same issues arise in attempts to maximise the efficiency of fossil fueled powerplants.
Now the carmakers solve the problem by adding exhaust equipment which reduces the increased nox content of the exhaust gases. However, there is a cost trade-off involved. Furthermore, the car owner is responsible for regular maintenance of the nox removal system, or else it will stop working pretty quickly, meaning that the nox output increases to the ‘normal’ level.
The second angle is the fact that this issue of the chip-tuning trick to fool the regulator has in fact been known for at least 5 years prior to the scandal. It was discussed at length in automagazines in The Netherlands. The regulator did nothing about it at the time.
While of course this doesn’t mean that VW (and other automakers) was justified in doing what it did, but at the very least we should accept that VW might have been under the impression that there little ‘trick’ was condoned by the regulator. We might also agree that the sudden and ferocious onslaught which suddenly erupted five years after the ‘secret’ was in the open, was perhaps just a bit hypocritical and over-the-top. We might even stop to think whether this whole scandal was not part of some smart PR move by VW’s competitors. After all, who benefitted by VW’s sudden crucifixion in the media over what was a rather public ‘secret’ after all.
Anyway, none of this is to excuse VW’s behaviour, but perhaps it will put some things in context and remind us that we – as consumers – need to set clear and reasonable demands, and then enforce those demands in a predictable manner. If we appear to condone something one year, and then suddenly become outraged in the next year, all we are doing is causing chaos, uncertainty and misunderstanding. That hurts us as much as it does the automaker. No-one benefits. (except perhaps lawyers and media bosses who are always looking out for the next sensational bout of public outrage, ready to cash in).
Joris, thank you for your insightful and well reasoned comment.
Well said, very well said indeed !
I have a 2013 passat TDI – last trip to California, 1,140 miles, 23 gallons of #2 diesel… purchased with cash from VW – this is a GREAT car.
What I read here is the dichotomy between punishing prior behaviour vs. ensuring it doesn’t happen again. There’s nothing we can do about all the cars that exist.
If everyone who owns a VW were to scrap it and buy (for example) a Pinto – ok bad example – how about a ’68 Charger, or Corvair in reverse…
My point is that we made the best choices we could at the time.
VW management (probably only 6 guys in an office somewhere…) made some stupid choices – no question, but they also made a reliable, inexpensive, easy to repair vehicle for many years. And relatively fuel efficient.
So rather than demonize all the products of 1 company, let’s be a) more selective, b)look for a “fix” for the dirtier engines, and c) work to make the electric vehicle the only intelligent choice for the “modern” consumer.
Roger,
May I add my appreciation of the profoundly sensible content of your comment and observation.
Well said !