VW emissions fallout.

Brian H

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if anyone has been cheated then it is the government (ultimately taxpayer) Taxation rates have been set based on emissions, and VW / Audi/Skoda etc owners have been paying too little tax for the poison their cars have been kicking out, so those owners have got away with paying less, so how they can now say they have been ripped off is beyond me.
A lot probably chose these cars as company vehicles based on a tax incentive basis, they have been running round in better performing vehicles than a real emission reduction would have been able to produce, and paying less tax for it.
Now if they had been told 'ok your real emissions take you up a couple of tax bands and you now owe us ££££'s' then that is a reason to feel aggrieved.
I am surprised the government is not after the lost revenue and making the owners pay extra.

I have been on the sharp end of a proper emissions reduction, where Fiat reduced the emissions by software so much that our (then new) Fiat 500 had difficulty pulling off and going up hills. That was a software modification in place all the time, not just for a test.
After Watchdog got involved Fiat recalled them, They re-flashed (remapped) the software and it was a different car afterwards.
Maybe that is what will happen to the VW's when they go for the modification, and they get down graded to perform to the tax rates they have been aligned with.
Now that would be reason for compensation.
No real difference after the software update, TBH you would not know they had done it, my understanding is that VW has come to an agreement with the government about keeping the same tax banding.
 

t-tony

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if anyone has been cheated then it is the government (ultimately taxpayer) Taxation rates have been set based on emissions, and VW / Audi/Skoda etc owners have been paying too little tax for the poison their cars have been kicking out, so those owners have got away with paying less, so how they can now say they have been ripped off is beyond me.
A lot probably chose these cars as company vehicles based on a tax incentive basis, they have been running round in better performing vehicles than a real emission reduction would have been able to produce, and paying less tax for it.
Now if they had been told 'ok your real emissions take you up a couple of tax bands and you now owe us ££££'s' then that is a reason to feel aggrieved.
I am surprised the government is not after the lost revenue and making the owners pay extra.

I have been on the sharp end of a proper emissions reduction, where Fiat reduced the emissions by software so much that our (then new) Fiat 500 had difficulty pulling off and going up hills. That was a software modification in place all the time, not just for a test.
After Watchdog got involved Fiat recalled them, They re-flashed (remapped) the software and it was a different car afterwards.
Maybe that is what will happen to the VW's when they go for the modification, and they get down graded to perform to the tax rates they have been aligned with.
Now that would be reason for compensation.
Perhaps that's why some don't want their cars touched Pete, but the fact remains that this has tainted VAG cars and lowered their retail value, no through any fault of the buyer. They were lied to by VW at the end of the day.

Tony
 

t-tony

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No real difference after the software update, TBH you would not know they had done it, my understanding is that VW has come to an agreement with the government about keeping the same tax banding.
Would be nice if that were made public Brian, but probably never will be. Is your Tiguan of M.O.T. age yet, be interesting to know the result of a proper emission test.

Tony.
 

Tfp

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I have been on the sharp end of a proper emissions reduction, where Fiat reduced the emissions by software so much that our (then new) Fiat 500 had difficulty pulling off and going up hills. That was a software modification in place all the time, not just for a test.
After Watchdog got involved Fiat recalled them, They re-flashed (remapped) the software and it was a different car afterwards.
Maybe that is what will happen to the VW's when they go for the modification, and they get down graded to perform to the tax rates they have been aligned with.
Now that would be reason for compensation.
That is precisely why I sold my Tiguan.

I was planning to get it rolling road tested for power before and after the modification but being 4wd it was going to cost a few quid.

In the end I couldn't be bothered by all this, and as my car was approaching the warranty end date I didn't fancy having to deal with any subsequent problems that the modification might have caused. I was certainly going to push for an extension to the warranty.

As far as value goes, I got a fair price selling to a VW dealer, I personally think the residuals haven't been affected on the Tiguans. But then it was a really great car, and that comes from myself who has owned many, many cars, including some rather expensive ones.

So my only grievance is that I intended to keep it for 10 years or so which didn't happen.

Tim
 

Tfp

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No real difference after the software update, TBH you would not know they had done it, my understanding is that VW has come to an agreement with the government about keeping the same tax banding.
Our government are so weak, why not go for a few billion like the US??
 

Redline

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It's clearly not the end for VW if you read this BBC article.

It appears that something done by software guys was deployed by management deliberately and then covered up at a senior level. The software guys got rolled over and then blamed. Am surprised they stayed quiet. (Or maybe they were paid handsomely).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38603723

It clearly is possible to run diesels cleanly but they are no use in the real world when you do.
The updates being applied won't affect the performance in any way. You'll only be able to use the real world mapping and not the test mode. It might make passing statutory testing harder though.

I'd love to know how cars measure up against large commercial vehicles. How many cars equal one truck?
Am starting to believe what many of you are saying that diesels are on their way out and quickly. Meeting emissions targets is all but impossible without massive complexity. Bad news for The likes of Land Rover whose whole range is diesel especially after they started production of their own engines to replace the old Ford Duratorq engines. I bet they are seeking petrol replacements alongside hybrids. Not easy to do for large heavy cars.
Maybe we will see combined sub 2L supercharged/turbo charged petrol engines, but then, the fuel burn in the cylinders will create exactly those high temperature conditions that cause NOx to be created so requiring more cleaning.
 

Brian H

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Would be nice if that were made public Brian, but probably never will be. Is your Tiguan of M.O.T. age yet, be interesting to know the result of a proper emission test.

Tony.
Agree 100%, would be nice to know what they did, one thing I did notice with the Tiguan (probably not related to the emissions issue) was the foul smell of the exhaust fumes when idling, does not smell like any other diesel I have. Yes it is a 13 plate Tony, MOT will be due in the next few months I think, I'll let you know the readings once I get them.
 

Brian H

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Our government are so weak, why not go for a few billion like the US??
I would not be surprised if the government have accepted a handsome payout to allow the vehicles produced to date to remain the the same emission category.
 

Redline

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Agree 100%, would be nice to know what they did, one thing I did notice with the Tiguan (probably not related to the emissions issue) was the foul smell of the exhaust fumes when idling, does not smell like any other diesel I have. Yes it is a 13 plate Tony, MOT will be due in the next few months I think, I'll let you know the readings once I get them.
I would expect the smell is directly related to the emissions issue. Sounds like to pass the tests they've had to reduce the burn temperature in the cylinder. That I would expect had produced a different profile of exhaust gasses including some components that aren't measured. Not sure how they can do that when the only inputs are air and fuel. I expect they modulate the fuel injector and inject at a different time (early or late) compared to normal running.
 

t-tony

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If we have to run a modern clean diesel inside for long and can't get the extractor on it, it soon makes your eyes sting and it smells awful

Tony.
 

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We found that while travelling over several visits that the gases emitted by even gas jobs smelled horrible compared to what we were used to in Canada! We all had eye irritation problems for the whole time we were travelling. Seems the standards in Europe at the time were much lower than in Canada and really have heard very little on the VW case except on American news. Any other parts of the world being affected @Cooper? JIM
 

smiffy

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now if VW came up with an offer like a couple of years free servicing as compo, we'd probably all accept that, wouldn't we? I know I would.
 

Brian H

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Well yesterday we had our catalytic converter light illuminate less than 600 miles after the software update. I'll book it in to the garage and see what they say! Grrrrrr......
 

mrscalex

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If we have to run a modern clean diesel inside for long and can't get the extractor on it, it soon makes your eyes sting and it smells awful

Tony.
Here's your bizarre fact of the day. You can't kill yourself with diesel fumes, only petrol fumes. The Police are called from time to time to deal with attempted suicides from feeding in an exhaust pipe from diesel cars and all they have to deal with are people with very, very bad headaches.
 

mrscalex

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Well yesterday we had our catalytic converter light illuminate less than 600 miles after the software update. I'll book it in to the garage and see what they say! Grrrrrr......
I won't be having the software update done on my car. I simply do not trust Seat/VW anymore - better the devil you know.
 

mrscalex

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now if VW came up with an offer like a couple of years free servicing as compo, we'd probably all accept that, wouldn't we? I know I would.
Well bizarrely not only would I probably accept it but it would probably encourage me to keep the car rather than sell it like I currently intend to do.
 

Cooper

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We found that while travelling over several visits that the gases emitted by even gas jobs smelled horrible compared to what we were used to in Canada! We all had eye irritation problems for the whole time we were travelling. Seems the standards in Europe at the time were much lower than in Canada and really have heard very little on the VW case except on American news. Any other parts of the world being affected @Cooper? JIM
Not sure about Australia and the issue is rarely on the news. I have not heard of any uprising or vocal slandering towards VW. As far as standards go we are well behind Europe and other places. We have the CO2 emission stickers on new cars but only the tree huggers seem to care about that. In many states in Australia once the car is registered it is not looked at for roadworthy compliance much less CO2 emissions!
 

t-tony

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Well yesterday we had our catalytic converter light illuminate less than 600 miles after the software update. I'll book it in to the garage and see what they say! Grrrrrr......
Good to know Brian, if not for you. We'll be watching ours like a hawk.

Tony
 

Tfp

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Well yesterday we had our catalytic converter light illuminate less than 600 miles after the software update. I'll book it in to the garage and see what they say! Grrrrrr......
Is your car still under manufactures warranty? If so demand you get the warranty extended.

This is exactly the thing I was worried about.
 

Brian H

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Good to know Brian, if not for you. We'll be watching ours like a hawk.

Tony
Booked in on Thursday, will see what they say!

Is your car still under manufactures warranty? If so demand you get the warranty extended.

This is exactly the thing I was worried about.
The car was a used car when we bought it, the dealer extended the warranty by 2 years so all should be covered.

After a bit of googling it seems as if some Tiguan models require to have different mapping at the recall!, i'll wait and see what they say before jumping to conclusions.
 
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