Volkswagen gets busted.

I do my part in saving the environment by not buying a new car every 3 years.

Yes, I only get 19 mpg in my truck, but it's 15 years old, has 202,681 miles on the clock, and is pretty well maintained.

I'm sure that if I'd bought a new vehicle every 5 years, the production pollution would have far exceeded my gas guzzling.
 
I think that if VW responds appropriately, it'll pass. Though, it's going to hard to win back some people who bought TDIs as an environmentally friendly option who are going to see this like unknowingly buying the stick that is used to club baby seals.

Heck, GM/Chevy knowingly sold cars w/ poorly designed ignition cylinders that directly caused fatalities. Hasn't really stopped people from buying their vehicles.

I am a faulty ignition cylinder survivor. My car shut itself down several times at highway speed. Exciting!
 
Yeah, you are probably right. I think some of the eco people will not go back to diesel. I was more concerned with how their ECU fix is going to ruin my mileage and acceleration. I figure the 10,000 unregulated diesel trucks I pass every day do more to the NOX levels in one day than my station wagon could in a million years.

Yes and no. Yes, the truck engines are not required to be as clean as car engines but they are on their way. In the last 10 years or so California has been slowly instituting legislation to clean up diesel emissions on trucks.

If you pay attention (If you live in California) there are very few trucks on the road that "pour" out black clouds of soot every time they accelerate. Yeah, you still see emissions but they are much cleaner than they used to be.

As of 2014 (IIRC) they also required that all trucks in the state be sold with, or retrofitted with ( and I am not sure of the age of the trucks) what I refer to as "Re-burners". These re-burners trap most of the diesel soot in a filter-type unit and then re-heat it to break it down to a degree that it is cleaner. The re-burning process only occurs when the filter unit has reached a certain level of soot. When this occurs the vehicle will emit more exhaust but it comes out whiter than the old black soot.

The retrofitted or sold trucks that meet the standard will display an "Approved for California" decal on it.

The change to the new emissions standards has been costly and many owner/drivers will avoid California loads so they don't have to retrofit the trucks.

The only diesel trucks I know of that were not required to be retrofitted were fire apparatus but our '01 Seagraves we have at the department I used to work for were much, much cleaner than the early '90's E-One apparatus we had.

If anyone has better info than the above feel free to rebut or correct. Most of the above was as I recall it from when the department was debating the cost of retrofitting our fleet.
 
Yes and no. Yes, the truck engines are not required to be as clean as car engines but they are on their way. In the last 10 years or so California has been slowly instituting legislation to clean up diesel emissions on trucks.

If you pay attention (If you live in California) there are very few trucks on the road that "pour" out black clouds of soot every time they accelerate. Yeah, you still see emissions but they are much cleaner than they used to be.

As of 2014 (IIRC) they also required that all trucks in the state be sold with, or retrofitted with ( and I am not sure of the age of the trucks) what I refer to as "Re-burners". These re-burners trap most of the diesel soot in a filter-type unit and then re-heat it to break it down to a degree that it is cleaner. The re-burning process only occurs when the filter unit has reached a certain level of soot. When this occurs the vehicle will emit more exhaust but it comes out whiter than the old black soot.

The retrofitted or sold trucks that meet the standard will display an "Approved for California" decal on it.

The change to the new emissions standards has been costly and many owner/drivers will avoid California loads so they don't have to retrofit the trucks.

The only diesel trucks I know of that were not required to be retrofitted were fire apparatus but our '01 Seagraves we have at the department I used to work for were much, much cleaner than the early '90's E-One apparatus we had.

If anyone has better info than the above feel free to rebut or correct. Most of the above was as I recall it from when the department was debating the cost of retrofitting our fleet.
Interesting. and then there are, of course, those fine citizens that have their diesel vehicles (personal vehicles) re-tuned so that they can "roll coal".
 
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Is this akin to me covering up the ABS light on the Blazer so it stood a better chance of passing inspection?
 
Yes and no. Yes, the truck engines are not required to be as clean as car engines but they are on their way. In the last 10 years or so California has been slowly instituting legislation to clean up diesel emissions on trucks.

If you pay attention (If you live in California) there are very few trucks on the road that "pour" out black clouds of soot every time they accelerate. Yeah, you still see emissions but they are much cleaner than they used to be.

. . .

If anyone has better info than the above feel free to rebut or correct. Most of the above was as I recall it from when the department was debating the cost of retrofitting our fleet.

It depends on the size of the fleet. I think 3+ trucks needs to be all CARB (Ca. Air Resources Board) certified, smaller than that and you skate - for now.
 
So, what are the options out there if someone still wants a turbo diesel?

dodge_600_1.jpg


Dodge Ram, Cummins Turbo Diesel. :thu:
 
It depends on the size of the fleet. I think 3+ trucks needs to be all CARB (Ca. Air Resources Board) certified, smaller than that and you skate - for now.
This is the truth-but one I feel did not warrant attention in my post. Not that it isn't valid in the least.

The company I currently work for was able to skirt this issue due to us only having two diesel trucks in our fleet.

Yet, IIRC, they will not be overlooked for too long. I think the 2020 regs require every truck to be up to snuff.
 
The Economist wrote a nice piece about how this is just a symptom of the EU’s emissions regulations regime being blatantly rigged in favor of cheating like this. It also points a finger at VW’s focus on being the biggest car maker, which was also part of Toyota’s problems. And apparently the Germans are freaking out that this might kill their national reputation for quality and honesty in engineering. It’s one hell of a scandal.

Call BS if you want to but: When I first heard about this story the first thought that went through my head was Piech's announcement in 2011 about wanting to be the biggest, no matter the cost. Apparently, the cost included a 7+ billion dollar recall and a loss of consumer confidence.

Not to mention years of being the subjects of internet memes.
 
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