The VW Diesel TMI
November, 2015

I own a 2011 VW Jetta station wagon, with a diesel engine.  In VW nomenclature, it is a “TDI,” which stands for “Turbo Direct Injection.”  I bought this car because of the diesel and its promised great fuel efficiency - which it certainly has delivered over the last four years - and also because it was promoted as “clean running.”  Everything a mildly well off liberal could ask for in one environmentally responsible package.  Now, my car might more appropriately be designated a VW “TMI,” since VW has been caught deliberately adjusting their diesel engines to run “clean” only when under official scrutiny.  They otherwise go blithely forth across the roads spewing unallowable amounts of nitrogen oxides into the air.

When I bought my diesel powered car, there certainly wasn’t a great deal of competition for my business; only BMW and Mercedes Benz offered station wagons with diesel engines in the U.S., and both these models required regular visits to dealers to add chemicals (urea) to the powertrain system to break down the nitrogen oxides.  Since my car will end up with me in a small town on Vancouver Island, where VW has a local dealership but neither BMW nor MB can be found within a hundred kilometers, I chose VW.  Particularly, going back to the mildly well-off liberal persona, the VW not only had much better mileage, but it carried no status whatsoever, and cost thousands less.  It was the clear winner in the “reverse snobbery” category.  How more “responsible” can a person be?   And it runs in the family - my wife purchased a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid the year before.  Both cars have been equally and exceptionally fuel - efficient. 

Now, one thing to keep in mind with the purchase of a hybrid or diesel powered high mileage vehicle.  We don’t buy them to save money.  My car certainly cost $5,000 more than a base gasoline-powered model, and the additional expense of the diesel engine probably represents half of this.  The gas-powered 2011 VW Jetta was listed as averaging 23 MPG in the city, 33 MPG on the highway.  My diesel powered 2011 VW Jetta was listed as averaging 30 MPG in the city, 42 MPG on the highway.  Certainly, a significant difference.  However, considering U.S. fuel costs, I knew very well I was never going to break even, much less save money, with the diesel.  This is because diesel engines both cost more to make, AND are only put into the more expensive models with upgraded interior and exterior packages.  So, how long does it take to recoup $2,500 in fuel costs? 

According to EPA figures for these two models, the average fuel cost per year for a gasoline powered 2011 Jetta was $1,350.  For a diesel powered Jetta, it dropped to $1,100, so buying a diesel will give you a total savings each year of $250 dollars.  Ten years to recoup the fuel costs alone.  I also had to pay an extra $2,500 for the extra gizmos and what-not that come with the high-end version of the Jetta, which is the only version that VW puts the diesel engine in.  In short, a diesel powered VW will NEVER save you money, it can only give you that feeling that you are a “responsible citizen,” with the possibility of a concomitant feeling of superiority that relatively affluent liberals may feel by under-consuming and being more of a steward to the world’s resources than the rest of our fellow citizens.  Those who doubt this is a motivation should recall how many Hollywood stars bought Toyota Priuses when they first came out.  Cars indeed may be viewed by others as making a statement about the owner, even if the statement made may not be the one the owner hopes or has been led to believe it is.

So, what happens next?  I have no idea. Certainly, my car is worth less today, now that it’s true nature has been exposed, than what it was when I, and everyone else, viewed it as the official staff car for the Sierra Club.  However much the difference in value might be, I am more bothered that my good intentions seem to have been paving the road to Hell, or at least a smoggish, unhealthy variant of it, for the last four years, and will continue to do so until my car and the rest of its ilk, are either brought into compliance, or removed from the road. 

I just became a plaintiff in the class-action suit being brought against VW, something very much out of character for me.  I did this because I believe VW played me, and my fellow buyers, when it put out a car that it intentionally rigged to produce low emissions when being tested, but which then opened the emissions flood gates when driven on the roads, in order to increase power and mileage.  While I am old enough, and cynical enough, to not expect much from corporations generally, this seems a step beyond the pale.  I cannot fathom why a multi-national corporation, on the verge of becoming the largest automaker on the planet, would allow the installation of a computer program created for the specific purpose of cheating a regulation designed to protect the public health.  How did anyone at VW think this would go undetected, much less think it was a good idea? 

So, I am left with a mess.  Certainly, my car remains very fuel-efficient.  I can drive it until the cows come home, since it violates no safety laws.  However, each mile I drive results in increased N02 (or N0x) emissions being pumped into the atmosphere, amounts wildly exceeding EPA allowable limits, even if these emissions from my car probably aren’t that harmful in comparison, for example, to N02 emissions from semi trucks, or from airplanes, forest fires, or volcanoes.  Nonetheless, I, and the other 499,999 fellow owners in the U.S. who are in the same boat, certainly aren’t helping anything in our increasingly polluted world, notwithstanding that we had intended the exact opposite. 

​What will fix this?  Does VW have a new computer code for the engine that would allow it to run as promised?  It appears not.  Will VW agree to install the urea system that both BMW and Mercedes Benz have shown works to reduce N02 emissions, on each vehicles VW has already sold, to make them perform as promised?  I would guess not, considering the cost and the fact that the cars were not engineered to accept these systems.  Will VW suggest it will just reset the computer code so that the engine will run at all times in the same way that it runs when being tested?  This seems the most likely move.  However, VW has issued no statement as to what this would actually do to mileage and power, even though VW must know these numbers very well.  I infer therefore that even VW appreciates that the results will be entirely unacceptable.  Instead, and to date, VW has only issued statements saying it’s sorry, that it “thinks” there were only two or three rogue engineers who rigged the system, and nobody else knew or knows anything.  Queue Sergeant Shultz here.  In sum; honest, we’ll “fix it” as soon as we can, and no, we have no idea when that is or what this means.

I am left with a car that is no longer a “shining star” in the ecology movement, and which I am ambivalent about driving.  I think VW has made it impossible for any other automaker to sell diesel engines in the U.S., notwithstanding their overall efficiencies, durability and environmental sensitivities when properly made.  I also feel as if I can no longer assume that there are any limits as to how low and unlawful corporations will sink in an effort to maximize their profits.  I am 64, relatively educated and calm, and I’ve been a lawyer for 37 years.  I’ve never before even considered suing anyone for anything done to me.   Congratulations, VW, you’ve done pushed me over the edge.  This suit’s for you.

xxxxx

Das Settlement:  Part 1

July, 2016

Well, we have a settlement in Disgruntled Owners vs VW.  The federal court has issued its blessing.  As I understand it, VW will need until mid-September or so to gather together the requisite Rheingold for tribute.  Once funds are in hand, Valkyries will fly down from Wolfsburg, or perhaps Aasgard, to haul away the smoking metal carcasses of our discredited VW turbo-diesels, leaving us mortal owners wandering the shattered battlefield, clutching substantial checks and bewailing our respective need to find new rides.

What will this mean?  Well, for one thing, I, and about half a million of my fellow U.S. car owners, will suddenly have both a fair amount of cash in hand, and the need to buy something else to get around in. Somebody in the auto industry is going to have a field day this fall, although I’m guessing it won’t be GMC or Ram trucks.  As I’ve previously noted, we soon-to-be former VW owners didn’t buy our now reviled and soon-to-be repatriated cars for economic reasons.  All us “hyper-mileage” car owners can do math.  Fuel savings were never going to be enough to offset the additional cost of the diesel engines or battery-gas hybrid systems that we bought, to say nothing of the extra expense we paid for the fully tarted-up versions of the cars into which these systems are usually placed. 

Instead, we hyper mileage owners saw ourselves as good stewards of the environment, smugly driving around in responsible and under-consuming vehicles, and basically being unbearable.  We “statement car drivers” can always find a way to slip “47 miles to the gallon” into a conversation.  There is a reason why no one ever voluntarily sits at the Prius owners’ table at a high school reunion or wedding.

So, what will we “ex-VW” owners do with our lawfully-gotten gains?  Good question.  Certainly, some of us may say “screw it, we’ve done our time,” and go out and buy an SUV that averages 6 mpg and is big enough to double as a Red Cross shelter or a refuge camp.  Most of us, though, are incapable of such flexible thinking.  Instead, we’re going to go look for some new and different vehicle that gets excellent mileage, is environmentally friendly, and will cost us more than rational capitalist economic theory will ever justify. 

I can see it now.  We survivors will all want the 2017 ½ “Leafy Green Vegetable,” sold only by local food co-ops, or possible Whole Foods.  This car will average 96 miles per gallon, but will require its owners remain on a vegetarian diet.  It will start at $54,000, will seat 3 adults just as long as their BMIs fit within allowable guidelines, and it will be designed to let every other driver on the road know just how non-virtuous his or her own vehicle is.  I wonder if I can put a deposit down now?  



 





 

 

 

 

 

 

​LAW, PLUS U.S. HEALTH CARE - A SPECTRUM DISORDER