The popular press has been all agog with the news that VW has been fudging the pollution tests for its diesel variants. The venom that is coming forward is just one level below burning at the stake, or hanging, drawing and quartering.
A couple of weeks ago I commented on the fact that Dr Winterkorn was involved in an internal power struggle with former chairman Ferdinand Piech, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and patriarch of the Porsche family which owns 51 percent of voting rights at Volkswagen. Dr. Piech lost that vote and now must be laughing as Dr Winterkorn has to face the baying press and politicians.
“Clean” VW.
But is this angst warranted? One of the regulars at the Pattaya Car Club meetings, Chris Davison, has responded to the calls for blood with what I believe is a very valid argument. Chris asserts: “If (stupid) politicians and bureaucrats come up with unnecessary hoops for engineers to jump through then you cannot be surprised if the clever people who really ‘make the world go round’ find ways to fool the idiots.
“More strength to VW in this case.
“There is nothing so petty as a minor bureaucrat who finds that his ‘own’ little regulation has been bypassed. VW devised a system to exploit the ‘rules’, their vehicles passed the compulsory test as and when required. The engineers gave the car the ‘software’ to pass the mandated tests as well as give proper performance out on the road. The test-passing mapping of the engine would probably render the vehicle undriveable in proper conditions.
“All the fuss is mere ‘bureaucratic pique’ that their petty regulations were bypassed.
“And when you get to ‘pique noise’ you realize that you have reached the pettiest end of the bureaucratic spectrum. The treasury will by crying into their beer at the thought of the ‘Green Taxes’ they have missed! My heart bleeds for them (NOT).
“It is well known that the official tests have no valid relationship to actual ‘on-the-road’ conditions. This is regularly commented on in various places and has been since ‘Official’ tests were introduced and their results published for ‘Public Information’, so no one should be surprised when real life does not match up to political cloud-cuckoo land.
“Politicians are rarely engineers or scientists so should have no input into engineering matters.”
Thank you Chris. When one starts looking objectively, the accusatory finger may be pointed at the wrong sources. Air pollutants originate from many human activities. Most pollutants come from industries that manufacture chemicals and other goods, from on- and off-road vehicles and power equipment, and from energy facilities that burn oil, gas or coal. However, like car taxes, the motor car is a sitting duck for the pollution crusaders and the regulators with their arbitrary allowable emission levels.
VW has indeed broached the regulations, but are the “allowable” levels really sensible? Or did some politician toss a coin in the air?
