Dieselgate: The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ต.ค. 2024
- A look into the scandal that changed Volkswagen forever, and the family feud at the heart of it all.
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Hmm, let's learn about dieselgate...
20 minutes later - the guy who designed the DeLorean also designed pasta?!?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 so true!! He went DEEP with this documentary
And cameras!
I'm just surprised his pasta wasn't a bunch of sharp triangles called deloreoni
@@SlackActionBumble It had a lot of promise, but just couldn't deliver...
@@BELCAN57 and for some reason, all the testers would break out in cold sweats, were highly agitated and swore there were ninjas on the lawn
Roman coming in clutch during the quarantine
Is that a pun?
1000%
@@osahinmartinez3371 Its magnificent
Osahin Martinez af
Oh silly willy. If only you knew that they lied to us.
These videos must take ages to research, write and present. I have unlimited respect for you guys for making these enjoyable and informative videos. Thank you
I have unlimited respect for you and your thick member
@@user-iy4sh9nz1m youtube. brilliant.
FcknA
I have an idea for an RCR story : The rise and Fall of British Leyland
joshua gale this!!!
Clarkson did it already
C W true, but it would be interesting of the Rise and Fall of BL from an American point of view.
joshua gale thats gonna take more than 3 years tho.
@@digitalrailroader a bunch of brits have managed to make even worse cars than we did. They went out of business for some reason.
Seriously, an American can't relate to that. No more than they can relate to The Rise And Fall Of Lada.
Roman's natural voice sounds like it comes out pre-compressed to 240p
Sounds like it was recorded in the middle of the night while trying not to keep the housemates up.
Kb Brown Shhhhhhh you're shouting.
No, it just sounds like he shouldn't have done it and it was simply a bad idea.
It's too bad, because he's got a great face for radio.
I hated his voice,but wanted to hear the story,after 20 minutes,I switched off
Very interesting information that you put together for this video. As for Dieselgate, that was a cash cow for me. I purchased a 2015 TDI Passat one month before the scandal broke. Nothing like 0 % interest for 72 months, to put some cash in your pocket. I had a new car for 18 months and they paid me everything spent on payments, plus the $500 Visa gift card, as well as the $1000 card to spend at the dealership. In the end we purchased a 2014 Jetta SportWagen with the TDI and had it paid off in 11 months. I am torn on thanking the people who figured out the cheat, because I sure did like the 50+ MPG on the freeway that I got in the Passat. But I sure do like the fact I don't have a car payment as well.
"We're in an age where people [...] drive unnecessarily."
I, too, remember February...
I also really miss last year when everything was fine.
@@MongooseTacticool I don't really honestly. I can now commute to and from work without a traffic jam and only have to go 3 times a week. Now more companies are allowing you to make online orders to get it delivered to your house. Certification exams that had to be performed in a center can now be done in your house. Government registration can now be done in a website and not in an insanely slow government facility with inept employees. Also I can now safely invest in companies affected by the corona-virus and make a profit.
The only annoying thing is buying something in a store or a service etc because they are inflating the prices like crazy. I'm forced to work and paint my own car due to the ridiculous corona-virus overcharges like 4 times more expensive prices for service.
@@SI0AX well lucky you that your town/city can afford an extensive mass transit system (meanwhile us out in the countryside have to commute in private cars)
@@sockshandle LMAO I wish! There *is* a transit system, but it is borderline useless. *If* you live in near a government built community and your destination is within walking distance then you can take a bus, otherwise you need a private vehicle no matter where you live no matter how broke you are.
There is a train but you have to live like right next to the train and your destination has to be within walking distance from any of the trains stopping points, which is *very* highly unlikely so you will need a private vehicles to drop you off to the station and pick you up from the other destination and see if you actually save any money.
Many people that can't afford a car just use a small Chinese scooter with an open face helmet.
TL:DR: A private vehicle is *essential* for *everyone* to go about their lives.
@@SI0AX Yet at the same time all this going online drive a fierce feeling of isolation. There is no mistake in rising alcoholism and suicides during this time. Many cannot cope well with not having human contact during daily activities.
When I was working at a full-service gas station, I noticed that new diesel Benzes and BMWs required adding diesel exhaust fluid to a reservoir every few fillups. For some reason, VWs and Audis didn’t. They had smaller engines, though, so I didn’t think much of it until dieselgate broke.
Just this year, my dad bought a refurbished Passat TDI and we noticed that they've added a DEF reservoir.
Select models already used def
I wonder how many ECU tuners knew about this but kept their mouth shut
Emissions? Never heard of 'em.
All of them. Or more precisely all who had at least basic understanding of what they are doing. Now there is trend of importing diesel cars from Germany to countries like Ukraine where they does not have emission restrictions. First thing they do is cut DPF out, weld in straight pipe, remap and enjoy better performance and fuel economy.
@@pfacka Ukraine doesn't have taxes on diesel cars and Germany has high taxes for diesel cars as of 2020, that's why they do it
@@pfacka Yaaaaaay acid rain (among other things).
@@IstasPumaNevada who cares about Ukrainian laws, you can bribe your way out of a multiple child rape there if you have a few dollars
Bit late, but here's the chapters:
0:00 Prologue
3:25 Chapter 1
13:54 Chapter 2
37:17 Chapter 3
1:02:30 Chapter 4
1:12:27 Epilogue
Everybody always said VW's were over-engineered. Nobody ever thought that included the software too.
They haven't been over engineered since the 60s
@@coreygolphenee9633 they've been the primary source of ANY engineering worth having since 1969.5 with the launch of the Jet-Tronic AI driven digital fuel injection to increase performance and economy while reducing bad emissions in real time this core has spawned the integrated traction control abs eco turbo tech and every other modern integrated safety and performance system/software package that operate ALL currently legal vehicles in US and EU. This includes stragglers like Toyota and Honda. Excess nitrous oxide in exhaust is not as bad as tolerated poisons in gasoline engines, also came out that the VW deisels were the cleanest of clean deisels on market Benz, BMW and all other manufactories deisels were found to be much worse across the board. Deiselgate was a purely political attack on the only auto manufacturer proactively addressing environmental issues and dispersing the
The tech to competitors. VW has been strong armed into giving close to 1 trillion in technical aid to competing japanese companies that were incapable of meeting modern standard s on they're own. They also paid .7 trillion to US govt and another voluntary .5 trillion to customers in upgrade
Trades and debt forgiveness.
@@jamesbowen2105 USA Cummins Diesel actually seems to meet USA EPA heavy duty on-road Diesel emissions that are four times stricter than the EU's and supplies the Diesel emissions technology and parts to Detroit Diesel (Mercedes) and Paccar (DAF) sold in the US. Cummins complained to the US EPA that Detroit Diesels' on-road Diesel were exceeding EPA emission limits only to hear back from the EPA that "Detroit Diesels engines pass our tests". Detroit Diesel engines get better fuel economy than the same horsepower Cummins engines. Mercedes is still doing a Diesel emissions defeat device.
@@douglasengle2704 I'm a fan of Dettoit Deisel
the attempted porsche take over of volkswagen would also be a great rcr story. espcially the head butting between piech and wiedeking
"There are many places you can choose to start talking about dieselgate. I chose a time when vw used concentration camp prisoners to build Beetles"
You mean P.O.W camps?
Ringo, or? ;)
He chose to start 3 and a half minutes in instead of saving that exposition for the end of the video.
The juxtaposition between VW's actions and the beliefs of it's core customers always baffled me. Most V-dub enthusiasts tend to be far left artsy hippy environmentalist types. You think of VW and it conjures up images of 60's vanagons and stoner hippys with flowers in their hair, or some 90's granola chick in her Jetta blasting Ani Difranco, or a gamer nerd with a stanced gti with a sticker of his waifu on the glovebox. The new Beetle has a flower vase built into the dash ffs. People forget that these were designed by Nazi's, built by enslaved Jews, and purchased by Ted Bundy! Them skirting emissions in a car that is billed as an enviro-friendly fuel sipper is the ultimate irony. It's not like Pontiac in 73 with the SD-455 trying to cheat the system. Anyone purchasing a Trans Am in 1973 gave zero fucks about the environment they just wanted to be faster than the next guy. It's so backwards they could probably come out with an Auschwitz Edition Jetta with a horn that said heil hitler and people would just think it was edgy
@@mentok3027 The power of marketing, babey!
Boeing learned Volkswagon's lesson well. Boeing to engineers, get the job done or get fired. Result: 346 dead.
They also did their cover-up quite well... Really faced the music gracefully... Really makes you trust in humanity.
@@vulekv93 corporations*
@@LL-cz5ql corporations where never trustworthy. It's humanity that we're still figuring out if it should be trusted or not. Then again, such questions are pointless. Still fun tho.
Outsourcing the code is a red-herring.
In aviation, the code is so simple and gone through line by line to ensure it meets the standards.
No code would have been able to prevent what happened after a single point hardware failure that told the MCAS system the plane was at too high of an angle of attack.
The problem was the design. It should have taken data from both AoA vanes.. and in the case of a miscompare or a nocompare, deactivated the MCAS system.
And those standards were able to pass because it was Boeing, not the FAA, who was validating it, and savings far beyond the simple outsourcing of code.
@@vulekv93 Remember this:
1) Humans suck.
2) See #1
Keeping this in mind during your lifetime means you'll never be disappointed.
I worked at a vw dealer in 2010 in sales. The TDIs were very popular and easy to sell. One of the techniques we used to show how clean they were was to put a cloth to the exhaust, rev it, then have the customer smell the rag. It always smelled like laundry. No one understood how it worked, and I couldn't explain it at all (because it also didn't make sense to me).
They eventually sent me to a vw sales course to learn about all the features and benefits of their cars, and I was excited to finally understand how "clean diesel" worked. The instructor explained that the soot was held in a canister until a time when the ignition and exhaust system burned up the soot even smaller and shot it all out the tail pipe every few thousand miles.
When I insisted we discuss this further, because that didn't sound clean at all, and it sounded sneaky, I was literally yelled at by the instructor for taking up too much time and that it really was clean. I told them that there was no way vw invented a magical car and I wasn't comfortable selling it as if it were.
I told a lot of my friends about this and felt vindicated when one of them texted me when the story finally broke. If only VW just had a way to empty the canister of soot responisbly, then I bet they could have avoided all this.
Oh well, they own Audi, Porsche, Bugatti, Seat, and I'm sure others. They'll be fine.
The method of how soot is removed from the atmosphere is how all diesels are.
All these clean idle trucks do the exact same thing, they don't burn the soot in the canister until you're at highway speeds. It's not actively keeping the environment clean, it simply keeps trucks from polluting in cities, by moving the noX and soot to the country
Really? This was exactly what I said. That they're crapping out super fine particulates, which I think are worse than larger particles, in all the nicest areas.
We were in California at the time and I mentioned that most of the best surf spots were along the highway, so these "clean diesels" are simply poisoning me and my friends directly.
No one likes a drama queen, though, and they haughtily moved on to the next topic.
Which is almost what they stated. Except they emphasized that it was perfectly clean, and unlike any other diesel engine out there. They stated it was cleaner than gasoline, better than electric, and the best option for any vehicle.
None of that day well with me, and apparently, not with the EPA, either.
Diesel engine Likes to stay at One Set rpm and Run. My Friend had a Passat and We always did the Italian tune up once a week. It would Roll coal for a minute and it would be fine. 210,000+Miles on it
werepat The DPF isn’t really what the emissions scandal is about though, the government was more concerned about the excess NOx emissions. All diesel pickup trucks and big rigs also have DPFs and most meet regulations (although the standards are more relaxed for larger vehicles)
I'm an engineering student at WVU, while talking about possible career paths after graduation the professor said you can get hired anywhere, but one....
I applied at VW once and there is a question in their application that specifically asks if you have ever attended WVU.
@@tylernrogers Vw interview question: Do you have any experience in emissions software applications?
I'm a student in Braunschweig (the one mentioned in the video - afaik basically the closest uni to vw hq)....I hope not necessarily the inverse winds up applying to me.
Bro, your work, research, and presentation are top notch. I am seriously impressed and continuously entertained by your awesome content.
I really recommend the book "Faster, Higher, Farther: The Inside Story of the Volkswagen Scandal" by Jack Ewing. Does a very good job explaining how the cheat was found and how VW reacted (obfuscated) when initially confronted. Also covers the Porsche stuff too.
"What's a great car without the reputation of being one?"
Well said.
Idea for future video : Citroën and the story of its CEO André Citroën, a complete megalomaniac. The French automobile industry history is fascinating.
Oh and the Renault Nissan alliance thingy is good stuff too
I love across-the-pond alliance stories. Renault/Nissan, Mazda/Ford, Toyota/GM, Ford/Opal, Mitsubishi/Pontiac and the various Korean to North American rebadged designs.
@@Cyromantik it's Opel and it's pronounced oopl and to my knowledge Opel was GM brand not Ford. Volvo was a Ford brand.
I have an idea for an RCR story: The Takata Airbag Scandal
I agree. Dieselgate affected millions of Volkswagens. Airbag-gate affected tens of millions of cars around the world.
@@deltariuns2315 Dieselgate really only affected 1 German car manufacturer (2 if you include Audi). Takata Airbags affected multiple car manufacturers from various countries (Japanese, German, American, etc.)
@@adrianh.6285 5 if you count Seat, Skoda and Porsche. All brands that has a worldwide presence.
@@glinchdk Oh ok. Because in the video, he only mentions the VW and Audi vehicles affected.
@@adrianh.6285 Yeah those two are the only ones sold in North America. Skoda and Seat also have turbodiesels but are only sold in Europe, where VW TDI's are still being sold today.
Where should I look for compilation of all GM, Harley-Davidson, Ford and whatever other US car companies scandals that only got a slap on the wrist?
The Vega engine which was trash and the Pinto where lives were risk to save $80 per car.
Its a matter of twisted priorities. Safety and fraud take a backseat to pleasing the enviro cult.
@@dudenoone1712 this is where I would like to verify the difference between saving environment and pleasing envirocult. The infamous Green Deal, eliminating all forms of carbon pollutant and banning plastic bags is stupid. Selling low emission cars for huge cities so you could breath in there and building windmills in Europe because there is no more room for coal mines there is fine with me.
Harley has to cheat even on gas engine?
@@majorcalvary6515 yup caught them with their pants down...but they pulled a bullshit one...as Mr.regular explained on the golf review
All the did was write a check to epa while chanting to the 4 skies SUPPORT OUR TROOPS SUPPORT OUR TROOPS...and just like that it went under the radar
"...staging a raid shadow le... I mean a raid..." 😂
Love these long form deep dives!
A similar, albeit far less serious situation occurred in the trucking industry during the diesel emissions crackdown era. Cat was caught programming ECU's with two fueling/emissions tables, the dirtier of which was accessible to the consumer by cutting a specific wire. It was somewhat responsible for Cat exiting the over-the-road truck engine industry, of which there were a darling for many decades. Elsewhere, Navistar balked at the SCR systems much like VW had. Not wanting to put the burden of compliance on the consumer and requiring drivers to refill a tank with fluid in order to keep the engine clean didn't sit well. Their answer was the Maxxforce engine, which while legally done, and compliant for a while, was ultimately a spectacular failure and a nightmare of an engine to work on (German designed) and nearly bankrupted the company. Navistar had to team with Cummins (their arc rival) for while to develop a reliable NoX compliant engine, ultimately stabbing them in the back once the new engine was completed.......probably not enough malfeasance or drama to make an hour long doc, but interesting none the less.
I would love to watch that! I've heard harsh criticisms of Caterpillar's ACERT engines pertaining to reliability. They used to be kings of truck diesels then just vanished through the 2010s
Wow this was very mesmerizing to listen to. I´m from Germany and I´ve been following this whole thing since the beginning but I didn´t pay much attention to all these internal fights between Piech and Winterkorn and all the family stuff and the way each one of them was personally and did their business. Just knew they were somewhat strict and authoritarian to get the jobs done, but not "rip out the dashboard of a Lamborghini a couple weeks before its release" strict.
Also it would have been worth to note that after dieselgate it came to light that several other car manufacturers German and others installed similar devices or software to cheat the emissions data. I remember hearing about police raids at the BMW and Mercedes headquarters in the news when it all was still fresh and new information would surface every couple weeks and also something concerning hyundai cars also emitting much more under real driving conditions compared to what they had in their official papers.
"Cowcatcher of Justice" would be an awesome name for a band.
That epilogue made me tingle. This was another excellent episode - thanks, Roman!
Hands-down, THE best explanation of Dieselgate on the Internet. This is a must-see for any car enthusiast. You really knocked it out of the park on this one.
I have begged for a Peich RCR Stories, and this DID NOT DISAPPOINT.
Nick Roman has treated us with a double feature
@@alidaraie and as with all the rest of the things he says, i couldn't stay awake past the first 2 minutes
You should have begged harder so the actual frontman could narrate it.
@@ianholmquist8492 We all know you liked your own comment. No one cares what you think dude. Roman is a very important part of the channel. He is loved by many. So why don't you keep your comments to yourself
"an engine that uses more expensive fuel"
I remember when diesel fuel was CHEAPER than gasoline. It was less refined and didn't have sky-high taxes.
in germany, it still is
As if every truck bro doesnt already remove the DPF. They dont really help their case for the possibilities of diesel
Diesel is cheaper than gasoline no?
At least in the EU it is
@@RhodokTribesman Removing the Diesel particulate filter is not stealthy! Any black coming out of the exhaust is obvious and on-road Diesels have had strong soot emissions controls since 2008. The only way to get away with it is if the truck can pass for a pre 2008 vehicle. After that it comes down to being legally caught with inspections, but it's obvious to anybody that knows about Diesel emissions. Diesel soot is the most hated part of being around Diesels. It always comes with unburned diesel fuel and sulfur smells so it lumped in together.
1.3 times the price of gasoline is a good energy equivalence to the price of Diesel. In the USA road Diesel fuel is significant more expensive per volume (gallon, liter) than gasoline. It was the reverse in the 1970s and early 1980s. Theoretically a Diesel engine is 30% more fuel efficient than a gasoline engine 15% more thermally efficient + 15% more energy per volume of Diesel fuel than gasoline. It turns out real world Diesel use is closer to 1.5 times that of gasoline and better in severe use. There were many times when Diesel fuel was more than 1.3 times the cost of gasoline during the early parts of the Ukraine war in the USA.
There is also VW's push for electrification in order to cleanse their reputation
It's actually "Say-ot"
I know, counterintuitive.
Either way, great thing to soak up while working from home. Ton of good info here. Killer job, Roman.
Said as Sey-at in the UK.
pronounced "Shtoot-gart" and "say-aught." im here for yah bro. btw, im a huge vw freak so i really enjoyed this history lesson
VWs are crappy.
This is such an incredible story. Thank you for taking the enormous time and effort to tell it to us.
Love this series! Love to hear Roman telling this stories! Do more!
I watched this mostly because I love every story you do, but also as an undergraduate mechanical engineering student at WVU who is involved with the people involved with the study. Arvind Thiruvengadam (he goes by Arvind to students and faculty) was my thermodynamics professor this past semester and is just an all-around great prof. The whole "revealing dieselgate" is one of the few things that makes me proud to be a mountaineer.
I'm really glad there's a car channel run by academics.
Car channel run by redditers?
The problem with academia is that they mass produce silly socialists.
@@eldesgraciado6690 what so you expect? One thing about academia is about SHARING discoveries.
@@eldesgraciado6690 Actually academia stimulates free thinkers... That don't harp on political rhetoric that fits into their cognitive bias.
@@edd2184 Indoctrinates the gullible.
Roman, that was fantastic. Detailed, well written, not hard to follow and very informative. I know these don't get as much attention as the normal car reviews, but I'll be damned if I don't jump on and watch each RCR story as the pop up. This one was especially good, and am looking forward to more of them.
It is kind of nice to hear that for once, a big company doing fucked up things didn't get away with it in the end as well.
Now this is a juicy topic....
Once again, audio book quality :D
SEAT is pronouced 'Say-at'
Another fine documentary by the Roman! Thank you for putting all the work and effort into this. Interesting and entertaining.
RCR during Corona... Is like "love in the time of cholera." Danke.
I guess that means TONS OF BROWN
That was like one of those college level "superior" master course lectures. It was also among the greatest lectures I've ever been privy to let alone enjoyed. Masterful work Roman. ...and it's probs worth mentioning that it's the best explanation of "dieselgate" (why does everything have to have a "gate" suffix to announce to the Procariot that it's a scandal and we should all pay attention to it?) that any news source or information outlet has produced for me thus far.
"Piech had developed a 5 cylinder inline diesel engine for Mercedes" - The understatement of the century. Piech developed the OM617, arguably the greatest naturally aspirated passenger-car diesel engine ever developed. Drive a 300D? You have Piech to thank.
Greatest naturally aspirated passenger car diesel. That's a high bar.
At the time, I remember laughing at the self righteous Outrage, all those people so offended by VW fooling the tests. Those same people who had their cars remapped for more power. I mean, honestly, there is an entire industry based around remapping diesels. How many of those 2009+ VW Golf are still standard?! Most Modded car in the world.....Once again Roman, utterly fantastic work, well researched, well read, and well pronounced (as far as I know)... Top work Fella. :-)
That was just their excuse to be outraged. In reality they were just mad it killed resale value in the cars.
it's one thing to be polluting while making great power and there's another when you're polluting 40x the limit and making adequate/stock power
@@yaboirico5221 also it assumes they had remapped cars
All for what?
Nothing.
To me this comes down to simple game theory.
If you create laws but then don´t enforce them comprehensively, it creates an incredible incentive to cheat.
You can be honest and tell people "Look, you can´t have your cake and eat it too. If you want low emmission, you´re going to have to buy DEF every other time you fuel your car" to which people, because they want everything at the push of a button, will just buy your cheating competitors cars. From what I can see VW´s "clean" TDIs sold pretty well.
What was missing was the expectation of getting caught.
Of course what they did was morally wrong, but some blame has to be laid at the feet of the governing bodies who created laws that could so easily be cheated, and then acted suprised people weren´t being honest to them.
"The Raid Shadow Le- uh, raid..." 🤣🤣🤣
I just pronounce it Say-at. I don't speak Spanish so I have no idea if that's right. Another brilliant Car Story Roman, keep up the great work. Love the November 2nd MGS reference!
The phonetics closest to that one from English is how you pronounce the first part of "set", so just the "se-". The "at" is the same as usual.
The tendency to add the "y" is due to English not commonly using consecutive vowels, for example in French or Romanian, "idea" is "idee", so in pronunciation in English you spell it more like "ideya", with the "a" being used to avoid 2 similar sounds one after the other, especially since the "e" in English is basically pronounced as the "i" in Latin languages, while our "e" is the equivalent spelling of an "eh" sound.
I'm not Spanish either, I'm Romanian, but we have similar phonetics. Hope this helps :D
1:00:03
“Progress and Action Reports and Angela White Videos”
A man of culture I see
These are so good Roman. Thank you for taking the time to make them. Keep it up. Just the right balance of informative and dry humour.
I love the depreciation on them, got my 2014 cayenne diesel for an amazing price!
Hang on to it because values seem to be going up. I was offered more than i payed for my q7tdi
Adam Check mine has too many miles now to be worth anything. 174k and climbing
@@super-kami-guru Dont worry there are people Like me who only buy high milage cars. And I never owned a Car with only 174k Miles. My Skoda has 370k an still runs fine
Super-Kami Guru , Don’t diesels like high milage? Might be an old mechanic’s myth, but I dunno.
It is an old mechanics myth.
You see a lot of high mileage diesels because:
1) New diesels are expensive to buy.
2) People tolerate things in diesels that they never would on gasoline engine (burning oil.... repair bills of thousands of dollars).
3) People see a lot of high mileage diesels and assume that they are uniquely durable.
4) Most Diesel engines are used for long distances... so have very few cold starts and thermal cycles.
If you took even the crappiest gasoline engine and put a fraction of the parts and maintenance a Diesel engine takes... you’d have an engine that lasts just as long.
That’s why Diesels for most people are a false economy. They only make sense if you need the torque for towing (not applicable to most VWs) or if you’re driving an absolutely insane amount (in which case you should change your lifestyle).
For most people... you pay more for a diesel, you pay more in sales taxes, you pay more in interest for the higher amount you borrowed. The savings on fuel isn’t that great anymore both because diesel is no longer cheaper (and sometimes more expensive per litre) and the fuel economy advantage isn’t as high because of diesel emissions (the whole reason behind dieselgate) and the massive advances gasoline engines have made with direct injection, turbocharging, eco-assist, hybrid, etc.
So by the time your car has finally amortized it’s higher TOTAL cost with fuel savings.. it’s about time for very expensive repairs like high pressure fuel pumps, injectors, turbos, etc.. and your engine is probably burning oil like crazy.
Sure.. you can get $5000 for it vs the $1000 or scrap you can get for a comparable gas powered car (because it “isn’t worth it” to even replace a bad head gasket) but you will have still lost more money overall.
That’s why I’ll never own a diesel. Gas is cheap, and I don’t drive anywhere near enough to justify one. Neither do 90% of diesel owners.. but they think they are saving money.
A new _RCR Story,_ just what I needed to pass the time as I work from home. Well done as always, Roman. And thank Stef Schrader for her help on my behalf next time you see her.
"Board Meeting (artist's rendition)"
I laughed a little to hard at the guy labeled "Worf" in the background.
There was also a reference to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, which was perfect in a video about rampant corporate greed.
No love for Toru Yano?
"Assistant base toucher"
Thank you very much for this informative piece. I've always wondered what the outcome of dieselgate was and how it has effected VW. I also very much enjoyed the history of Porsche, the German engineering, and the power struggle.
I love my two VW diesels, and I'm very sad that they stopped making them.
Fantastic video, bloody brilliant. Bravo Roman!
My takeaway from all this is further reinforcement of the one truth of corporate culture: they will cheat and bend and sneak around the rules as often as they can. If your sole goal is profits and growth, and you wield such power, money and influence, then rules and law are an inconvenience to you and nothing more. Piech was just another prime example of that mindset made manifest; a brilliant engineering mind with no patience or margin for error. If your executives can’t get it done without getting caught, you will pay your modest fine and replace every single one of them until you find a team who won’t get caught. Apologies and promises to do better are paper thin from profit-focused entities that are not people, let alone reasonable people with some semblance of conscience. That’s corporate culture: it’s not cynicism or defeatism, just cold profit driven fact. You make the company money or you get replaced with someone who can.
As a new subscriber. The detail and research done and time and length makes this a award winning video along with other Regular Cars video's. AAAAA
This was an amazing documentary, thank you for putting out the clear effort.
This channel does not have enough subscribers, the amount of work/effort that goes into these videos is staggering. Keep it up👍
The kicker is VW made an excellent Diesel engine they were clean quiet and fuel efficient compared to the diesels of that time.
Are u insane?
OSSUS MAXXIMUS
Back In the day diesels sucked they were noisy and Smokey . The VW Deisel was quite and smooth in its day it was a sophisticated engine , needles to say VW screwed up
Yes they were quite good engines the 2.0tdi is a legend on its own, but the whole thing regarding defeat switches etc made them intellectually obsolete. Sorry for my outburst earlier.
OSSUS MAXXIMUS
Lol it’s all good we are passionate about cars .
What is even more tragic, by the time that the news about Dieselgate had broken, VW had an entirely new line of Diesel Engines ready that are amongst the cleanest engines on the planet - proven by countless independent tests since. It seems they knew that what they had done in the past and chose to not do it again, but after Dieselgate, all was lost in this regard. GM (Opel) and Chrystler (Fiat) did some pretty violent emission cheating in Europe in the years following Dieselgate, but they aren't subject to the same scrutiny that VW faced in the US.
I took a nap with the video on cummins on and fell asleep with youtube autoplay. The dialogue about the Porsches woke me up. Pretty good stuff.
"And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you pesky kids!"
The TRUE ACE of New Japan thanks you for recognizing his valuable leadership in the field of air quality.
At the rate Roman is going, the RCR community will begin to believe that the Entire MG game series was a crack documentary of the biggest government cover up in all of human history
I genuinely look forward to RCR stories. Please release another soon!
Drinking game: Take a shot every time he says Piëch
I can't speak for everyone else, but for what it's worth, I will watch every one of these until the end. Keep up the great work.
1:00:00 “Angela White videos” lmao
rcr references angela white more often they do hunter s thompson
@@JacksonKillroy Not that it's a bad thing all in all; I think Dr.Thompson would agree!
Hey Roman, these long video commentaries are my favorite. I really look forward to them. Ty.
I own a dieselgate Golf TDI, and I love it, I’d love it more if it was a manual, but manuals are rare and pricey in my area, the DSG isn’t a horrible transmission, speaking as a hardline manual guy, yes it’s a compromise transmission, but it’s the best compromise currently, it’s not as soggy and bland as a sludgebox planetary auto (yes, even with “lockup” TC) and it’s not as utterly soulless and abhorrent as the accursed, pathetic, and fun-annihilating CVT, it is a compromise, but a good compromise
As far as the car itself goes, it’s loads of fun, handles great, has a very usable torque curve, even after the emissions fix, I get 33-47 MPG depending on how much fun I’m having
And the tailpipe is utterly spot free 58k later, I bought it used with 50k on the pod, so the original owners 50k of the 58k total was on the “cheating” software .
this is the only reason i keep giving this channel views. informative videos like these
20:.30 Did anyone notice that Giugario's "iconic" BMW, Lotus, DeLorean, and VW all look basically the same?
If you look hard enough at the cars that were designed by single design teams or even by one person, you can see definite parallels in the way cars were designed. Take a look at Lancia, General Motors, Toyota, or any manufacturer more or less and you can see the footprints of a few artists here and there. Drink in a long look at the Ford GT40 and tell me you can't see an artist's fingerprints:-)
as an enthusiast of german diesels i found this incredibly interesting. we've all heard the news stories but seeing it all laid out like this makes it easier to understand. thank you for doing an incredible amount of research to produce this video. i will be driving my Mercedes diesel until i can afford to replace it with an affordable and practical electric car. hopefully Tesla.
Thats my plan as well, got my recall fixed my diesel jetta and absolutely love it, especially for the cost i got it for. Might even do the DPF delete and light tune some day if it fails outside of the recall warranty, but when i can afford a decent priced electric car with good range that will be my ideal daily driver.
Roman doing the Lord's work on a quarentine Monday morning 🙌
Thank you for your efforts in presenting this story in a comprehensive and comprehensible format. It was educational as well as entertaining. Cheers.
I drive a Dieselgate jetta that I bought with 20k miles. It has all the emissions crap on it because the previous owners opted for the VW buyback option. As soon as that warranty runs out (the Dieselgate warranty covers all exhaust system components and even the whole engine for a period of time), I'm taking all that stuff off and getting my 50 mpg back. (Plan on putting in a hi-flow cat with resonator)
This was incredibly well done and matches if not exceeds the thoughtfulness and research of a prime time documentary... Wow, well done. (Slow Clap Noises)
I see you shouting out Tifa Lockheart’s birthday like that, naisu.
Around the 1980 second energy crisis, the ideal daily work truck for a Los Angeles machine shop was a VW Rabbit Diesel pickup. A few existed and they quietly disappeared. The story was small clean diesel engines were hard to build. I kept watching for news about improvements in the injector system. By 2005 there were reports that VW had a 400 volt injector built with a stack of pizeo disks. Mentioned on the side was that high pressure combustion in a diesel engine produced nitrogen oxides. The high voltage injector did not help with the nitrogen oxide emission. Somewhere between 2005 and 2008 I heard that Caterpillar over the road diesel engines had been discovered to emit lower pollutants during the emissions test and a change of injector programming was part of the settlement agreed to.
I am a 50 year family auto mechanic (and I enjoy my sleds) and side by side I see that the American car culture has to move to 90% less emissions as in mostly staying parked. Look at the parallel between the last 50 years of draconian crack cocaine drug penalties and the last 50 years of auto emissions reductions culminating in the VW diesel engine cheating. Cars and airplanes and power stations emitting mostly CO2 are a 4.5 trillion dollar per year pollution problem. The problem is that just everyday commuting and driving and lots of other everyday high fossil fuel combustion activities adds up into a global problem.
14:35 - That MGS reference
52:19 too
This is better than dirty money episode on dieselgate. Great job!
They’re still great cars. Awesome Fuel economy, fun to drive and you’re getting essentially a new car warranty on a used TDI. Nice work on this video.
Michael finally someone who knows they are great cars
Do they still get decent performance after being "fixed"? I remember my dad's TDI jetta putting some GTI to shame at a green light
20eggseggs my dads 2017 transporter 2.0 tdi (twin turbo model) is a great and reliable work van. Not one problem except for the steel wheels corroding, so we got aftermarket wheels
20eggseggs I never drove a pre fix model but what I’ve read on reddit and TH-cam is the power loss and Mpg changes are very small/not noticeable. Second gear still pulls hard and I can get 45-48 mpg on the hwy in my 2011 Jetta wagon.
Was in the market for a new daily driver, I was leaning towards Toyota but hated how unrefined and rattly they are. Bought a TDI Golf instead. 170,000 miles later its still a very refined and reliable car. Still gets 40+mpg at its age. Only non-maintenance related item I replaced was the windshield. Twice.
Wow what a story. I could listen to Roman narrating all day. Thanks.
Why are these so calming to listen to?
The word you are searching for is: boring
Your narrations are really good. I never really had time to watch them but now that I can I really need to catch up. Great videos.
What I've thought about this is how could the "technology" VW used be used for good.
Emissions are a trade-off. You want to reduce NOX, you are probably going to burn more fuel as you cannot run as lean, and ultimately generate more CO2.
NOX seems to be the worst pollutant in places like LA where the concentration of cars and the terrain keep smog in the LA bowl.
What about rural Montana? NOX probably isn't a big deal out there. So why not let a car run leaner, producing less CO2 in such areas like rural Montana, while demanding less NOX in places like LA?
Instead of figuring out the car was on a dyno for testing and running "clean" the car could use the GPS and figure out where it was and pick which pollutants are suitable for that area.
Cars pollute. It's simply a matter of what you allow to come out of the tailpipe. If you want less NOX, you are probably going to produce more CO2. If you want less CO2, you are probably going to produce more NOX.
We seem to go towards one-size fits all solutions, when it may make more sense to have varying standards depending on where you are. It might make sense to allow more NOX in some areas of operation to reduce the amount of CO2 produced.
Volkswagen: Nah that's too hard. I'm gonna create a work around.
This is so true. Due to the laws of thermodynamics we know that everything is a trade off. If you decrease one thing, that increases something else. There are no free handouts in physics!
Well it´s not just a matter of inner city and rural area and how much you can emit at each place, it´s how much of the stuff goes into the atmosphere and contributes to the green house effect, which then contributes to global warming. So ideally you don´t wanna produce any of it or as small an amout as possible, it´s not a checks and balances thing where you can say more here and less there ...
@@Iboo30 there are area where NOx does more harm than others. Most of LA smog from those 1970s images were due to NOx. The concentration and the terrain of being in a geologic bowl keeping things in the area make control of NOx more important there compared to other locations. As has been stated before, emissions are a trade off and lower NOx means higher CO2 as you cannot run as lean when reducing NOx.
The thing is that pollutants move around in the atmosphere. They're literally blown around by the wind. NOx is among the worst things that cars produce, that's why they're making such a big fuss about it. So if pollutants don't cause problems in your area, they might in someone else's, and vice versa. Even if the pollution was somehow contained within a state, in order to have an effective system you'd also have to be able to make sure that cars designed for one area don't go into other areas, at least not in the long term. For example, Montana cars couldn't go to California for longer than a week per year while running Montana emissions equipment. The truth is that automakers are more than capable of producing cars which are suitable for every environment, and there are no good reasons for not reducing emissions.
They could make such a cool movie about this kind of thing. Not a documentary, but a full fledged cinema film. There's so much drama and espionage that it couldn't fail.
I bought a diesel gate golf tdi best car I have ever owned
The VW diesels are excellent engines. I've never owned one myself but drove a friend's 1980's diesel golf extensively and I had a 1984 Nissan diesel. Both cars had excellent reliability, excellent fuel economy, and even back then THEY WERE CLEAN. When adjusted properly they had at most only a faint smell and no visible smoke. The real fraud here is the government which prohibits us consumers from buying the products we want, has the power to bring a company to ruins. If it were up to me the whole clean air act would be scrapped and the EPA along with it.
VW fans never learn.
She might not be good for the green deal but the 45 to 50 mpg I get is good for keeping the green backs in my wallet
@@eldesgraciado6690 neither do any of the people that buy domestics. They've all done far more criminal things and got away with it. I could care less how much vw diesels pollute in regards to epa standards. My emission cheating 2010 golf tdi was the best car I ever owned, saved me 200/month in fuel over my diesel trucks and cost me zero in repairs
A great run through of the topic. I work on the policy side at a state level government office, and we have certainly enjoyed using the fines to push forward some of our local goals.
One of the things this video didn't get into is how not all pollution is made equal, and different approaches to diesel internationally. Just to keep things simple, I'll focus on CO2 and NOX. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the threat it presents is in terms of long term climate change issues. NOX degrades into ground level ozone, which causes illnesses in people in the vicinity after repeated, low level exposures. European and Asian countries have tended to focus on a reduction in overall quantities of emissions, with less attention paid to the composition of the emissions. "Clean Diesel" technologies were great for this because they burned fuel more efficiently and had les byproducts, but, to gloss over a lot of technical details, most of the reductions are in terms of CO2, which is fairly benign to people but bad for the environment as a whole, and has higher concentrations of NOX and large particulate matter, which is really terrible in terms of human health.
In contrast to the European and Asian nations, the US emissions standards came before global warming was on any radars, and by the time it was, it was often too politicized to move on. Everyone could usually agree, however, that pollution that gives little kids asthma is pretty bad, which is why US regulations have focused more on human health rather than environmental health. When you combine that with a historical tendency to like gasoline engines, due to where different technologies were invented, this all sort of explains why the US standards have been so harsh on small diesel, and why foreign manufacturers have had such a culture shock in adapting to US standards.
None of which really explains away VW's guilt since, as the video says towards the end, they were defrauding German regulators as well. That said, European regulators have been cracking down on NOX too, given that their governments have to pay all those medical bills.
A very good and insightful video. It shows how a culture of how things are ran within a company can create or worsen situations. That said, in Germany because of political protection and weak consumer laws, every person who has a Dieselgate car has to sue VW individually for compensation. Furthermore, VW has the balls to make a fake-deal to avoid lawsuits by offering a "ecological premium" for Dieselgate cars, which means you bring them your cheat-car that lost most of its value and they give you a rebate if you buy a new one - but ONLY applicable to very certain models and trims. And they dare to market that as a campaign out of their generosity, what a joke VW became.
The main issue in Germany is that by law, a car has to meet certain emission standards or it is excluded on certain roads, in certain cities or areas. There is a power struggle between the political protection of VW (on federal and communal levels because cities do not exactly want to enforce "green" laws prohibiting a large portion of cars entering their limits because people need to work and generate revenue and stuff) and the strong ecological lobby. There are powerful pro-eco NGOs who sue cities or municipals for measures to keep the emission standards, because the political entities themselves cannot bring themselves to do it for various reasons. That includes cities like Berlin, for example. It is a huge mess that is interlinked and interdependend on societal, political and economical levels - for example, on the societal level, Germans still buy VAG and their Diesels (despite the fact that many of them deadly flaws and issues) despite the fact that they were cheated on and never received any compensation - or even an apology. I call that phenomenon "Boomer brand nationalism". On the other hand, especially with the big change towards EVs, there are countless jobs in jeopardy, not at VW directly but their suppliers. So yeah they cheated, but some of the cheats might have had intentions that were not as bad as others.
Also: Everybody did it. It is not called "VW-Gate" but Dieselgate for a reason. The others cheated, too, be it BMW, Mercedes, Renault, you name it. The problem for VW is big because VW is the 2nd largest manufacturer in the world - and its competitors would gladly see them sinking.
I personally would never buy VW because they are plain liars and cheats. But I never drove a VW and did not like it.
What a headache.
Even Toyota "the biggest" cheated. Well only one of the brands they owned is found out last month. I think one day the all EV car companies would faced similar reckoning. I'm going for ebikes or etrikes and hope they build highways just for it.
These RCR Stories have motivated me to do more reading on the behind the scenes that occur in the automotive industry
What happened to all the affected cars?
I remember large parking lots or a stadium full of tdi cars...
jhoncho4x4 Some were "reprogrammed" . . Others "crushed."
These are just so great and awesome. Thank you Nick for keeping these up. "It's the best just the best, and you deserve the best it's the best channel it's the best it's just the best."
VW accomplished what every Californian car enthusiast wanted to do :)
Proving hybrids and EVs right and being fined by the tune if billions??
I do think it’s kind of hillarious though.
I wonder how many modded a TDI for more power only to find soul crushing numbers on the dyno because of the emissions cheating software.
i love that this is what has Real Journalism has become. Here, on youtube, easy to find, easy to watch, and done by you guys :)
Perfect timing for some long form content
Excellent in depth research and reporting. THIS is you're specialty, run with it, and never stop. You're passion as an automotive historian comes through in these industry reports. You're talent goes far beyond the 'Sam Kinison dick joke' style auto reviews that initially got me watching this channel. Those are good too, but these are GREAT! Keep em coming, thx.
The US government doesn’t care about emissions, just money.
I’m sure if VW offered enough money to the gov they would have allowed the cars as is.
American emissions are reformist at best and set standards just below what customers want from their vehicles. It is all about vehicle sales not emission outputs.
You don't know the California Air Resources Board.
@@FordFlatSix They're stricter than Euro emissions, and are probably the strictest auto emissions regulations in the world, so "what customers want" seems like a pretty high bar.
The US government and EPA are two separate things. EPA is Global
maninredhelm
Actually I do. I live in california and had to take my truck to a ref because one of my F150’s cats didn’t have a E.O number. Wasn’t pointed out to me when I bought the truck nor did anyone say anything about it the first time I had it smoged.
That’s when I found out that it wouldn’t matter if my truck exhaust was pumping out pure oxygen and baby pandas. No E.O number no pass.
I had to have the state parts locater try to find a factory cat for it before they would exempt it. They couldn’t which I’m happy for because if they did the cat is $1800
"Don't shave with Occam's Razor if you don't wanna get cut!"... Perfect, bro', PERFECT!!!!
A friend of mine had an 03 TDI Jetta and frankly those cars were amazing. We once drove from Baltimore to Williamsport to Harrisburg on half a tank of fuel and the 50-70 acceleration was better than anything else which really helps on PA two lane roads with those short uphill passing sections. Heck, you could run the car on off road kerosene and avoid paying any fuel tax.
US manufacturers could not compete so they got the EPA to set NOx standards to exclude the foreign competition from the market. VW was playing dirty in a dirty fight to the benefit of the American consumer. The NOx standards have nothing to do with health, its protectionism plain and simple. The fact that the patched buy back cars are selling like hotcakes even with the reduced performance and mileage should attest to that fact. However at the end of the day VW was still "foreign" and "other" and was therefore an acceptable political target. It's a shame that American opinion makers all take the side of the EPA and not the amazing vehicles they killed.
Those monkey experiments would say otherwise. NOx causes smog which is a huge problem, google pictures of Indian and C honest cities, without these laws American cities will end up like them. I’ll accept less foreign cars and protectionism if I can breathe without feeling like I smiled a pack everyday. If other companies can make fun cars that meet standards, Volkswagen has no excuse.
I have to agree, at least partly, with the OP. If VW was an American company, it wouldn’t have been disciplined for its malfeasance.
I wish there was a “woah” button instead of just a like button. Hats off for all the hard work you’ve put into this. My 09 sportwagen tdi was one hell of a good car. Funny how you we’re talking about electric cars at the end since a bought a Chevy Bolt just before Christmas 😆.
Diesel Gate Lock-down; Quarantine Edition.