Last September most of the world was shocked to find out that Volkswagen had been cheating on emissions tests for many years. The discovery in August by a university in West Virginia and then the reveal to the world in September showed the diesel engines in Volkswagen models were fitted with a cheat device that activated the emissions control unit whenever the vehicle was hooked up to be tested. When the vehicle was not being tested the ECU would not function and the vehicle could emit up to forty times the allowable emissions into the atmosphere.
This scandal has affected the 2.0 and 3.0-liter diesel engines of Volkswagen which were in a variety of models. Considering Volkswagen is the parent brand of the Volkswagen Group which includes many of the brands we trust such as Audi and Porsche the engines affected were not limited to models with the VW logo on them. Recently a settlement was entered into allowing buybacks of many of the affected 2.0-liter models and a fix was presented but not approved as of yet for these vehicles. This settlement is reportedly going to cost Volkswagen nearly $15 billion and has caused a black mark to be placed on what was a stellar reputation.
In order to avoid the same scenario to occur with the nearly 85,000 vehicles with the 3.0-liter V6 diesel engine, Volkswagen believes they have a fix that will correct this problem. While we don’t have the details of the fix there are a couple points that we can discuss concerning this issue. The affected models with the 3.0-liter engine are the Volkswagen Touareg, Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 along with the Porsche Cayenne. If a fix were put in place that would actually take care of the problem the sales of these models with the diesel engine could continue along and the stop sale that was put in effect in November lifted.
What we need to remember regarding this engine is the face that the 3.0 did not use the same defeat device as the 2.0-liter engine. With this in mind Volkswagen has stated they believe the fix they have planned could be installed and not negatively impact the performance of the vehicle. The fix for the 2.0-liter engine is expected to have a negative impact on the overall performance of the engine and the vehicle as a whole. Another point to keep in mind is the fact the 3.0-liter engine was emitting only nine times the allowable emissions compared to the forty the 2.0 is responsible for.
If this fix is approved and the recall begun this would give Volkswagen a way to be clear of the diesel scandal for good and be able to begin the process of moving forward. No doubt there will be more news regarding this fix and whether or not it’s approved for this engine in the near future as we watch this scandal with interest and wait to see what the final results will be.
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