Volkswagen To Discontinue 40 Models After DieselGate Scandal

I know its not nice to kick someone when they are down but in a world where so many are not held responsible for their acts its refreshing to see at least one major arrogant enterprise take their lumps for lying and cheating. Wouldn't it be great for integrity and honesty to once more be highly valued over self above all, money and greed. I know I'm dreaming but to quote John Lennon 'Imagine."

If we could only have this with politicians

VW has so many oddities in its world. Brazil has bespoke VWs as does China and doing so costs more money. Getting rid of all the oddities makes a lot of sense.

For example in China VW has the Lavida, Santana, Santana (different from the Santana), Sagitar, Jetta, Bora, Magotan, and Passat, all of which step on each other and all of which could be replaced by one Jetta and one Passat. That's idiocy.

Brazil has equal idiocy going on.

The American Passat and the European Passat both do not need to exist especially since the American Passat is such a sh!+ bag compared to the CamCords and FusNatas it competes against.

There is no reason for the Jetta and Golf to be on separate platforms.

The Phideon is another stupidity as it is nothing but a rebodied Audi A6 that is in the same market segment as the A6.

As for VW learning its lesson, I'm not so sure. They purged at the top--most likely with huge payouts and pensions intact--and promoted from within. Had they hired new management 100% from outside the company, I'd have respected them more. They should have hired Alan Mulally.

...or hire Bob Lutz, a believer that great designers drive sales rather than overpaid executives. He was definitely one of the major decision makers that helped turn GM around.

Lutz and Mulally would be an amazing team. VW will continue to be VW. When all is said and done, VW isn't really suffering that much.

The US should have made VW buy back every one of the TDI's at original transaction price + interest paid + punitive damages to every owner so that the pain would be so staggering that all other manufacturers would be given the chills.

VW is dragging their feet on a solution and the authorities are doing NOTHING.

In the end, VW is winning.

On to the next deception.

Well Matt, we don't know exactly what VW will be offering current owners, so how can you say they aren't doing enough in that area? I wouldn't say the authorities are doing nothing. Remember that very little information is usually available as parties negotiate.

I have the 2013 Sportwagen TDI (with almost 120K miles on it!), so I'll let you know what the offer is on this very well driven car. My wife refuses to give it up, however, she loves this stick shift wonder. Still on the original clutch, completely trouble free since new. Easily one of the best cars we've ever owned. We've always averaged around 40MPG (thanks to the software cheat of course).

@atc98092 We are rapidly approaching the first anniversary of the scandal and absolutely NOTHING has been done for the customers. How better to define "not doing enough"?

The vehicles were illegal to sell in the first place. Paying customers fair market value--which has plummeted because of the scandal--is just another cash rape.

The only tenable solution is full original transaction price + interest paid + punitive damage compensation

-quizz -I would bet that your car would have averaged about the same mileage with a properly equipped and controlled Diesel as well. Competitors in Europe have no problem doing that. And in fact - carsyn - while lots of people have horror stories - the problem is that lots of VW owners have horror stories - that are not related to the diesel engine emissions. In fact - the diesel engines have been among the more reliable ones that VW sells.

And Matt - at least one of the problems is that many of these cars have already given a near lifetime (for a car) of use. With very high miles - these cars have little residual value anyway - the actual loss is to the environment (the owners may have saved a little on diesel fuel). So Why should the owner get anything near what you say. Add in the people who never bought the car to begin with - lots of these were leased cars - they did not lose anything since falling resale value is against the Lessor - not the driver. Again - who collects the damages to the environment. Your - "only tenable solution" is simply not the only solution - nor should it be. In fact - a life should be stated in miles and the amount of miles the car was used should not be rebated to the customer - the environment impact should result in a payment to the government.

As far as punitive damages - VW will be fined for this - big numbers - that is where the punitive damages are going.

@TomM as usual you're an apologist tool.

Quizz you must have been one of few lucky ones and I am happy for you.

I only hear horror stories from VW owners in FL, NY and South America.

At ~11% of total models, does seem that significant when industry tends to be redesign models on a ~5 year cycle and platforms on ~10 year cycle.