Finally, an Automotive Scandal is Compared to Horse Meat Lasagna
Three German judges claim that Volkswagen’s actions leading up to the diesel emissions scandal was akin to putting horse meat in lasagna.
Bloomberg reports that the comparison was made when a court in Hildesheim ordered the car manufacturer to buy back someone’s Skoda Yeti at full sticker price. The ruling was warranted, as VW intentionally committed fraud, the court said.
This decision, the second like it this month, could open the doors for other Europeans seeking reimbursement from the automaker. The Skoda Yeti contains the same 2.0-liter diesel four-cylinder engine as VW vehicles sold in the U.S., though European owners haven’t seen the multi-billion-dollar buyback settlement enjoyed by American owners.
“The use of engine software is a decision with enormous economic ramifications, so it’s hardly believable that it was taken by a low-ranking developer,” the court said.
The case was also likened to sweetening wine with antifreeze — an unseemly practice that led to a European scandal in the 1980s.
Apparently, VW spokesman Nicolai Laude and the judges aren’t on the same page. Laude said that the decision goes against other courts, and believes the ruling will be overturned.
[Image: Rob Brewer/ Flickr ( CC BY-SA 2.0)]
More by Tyler Wooley
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But I thought horse meat was considered a delicacy in Europe?
Unless it can be proven that the main reason most people purchased a VW 2.0 diesel equipped vehicle was because it was a "clean diesel", the basis of this lawsuit doesn't make any sense. This whole thing is clearly about extracting money from VW shareholders and employees rather than about justice or the environment. If justice was the primary motivation, the focus should be putting the engineers and managers responsible for breaking the law in jail for a good long time. If the environment is the primary motivation, the focus should be on evaluating whether is actually is prudent to destroy thousands of functional cars to reduce emissions fractionally, when most of those cars will be replaced with new cars that may be cleaner but also require a huge amount of environmental resources to build.
Well, I NEVER.....knowingly ate any horse meat!!! As for antifreeze in wine, while I sometimes like a little wine, I rarely ever drink it. The things unscrupulous - as in no moral scruples - people do to make money! Shocking, I tell ya, shocking!
“The use of engine software is a decision with enormous economic ramifications, so it’s hardly believable that it was taken by a low-ranking developer,” the court said. I completely agree with this statement. There is no way senior managers at the helm had no idea about this.