VW US Chief: "We Have Totally Screwed Up"

Mark Stevenson
by Mark Stevenson

Michael Horn, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, didn’t mince words last night during Volkswagen’s launch of the 2016 Passat midsize sedan, according to Automotive News.

At the vehicle launch in Brooklyn on Monday night, the executive said, “Our company was dishonest with the EPA, and the California Air Resources Board and with all of you. And in my German words: We have totally screwed up. We must fix the cars to prevent this from ever happening again and we have to make this right. This kind of behavior is totally inconsistent with our qualities.”

Volkswagen has opened themselves up to $18 billion in fines in the United States alone. Additional fines could be levied if the group’s 3.0-liter V-6 diesel engine is also found not to comply with EPA emissions regulations.

Mark Stevenson
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  • FreedMike FreedMike on Sep 22, 2015

    I'm with John...this wasn't a mistake, it was a massive fraud. I think they're going to end up having to reimburse owners on this, in addition to whatever other legal penalties they'll have to pay. The customers who bought these paid thousands of dollars extra for the diesel version, and they all got completely ripped off. What a disaster.

  • 210delray 210delray on Sep 22, 2015

    This is going to be like Watergate. Remember Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon?

    • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Sep 22, 2015

      Ironically, he's the one who gave us the EPA. Possibly he was the last truly progressive president in the US. Or at least the last president for whom progressivism was worth being concerned about.

  • Hachee Hachee on Sep 22, 2015

    I know that European and US market cars differ, but am I understanding this right in that it's just US market cars in which this software is installed? Do European market cars spew 40 TIMES more NOx???

    • See 1 previous
    • BklynPete BklynPete on Sep 22, 2015

      @bumpy ii Wow! Ug-lee just begins to describe this.

  • Dantes_inferno Dantes_inferno on Sep 23, 2015

    The Diesel automobile in the U.S. is now dead. I actually thought about buying one years ago, but the added complexity of Diesel engines in general effectively talked me out of a potential mistake.

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