Audi Offers Its Own Goodwill Program To A3 TDI Owners

And of course, the biggest difference: intent. GM and VW/Audi may both be tone deaf, but their recall issues are very different. GM faced different consequences than VW will because of its lack of intent to do harm. Using the moral equivalency of these situations that you continuously promote, an elderly driver whose car careens onto a crowded sidewalk should receive the same penalty as the Boston Marathon bomber. Awful outcomes do not always demand the same penalties.

@SCE to AUX Strawwan. GM, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler/RAM woes in the last decade have one common thread. Incompetence. They were incompetent. Takata and VW were willful. If the law looked at these things the same way then there would be criminal charges like "involuntary manslaughter" or "negligent homicide" or "third degree murder" (depending on the state you live in and their various laws). Criminal law in the United States has a very different moral equivalence for, "hey I have an idea lets go actively break the law," versus, "well I got drunk and my gun went off because I was cleaning it loaded and I shot my best friend's head off because I'm an idiot." As others have pointed out, in agreement with my view, including those who could never remotely be identified as being in GMs camp at any point, VW's decision making process and handling of this has been horrific every step of the way. There is definitely a comparison that can be made by a company in crisis whether that is their fault (Jack-In-The-Box killing their customers with e-coli) or not their fault (poisoned Tylenol), or exploding under inflated tires (Firestone). All three had the potential net impact of destroying a company and a brand. Jack-In-The-Box shut down their stores, admitted fault, paid the victims, made sweeping changes, and revamped their marketing and menu. Net result, a thriving fast food business. Tylenol was predicted by many to be a dead brand after the poisoning - not their fault AT ALL as it was some whack job tampering with pills on the shelves. Tylenol was stripped completely out of the market place, Tylenol went on an amazing brand campaign stating how critical trust was, how trust was broken (even though it wasn't their fault) and they were committed to being a trusted pain relief product. Tylenol didn't not just die, they thrived. Firestone got a public urination match with Ford over rolling over Ford Explorers, Ford blamed Firestone tires, Firestone blamed Ford because the pressure Ford recommended was out of spec for safe operations. Ford lost the PR battle, sales plummeted, they had to eat a ton of replacement tires, and ended up being bought by the Japanese. It took well over a decade to rehab their brand and how often do you see OEM Firestone tires these days? Your strawman simply loses all objectivity because, well, it's GM, and GM is evil. That wasn't the point, nor is it ever the point. When GM's gross negligence at an institutional level was laid out for all to see, they admitted everything. GM could have said, "hey, old GM, we're new GM, we don't have to set up a victims fund." They did on their own, accepted claims that included a driver who wrote a suicide note they were going to drive into a tree, and several claims from drivers who were drunk, impaired, driving dangerously, or a combination of. They expanded their recall to ridiculous levels, including the Camaro and the G8, which you'd have to be contort yourself into an impossible position to strike the key. The feds didn't keep finding a new rock layer each week (unlike with VW) and GM sales weren't impacted by the scandal - why - because they managed it right.

@APaGttH: I don't disagree with anything you just said. Have I misconstrued your comments, or have you changed your viewpoint, or have I confused you with someone else?