Report: Volkswagen Knew Fuel Consumption Claims Were Bogus Last Year

daviel: "I don't care about these issues except I'm sorry VW got caught. I'd really like a GTI next year." Don't care about breathing or eating, huh? See how that GTI works out for you. klossfam: "VWs biggest crime is getting caught. I’m not defending the wrong doing but Hyundai, GM and others have all falsified mpg and other specs over the years." Okay, I'll go over this again, real slow: VW didn't just build cars that broke the pollution laws. They didn't just build cars that broke the pollution laws and lie about it. They built cars DELIBERATELY ENGINEERED TO BREAK THE LAWS.

@tonycd "Don’t care about breathing or eating, huh?" VW's emissions are an infinitesimally and insignificantly small portion of the total emissions of everything on the planet. I bet there is more pollution from cowfarts than there is from cars, trucks and other ICE vehicles. With all the hoopla these days about CO2 emissions, I often wondered why all those trees were felled, cut down or burned on the planet. Trees are what convert CO2 to O2.

@highdesertcat Correct, deforestation and if the overall global temps get too high, methane and vast quantities of Co2 from the oceans and polar regions, permafrost will be released. It will be a very toxic world. Diesels will continue to be popular despite the hoopla, but modern gas engines will be coming under the radar as well. I expect Gas/Petrol engines will have a lot more shocks than diesel

@klossfam, It will be fun when the EU starts testing ALL vehicles for compliance, Diesel and Petrol

"VW are far larger than any actual damage done to the environment." If you're talking CO2, then I agree. As for the NOx, couldn't disagree more. That Leeds University study showed that tiny diesel cars put out more than a Euro 6 compliant diesel bus or highway rig. That's because those commercial vehicles actually meet standard. All reported before here on TTAC. Meanwhile over 50 million rotten little diesel buckets are why the atmosphere is putrid in European city centres, Robert Ryan's mystical and incorrect naysaying about North America being worse several weeks ago to the contrary. NOx leads to ozone and photochemical smog, excess CO2 just means you get worse mileage and that is limited to gasoline-powered cars in this case.

@wmba There is more than just NOx , that causes health problems from Automobiles. Even Co2 has a negative effect in higher concentrations NA is one of the worst places on the planet for dangerous pollution from Automobiles

@RobertRyan We've been telling Robert and BAFO for years, Europe's boner for diesels has been killing off their own citizens in record numbers with astronomical health blowback. Diesels are the worst thing to happen to light vehicles in densely populated cities, even small towns/villages. They don't get it. We don't want or need light duty diesels, except for a few a$$Holes that absolutely have to be different.

@DenverMike Problem is people are wanting more diesels than every before outside NA. Even in NA, the number of diesel options is dramatically increasing

@DenverMike Diesels will continue to be popular outside of North America, as long as governments continue subsidizing diesel fuel. Taxing by engine size is another stupid idea that pushes the sale of more diesels. That's fine for them. But look for this to change. Sales and demand for diesels in the US has continued to grow, but we're talking from around 6% take rate to 7% in recent years or something, Not much at all. And that's prior to the VW scandal coming to light.

@DenverMike, governments aren't subsidizing diesel fuel, they're not taxing it enough to overcome the fact diesel is cheaper to make than gasoline, even though diesel taxes are higher than gasoline. Diesel at a nearby station in California has regular gas at $2.79 and diesel at $2.69, despite higher state tax on diesel. As Walmart has proved, people will buy cheap cr*p if it's at a low price.

Based on latest data, it's 1.74%. This is using average gas prices, latest income data from the IRS and Social Security for the US percentage. Talk about uneducated comments.

Globally in a list of the top 12 countries that subsidise energy the US is at 11." Yes, and globally in a list of the top 243 countries that subsidise energy, the US is also at 11. "In a list of the top 12"? What kind of arbitrarily framed statistic is that? Why not just say "the US ranks 11th"? This is just a transparent effort to play down the number further.

SC5door, You could be correct. I acquired my data from Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/gas-prices/