Volkswagen's Top Emissions Man Pleads 'Not Guilty' in Detroit Courtroom

We keep having the same conversation. GM's problem was due to incompetence; VW's was due to intentional deception. The law judges these situations much differently. The law places a lot of weight on intent, not just outcome. That's why there are degrees of homicide. That's why a drunk driver whose mistake killed someone might get out of jail long before a banker who bilked millions of dollars from his customers. There isn't a shred of evidence to indicate GM willfully killed its customers. The financial settlements are a way of them saying "we're sorry this preventable tragedy happened", not "we decided to kill your loved one but got caught; here's a check". And, this has nothing to do with foreign or domestic mfrs. Even GM's greatest detractors can see these distinctions; why can't you?

@SCE to AUX From a consumer standpoint, the GM ignition switch issue is troubling because of a breakdown in quality control and other processes (like not changing the part number). VW, on the other hand, planned to cheat from the get go. One case may be negligence, but there doesn't appear to be criminal intent. The other case, well, there's a reason why Mr. Schmidt was at the Federal courthouse.

@SCE to AUX "Even GM’s greatest detractors can see these distinctions; why can’t you?" Charlie effed-up in America, had to skeedaddle to Mayhico, and it's America's fault.

1. GM was guilty of negligence and incompetence. There was no willful criminal activity. 2. VW’s crime was premeditated and its consequences were understood from Day One. 3. GM’s ignition switches weren’t identified as the root cause of the crashes and deaths for quite a long time, because it is exceptionally difficult to do so. Approximately 18 people die daily in GM cars. Over the course of 10 years, that works out to over 65000 deaths in GM cars. How were they to know that 0.2% of them were attributable to faulty ignition switches? It’s not like GM has operators standing by to evaluate every death in their vehicles, particularly when other factors like poor maintenance, speed, alcohol, and weather are involved. There is no moral or legal equivalence between these two cases.

@SCE to AUX He is a troll. He keeps repeating the same line in all TDI topics (google his username and ttac for a full list) and people keep replying with the same rebutals. He will never read your posts and he will repeat the statement in the next TDI topic.