VW knew fuel usage in some cars was too high a year ago

Her in europe I guess VW is about 10% off on their diesel models. The last diesel car I had - Ford Grand C-Max was 26% off (Official 21,2 km/l - 3 years 60.000km gave an average of 15,6 km/l) - , and that is also what I have heard the last many years on their Mondeo ! And I have a friend that has a Citroën DS5, this model is also 20% off the official measurements. So VW is absolutely not the worst

 

VW obviously knew this from the start. That is the reason why they made software that spoofed the testing equipment.

 

I have a 2012 VW Golf TDI, 1.6 litre. I have a long-term average fuel consumption of 51mpg (5.5l/100km) according to the car's trip computer.

But can I believe it? One thing that has always bugged me about this car is that the speedometer reads about 10% faster than GPS tells me. So when the Golf says I'm doing 50mph, the GPS says 45. 70, GPS says 64. When GPS says 70, Golf says 76-77. I know they are not allowed to understate the actual speed, but this is a stock mainstream car on standard wheels and tyres. How can they be that far out? My Mercedes speedo reads dead on what the GPS says.

When the story emerged about the emission test defeat software in these cars (and they've confirmed mine is one of those affected) I was dumbstruck. How could VW be so dumb as to think they would get away with it?

It wasn't long before I began to think that if they lied about emissions, maybe they are also lying about mileage. Inflate the distance the car has travelled -- make the fuel consumption look better than it is. Am I just being paranoid suspicious?

 

The trip computer in my father's BMW is always off by some amount. He regularly compares expected / actual consumption at the gas station.

My VW has no trip computer, so I don't know if VW "accidentally" gets it wrong as well.

 

Interesting. A very important instrument in most light planes is a fuel flow meter, since running out is a bad idea. These are usually accurate to better than 1%. Why can't BMW match this?

 

Does Dieselgate Accelerate the Growth of Electric Vehicles?

Among my automotive engineering friends, we have asked for many years, "How does VW make a Diesel engine so clean with so little clean up equipment...and get such good fuel economy?!" Sadly, we now know the answer: VW CHEATED!

On the positive side, is it possible that Dieselgate will be the event that convinces traditional car manufacturers to "shift gears" and begin investing seriously in electric vehicles? I think so, but would like to hear the thoughts of others.

The difficulty of making a "clean Diesel" reminds me of the final days of picture tube-based big screen TVs. I think the biggest was about 43" and weighed over 400 lbs! Anyone could see that flat panels were the future, but if all your engineers knew was picture tubes, you told them to make 'em bigger....right up until the day you went out of business.

Here is a graphic that helps us grasp the simplicity of a Tesla verses the complexity of a diesel. The handwriting is on the wall!

 

Once a person - or an organization - begins to cheat, one cheat leads to another. So...I would not be surprised to find that VW's systems are intentionally lying to you. The hubris of "Clean Diesel" is a great example of The Great Lie; lie big, lie loud, shout at deniers. VW may never recover from this...but if they wanted to change their culture and embrace zero emission vehicles, they have the talent and resources to do it. Will they?