Cheaters Can Win; They Seldom Prosper

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

Nuns, recalling another day and age, whacked Volkswagen with rulers to impose discipline and order.  VW took the pain stoically.  And, there was definitely pain.  

No rulers, just pain.  In the US alone, depending on model, and affected agency, fines ranged from $1.5 billion to over $20 billion.  European fines and recalls totalled more.

Planet-wide, and in the US, selling models were limited to lower margin, lower incentive vehicles, with reduced availability.  The nuns had struck - with ferocity - and VW continues to pay a price, even today.

The customer come-ons, are mere shadows of what is in the market from competitors, and trucks and SUVs abound as Ford, for example, promotes an entire line-up of vehicles. 

The nuns have other targets, as it has now been discovered that General Motors has been cheating on diesel emissions among its truck line, with some half dozen entrants in the "my software can fool your software" derby.

As if GM didn't have enough problems already, with shrinking market share, dwindling profits, and behind the times model choices.  Now, it turns out they have been fudging the emission numbers.

Good luck, GM.

Here come the nuns.