There is lots of talk across the south about VW and how it rigged its cars to test emissions lower. Volkswagen has admitted to lying to government agencies and the people who bought or leased their diesel cars. By now, it's almost impossible to read about this on the Internet and read "class actions" filed. Is a class action case in Florida the best or only way to go. NO. So where does the anaylsis start? It starts with who claims to be first in line. VW has said they will pay for their illegal activity and false marketing claims. Who will be compensated? Federal and state governments. In similar cases, the mandatory penalties are paid first. VW Diesel Owners and Leasees. VW has already broken the trust their customers had in them. Prepare to stand in line. Don鈥檛 forget about the VW Shareholders, who want to make sure their dividends stay intact. Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, Beetle,Passat, or Audi A3 sedan manufactured between 2009 and 2015, you need to be represented to fully and fairly recover losses from your devalued vehicle and other potential damages. The only way affected customers can help ensure they will be fully compensated for their losses is to sue Volkswagen. What can one person claim - outside of a class action? 6,000 for their vehicles. Substantial loss of value in their vehicles. Great difficulty in reselling their vehicles. Potential loss of fuel efficiency and/or performance as the result of 鈥渇ixing 鈥?their vehicles.
All told, the SportWagen's cargo capacity falls just 3 cu ft short of that of the larger Passat Wagon with the rear seats up. With seats folded flat, the SportWagen actually offers 5 cu ft more area than the pricier Passat Wagon. So, true to form, the Jetta SportWagen TDI is handsome, solid, practical, and very spacious. But surely it grumbles and wallows along freeways like any self-respecting diesel wagon should, right? Wrong. While VW's TDI engine does have some of the classic diesel sound audible, it is muted at idle and replaced with a pleasant, mild-mannered growl on acceleration. Generally, the car is rather quiet, a trait that extends to acceptable wind and road noise as well. Acceleration is good; what the diesel mill lacks in horsepower, it makes up for in torque, giving a healthy shove when the accelerator is floored. The SportWagen's chassis feels solid and relatively nimble, with crisp turn-in and well-controlled body movement. Roll is present, but is not nearly as prevalent as one would expect from such a car. And while understeer is, as expected, the name of the game, it doesn't kill the SportWagen's fun factor in brisk driving. 450 well spent, in our opinion. Manual shifts are made by slotting the console-mounted gear lever into the appropriate position and tapping it either forward or backward - unexplainably, no wheel-mounted paddles are offered. Left in automatic mode, the DSG gearbox tends to surf the brunt of the TDI's torque, between 2000 and 4000 rpm, requiring few downshifts. Still, not all our staff members - this author among the dissenting group - are convinced of the strengths of the DSG gearbox when connected to the TDI engine. Accelerating from a stop can be met with fits of hesitation and rough, audibly clunky starts especially in automatic mode. Moving off using the Tiptronic manual mode can be smoother, but in general the transmission still feels a revision or two away from perfection, despite its generally smooth and quick nature once underway.
In Germany the Volkswagen Diesel scandal is originally a market failure because the harm from vehicle emissions to public health and to the environment is neither internalized by car producers nor by car drivers. This market failure is neither corrected by public regulation nor by civil liability. There is regulatory failure because the control of NOx emissions by the regulatory agency (Kraftfahrtbundesamt) was lenient. There is also corporate governance failure within Volkswagen where the fraud of installing a manipulative software happened. And there is dysfunctional law, which does not allow the bundling of similar interests of car owners due to industrial lobbying. It seems that the civil courts kept their full independence in this matter. Courts of lower instance in their large majority decided that owners should get their money back. However so far less than 50.000 out of 2.4 million car owners took action against Volkswagen or car dealers. The others shy away from risky litigation. The procedures take much time. It is unlikely that the Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) will take a decision until the end of 2018, which would end legal uncertainty. After that date all limitation periods will expire. The strong signal of a Supreme Court decision will most probably be sent only after the end of the limitation period. For Volkswagen the consequence would then probably be that it has to pay some hundred million Euros as compared with more than 14 billion Euros if all affected would have made their claim. Since the 1990s, European legislators have given an additional boost to modern turbocharged direct injection diesel engines by applying laxer standards for NOx emissions and particulate matter than to gasoline cars.
We aren鈥檛 often smitten with creative car ads, but this one definitely stands out. 鈥檛 exactly catching on. That鈥檚 okay, because the above video is doing pretty darned well on its own with no less than 43,825 views in four days. Quick word of warning - there is an F-bomb near the beginning of the clip, but these days that鈥檚 still enough to warrant a PG-13 rating. In any case, you鈥檝e been warned. What鈥檚 all the hubbub about? Our unnamed salesman has a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta GLS he鈥檚 looking to move, and all things considered, it鈥檚 rather snazzy. As the video so eloquently reveals, it has VeeDub鈥檚 familiar 2.0-liter engine mated to a five-speed manual that鈥檚 done 218,000 kilometers. That translates to approximately 135,000 miles, so yeah, this VW has been around the block a few times. The video also included red wavy lines to show us it has heated seats, a random person showed us it has winter and summer tires, and the interior is trimmed in tan leather. That is, save for a gray armrest on the driver鈥檚 door which we鈥檙e told is there to give the Jetta some character. What else do you need to know about this car? It makes right turns and left turns. Freeze frame later in the video to read some fine print and you鈥檒l also learn the interior smells like Crayola crayons, and that the car moves forwards and backwards but not upside down. We鈥檙e pretty certain there are plenty of Mustang drivers out there ready to say hold my beer on that last bit. The video is clever, and amusing, and tells us pretty much everything we need to know about this Jetta - except how much it costs and how to contact the owner. Is a 16-year-old Jetta with 174,000 miles worth that much? That depends on whether or not you like the smell of Crayola crayons.
