VOLVO IS NO LONGER SWEDEN'S BEST SELLING CAR

VOLVO IS NO LONGER SWEDEN'S BEST SELLING CAR

It was just announced that the Volkswagen  Golf won car of the year in Sweden for year 2016. And yes, it's the  very Scandinavian country where the iconic Volvo brand topped car sales each and every consecutive year for the past 54 years . However, for the very first time in history or Volvo or rather more exactly the same number of  years, the German designed and manufactured VW Golf outsold the Swedish manufactured Volvo in 2016.  Volkswagen Golf's accounted for almost 6% of all new cars sold, whereas the combined sales of Volvo’s V70, S90 and V90 only  constituted a mere 5.7%. But this event of Volkswagen beating Volvo at sales is not entirely unique because it happened once before. Way back in 1962, the humble Volkswagen Beetle knocked Volvo off the top selling spot by outselling Volvo. Be that as it may, Volvo still retains the largest share of the Swedish Car market, sanding at roughly 22 percent, with Volkswagen in a close second position with approximately 16 percent market share.

The smokey Ford Kuga is on fire, literally!

Despite the fallout from its diesel emissions scandal, with its cheating  device, Volkswagen AG as a whole is bouncing back, regaining market confidence after  their pledge to focus on electric power in the coming years. VW Golf is Sweden's top seller and currently their most popular car.  The VW Golf sales are  closely followed by VW Passat as the fifth most popular car, followed by VW Polo as the eight most popular car, followed by the Skoda Octavia as Sweden's tenth most popular car.

Volvo has always been known to be a "very safe car" but the Swedes have lost their national pride when Chinese firm "Zhejiang Geely Holding Group" bought the  iconic Swedish brand —Volvo — in 2010. This is probably the real reason why Volkswagen is gaining ground in Sweden? 

"Talking about safe cars or rather unsafe cars. 

The fiery Ford Kuga and the fiery Ford Everest 

are probably the unsafest cars 

on the roads today".

Ford motor company has contacted all Kuga owners by post, urging them to book their fiery Kuga's into their workshops for a free maintenance check, but not explaining the urgency of the matter. No sooner have they done this, when four more Ford Kuga's burst into flames during the same amount of days. According to Ford, it appears that the issue is limited to their 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine but according to owners somehow their Everest is also affected. About a year ago a Ford Kuga driver was  burnt beyond recognition in Durban,  and to-date as many as 40 Kuga fiery incidents have been reported.


1) Ford Kuga owner leaps from burning vehicle in Durban.
2) A PE family is in shock when their Ford Kuga burst into flames.

3) Husband and wife watched their Kuga burnt out.

A all new Kuga hot-rod in full glory

Kuga with frostbite after bursting into flames

A fiery Ford Kuga making like a Volcano

Peculiarly most of the burnt-out Kugas are white in colour.

If it wasn't for the Original Ford Kuga Mag, this burnt out stack could easily
have been mistaken for a Volkswagen vehicle.

Virtually unrecognizable but is definitely a Kuga

From Ford to ashes and from Ford to dust.

It looks like a volcanic eruption but it's really a Ford Kuga

Ford Kuga front-end totally destroyed

However owner reports say that Fords bursting into flames is not limited to the Ford Kuga  EcoBoost Ambiente but rather prevalent on Ford Everest 3.0 SUV as well.  Ford motor company is facing a huge backlash and a potential class-action lawsuit over Kuga fires because Ford Kuga vehicles owners across South Africa are proressively growing concerned over the spontaneously combustion of their vehicles. Yet Ford Motor Company is still trying to dodge burning issue of recalling their Kuga range. The issue that VW went through during its emission scandal is going to be pale in comparison to what awaits Ford Motor Company because there was loss of life. The pics below are just some of the Ford Kugas that were engulfed in flames.

Ford Kuga making like a chimney

 A completely Toasted Ford Kuga

A Ford Kuga imitating a cable.

Fortunately, and all thanks to God, that Volkswagen vehicles don't burst into flames as often as Ford Kuga's do. Below are some pics of Volkswagen vehicles that suffered the same fate as the cars above.

1) A Volkswagen Polo on fire in Bo-kaap, Cape Town
2) A Volkswagen Polo Vivo caught alight outside the Punjab National Bank in India.
3) A VW Polo hosed down by its owner.

A VW Polo caught alight on the south bound R102 in KwaZulu Natal 

A VW Jetta completely engulfed in flames in Verulam-KwaZulu Natal. 

A VW Polo taking time out.

In a certain sense  every car is a potential  / ticking time bomb, considering it is propelled by highly a inflammable liquid like petrol, or diesel,  or LP gas in the presence of engine oil, and other combustible materials like cloth, foam, pleather, rubber, PVC and paint. With a battery powered high current electrical system capable of igniting electrical fires, through arcing or an electrical short circuits acting as a trigger. And Fuel spillage from a burst pipe on a hot engine presenting another trigger amongst others. This can be equated to storing a box of matches with the gunpowder in the same keg, whiles we rolling on it. 

However, if safety standards are observed to the hilt, accidents will be reduced to an absolute minimum. Case in point, the Samsung S7 with its overheating and self-combusting properties has causes many a house to burn down and likewise many a car has caused its driver severe injuries some of whom burn to death.

VOLKSWAGEN SHARE PRICE

VOLKSWAGEN SHARE PRICE

In the German language, Volkswagen means "The People's Car". However, the People as a whole are energetically rejecting Volkswagen cars in favour of other brands of automobiles. Volkswagen (VW) as a company has suffered  tremendous financial losses and has fallen from grace because of the cheating devices that gave rise to the emissions scandal that affected 11 Million vehicle globally. The cheating German auto manufacturer, recently announced a EUR4.1 Billion euros (USD4.6 Billion) operating loss for the year 2015 and set aside an additional sum of EUR16.2 Billion (USD18.2 Billion) to pay for its diesel emissions test-rigging scandal. But regardless of the amount of money Volkswagen is throwing at the problem,  the VW share price had already plummeted from US$244.30 in early April 2015 to US$166.98 by mid September 2015. This 32% decline in share price slipped  even further by a whopping 18.5% to close at USD 136.15 by of third week April 2016. So within one year and two  weeks the Volkswagen share price fell by a massive 44.3% in  value. 

Volkswagen's USD 18.2 Billion shlush fund is destined to cover the costs of legal expenses, penalties, claims, recalls and vehicle buy back from all the countries affected by the diesel emissions cheat software, essentially to cover all cost incurred last year. Somehow this  US$18.2 billion  is likely to be just the beginning of their woes because on Thursday 21 April 2016, a US federal judge announced that Volkswagen promised the  US government that they will buy back as many as 482,000 diesel cars, as well as pay all penalties to make up for the  pollution generated by their cars.

Having said that, it's been a very bad week for German automakers as a whole because a US attorney seizing an opportunity to make hoards of money, has sued Daimler over Mercedes Benz's diesel pollution. He hired a company to test Mercedes-brand diesels driving on real roads, the findings showed that they spewed out much more nitrogen oxide virtually all the time than the amount stated. He shared the test results with California regulators which will surely trigger an inquiry  by the US Environmental Protection Agency, into Daimler Benz's emission figures. He also intimated that there could also be some complicity on the part of European governments. Daimler said the lawsuit’s claims are totally without merit and that the investigation is unrelated to the VW emission scandal. The company also repeatedly denied  using emission defeat devices or manipulating emissions tests. 

However Daimler AG did concede that the US Department of Justice asked the company to investigate irregularities in diesel emissions in its Mercedes brand vehicles. Now that at least two German automakers are under US scrutiny, the emissions-cheating witch-hunt could be growing exponentially. Senior Kelley Blue Book  analyst Karl Brauer said that  Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen and other automakers, and several governments have known for years that diesel cars only met with emissions standards in the lab, but not on real roads. He also added that it was so understood, even if not documented; essentially an agreement between the automakers and the European governments. Hardly had the above transpired when Germany’s transport minister announced that five automakers agreed to recall 630,000 diesel vehicles in Europe following an investigation into emissions levels. Recalls include Mercedes and Opel, as well as Volkswagen and its subsidiaries Audi and Porsche.

Earlier this year, Dutch emission tests revealed that a Mercedes C-Class BlueTec diesel emits 40 times more nitrogen oxide on road tests than in lab tests. In other tests released by the British government during this week, have shown that diesels from Daimler and other automakers, including Ford Motor Company, Nissan Motor Company and Hyundai Motor Company, perform vastly differently in lab tests than they do on the road.

Volkswagen, the German carmaker Volkswagen announced on Friday past (April 22) that the massive engine-rigging scandal it is currently engulfed in, pushed it into an annual loss, for the first for more than 20 years, but the final total costs are still incalculable.

Back in Tokyo Japan the latest fuel consumption misconduct is at play. Mitsubishi is embroiled in a fuel-consumption scandal affecting thousands of its vehicles and admitted to 'cheating' since 1991. They have been using an improper fuel-efficiency testing method for the past 25 years and have no idea how many cars are affected sold overseas that exceed the already known figure of 600 00 vehicles. Mitsubishi admitted that a group of unnamed employees rigged fuel consumption tests back in 2002 to make some of its cars seem more fuel-efficient than they actually were.   
A decade ago Mitsubishi  was pulled back from the brink of bankruptcy when it was found to have covered up a series of vehicle defects. But today Mitsubishi plans on  compensating customers in a bid to limit the fallout from the scandal. Meanwhile Transport ministry authorities raided Mitsubishi's  offices earlier in April.  

Mitsubishi Motors Corp’s president Tetsuro Aikawa bows with other company executives
at a news conference. Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

These embarrassing global scandals have raised questions about the Japanese and German carmakers future, but points to a broader problem in the global car industry as regulators probe other automakers' pollution and fuel-efficiency standards. While the echos of these announcements are  is still resonating in the ears of the motor industry,  Germany's transport minister Alexander Dobrindt said  Volkswagen's emissions-rigging scandal sparked a inquest and found irregularities at 16 car brands, amongst which are Mercedes, France's Renault, Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Jaguar, and Nissan.

FOOL ME ONCE SHAME ON YOU; FOOL ME TWICE SHAME ON ME

VW SHAMED  TWICE SHAME FOR EMISSION CHEATING

Thus far Volkswagen AG, Audi AG and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. and Volkswagen (VW) as a whole has gone through the mill for the EPA emissions scandal that broke on the 18 September 2015. They have suffered massive third-quarter financial losses. Legal injunctions have compelled them to recall 11 million vehicles fitted with the now notorious 2.0L TDI engine. They are obliged to repair them entirely at their own cost which could take at least two years. They had to set aside some 7 billion Euros as restitution and compensation to VAG vehicles owners whose vehicles will, as a result of the "cheat device", have  diminished performance and poorer fuel economy. They fired their heads of Research and Development and launched an internal investigation into the “rogue software engineers” responsible for fitment of "cheat device". They have even instated a new CEO, Matthias Mueller, the former  boss of Porsche to the helm, to steer them out of the arse mousse  that Volkswagen find themselves sinking into deeper day by day.

The largest Automobile manufacturer in the World.

As if this isn't enough,  US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just notified Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft of a second breach of clean air legislation. On the 2nd  November 2015, the EPA issued them with a second notice of violation (NOV) of the Clean Air Act. This NOV alleges that VW developed and installed defeat mechanisms in model years 2014 through 2016 VW, Audi and Porsche light duty diesel vehicles equipped with 3.0 liter V6 TDI engines. The harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions produced by diesel engines fitted in the 2014 VW Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne, and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5, appear to exceed the EPA’s standard by at least nine times. 

3.0 Liter V6 TDI Engine

In their own defence VW emphatically denied the charges of fitting the “cheat device” into its luxury brand of vehicles. However the following day  VW admitted that certain “unexplained inconsistencies” had been found during the testing process for CO2 emissions. VW added that approximately 800,000 vehicles are currently thought to be involved, most of them sold in Europe.  But some of the vehicles now involved have petrol engines, implying that the scale of the second  installment of the emission scandal could be much greater than initially assumed. 

Suddenly the “credibility” of the “rogue software engineers” argument just fades into obscurity. It is just to outlandish, flimsy and too incredulous now that Porsche and other luxury brand of vehicles are also involved. This boils down to down-right systematic manipulation and rigging of emissions test data by VW in order to gain themselves and unfair and an illegal  competitive advantage over its competitors. These latest developments just tarnished Volkswagen’s reputation and future sales even further, perhaps irreparably.  But to regain any sort of confidence and trust from both customers and investors, Volkswagen would have to make some radical changes to its management  and come clean. 

Considering that for the first time Toyota sales has overtaken that of VW.  And that Volkswagen  will forfeit all its CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)  carbon credits, and have to pay the taxation difference between the lower vehicle tax that  VW’s customers have unwittingly paid and what was actually due. Besides  getting grilled at COP 21 on the 7- 8 December 2015 for fooling the rest of the world twice.  And to add insult to injury, VW sales across all models, including petrol engines sales dropped by almost 10% since October 2015. Credit ratings agencies Moody’s and S&P have downgraded VW and three other major ratings agencies have VW on negative watch considering further downgrades. What a  deal breaker!

VOLKSWAGEN AG AFTERMATH

VOLKSWAGEN AG AFTERMATH

The Volkswagen emissions debacle is undoubtedly the greatest corporate catastrophe since the global financial crisis, and that even includes the BP oil spill of 2010.  It has been nicknames the "Diesel Gate" scandal and is the greatest controversy the carmaker experienced in its 78 year history. VW  is currently the largest car manufacturer in the world and it is no exaggeration to say that the company is in mortal danger. It is very likely that the VW group can survive the financial knock of the scandal but whether or not it can recover from the reputational damage it has suffered is extremely uncertain. The news of Volkswagen AG cheating in the global vehicle market space had a huge impact on its stock value / share price. Since December of 2014 Volkswagen's stock value / share price had steadily increased from €155 to as much as €247.55 depicting an average of €195.63. When the news of its impropriety broke, the stock value / share price plummeted and by Friday 2nd Oct 2015, it reached the all time low of €101,15 and is decreasing even further. Today  some 13 days later Volkswagen's share value has dropped to as little as €90.88, the same level it was at in September of 2011, a whole 5 years ago.  Just two days of down trading wiped out €25billion in VW market capital, placing it in an existence-threatening crises.

Emission Cheaters.....

Volkswagen is certainly not the flavour of the month anymore. VW is being bad mouth by everyone and the news channels are having a field day  with the resignation of Dr Martin Winterkorn its CEO and the dismissal of  the chiefs of R&D in their Audi and Porsche divisions. In fact the general interest in Volkswagen has waned so dramatically that VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda vehicle  blog sites are seeing a huge decline in surfer interest. As an avid Volkswagen enthusiast who owns a 7 year old Polo just witnessed that the amount of Volkswagen AG vehicles on sale at Gumtree.com has doubled. This is a bad sign, because I was hoping to sell my car some three weeks ago before Volkswagen's disclosed that they cheated. This is bound to impact on the price I  will get for her because the supply of VWs are way more than the current demand. Grrrrr.

The emission scandal coupled to the notorious DSG transmission debacle has really done all VAG vehicle owners a disfavour, to the point that the first time in more than 5 years, Volkswagen's share values fell below Toyota's share value. In a nut shell, your VW that won "car of year" in several divisions for several years has just depreciated to less than that of a measly Toyota... and falling. 

To make matters worse, the California Air Resources Board announced that it intends to broaden its testing of  Volkswagen AG cars fitted with diesel engines. This will include 3.0-liter V6 engines used in the the Porsche Cayenne and the Audi A6. Rival car manufacturers like South Korea's Kia and Hyundai, have seen their share prices climb as investors steer clear of German automobile manufacturers. As a consequence even German car maker BMW has suffered a 5 percent slump in its share price today. Not to mention that  businesses that service and supply components to the auto industry have also suffered a hard knock.

VOLKSWAGEN EMISSIONS SCANDAL

VOLKSWAGEN  EMISSIONS SCANDAL

The "Dieselgate Scandal" was breaking news on the morning of 22 September 2015. Apparently The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board (EPA and CARB) revealed their findings that while testing some Volkswagen Group diesel vehicles, they detected deliberate manipulations that vehemently violates American environmental standards. Allegations of corruption within the VW ranks sparked global outrage when the EPA discovered that software  installed on Volkswagen AG vehicles fitted with a Volkswagen EA 189 TDI Diesel Engine, could detect when it was undergoing EPA emissions testing. The vehicle electronics would then activate its full emissions control circuitry to ensure that the vehicle passes the test with flying colours. However under normal operating conditions this software is deactivated resulting in increased exhaust emission with Nitrous Oxide (N2O) as high as 40 times more than that permitted by law. VW is facing criminal prosecution for deliberately contravening the The Clean Air Act and is subject to pay a fine of $37,500 per non-compliant vehicle. This could seriously stack up to as much as 18 billion USD even though Volkswagen AG only made a net profit of 12 billion USD in 2014. This is the greater public relations nightmare that the VW group ever faced  in their entire 78 years of growth, with repercussions that already wiped our one third of their market capital, and doing untold damage to their share price which drop down to an all time low.

The shocking thing about this story, is that a VW spokesperson admitted that a ‘defeat device’ specifically designed to cheat EPA emission testing was installed in more than over 11 million Volkswagen AG vehicles fitted with the EA 189 engine worldwide. VW engineers further said the EA 189 engine that was developed in 2005, would never have met  emission caps within the allotted budgets without the software deception. Volkswagen immediate conducted Internal investigations and  established that the suspect engine management software was also installed in other vehicles in the Volkswagen lineup that use different diesel engines, saying that the software doesn't have any effect on the majority of these engines. According to the EPA the Volkswagen "Diesel Gate Scandal" is not not unique nor the first because several truck manufacturers including Caterpillar and Volvo were caught doing the very same thing back in  1998. 

 A parody of Adolf Hilter pissed with the EPA

As luck would have it, it  turns out that the cheat device was a management decision and not Volkswagen Policy. Management objectives revolved around pushing production, meeting  turnover targets and beating the competition by getting their vehicles to market soonest.  As a consequence Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen AG Wolfsburg resigned his position on Monday the 28th September 2015. Volkswagen then suspended all their research and development R&D chiefs, heading-up its core VW brands, as well as the chiefs heading-up their luxury division Audi and its sports-car maker Porsche, with a pending dismissal of the top brand executives as it a measure to recover from the scandal. There were not axed as sacrificial lambs of scapegoats but at commitment to do right by the public. VW has subsequently issued a stop sale order on all new and pre-owned Volkswagen’s equipped with the EA 189 engine.

Volkswagen made a commitment to fixing this issue as soon as possible and released a brief saying that the topic under investigation is not safety related, but specific to the emissions output of the vehicle. Further assuring customers and owners of the affected model vehicles that they are safe to drive, and that they are speedily working towards developing a remedy that meets emissions standards and satisfies their loyal and valued customers. Saying that the owners of these vehicles need not take any action at this time but that VW will directly contact  them once a  solution is in place. But that a  specific time-frame is not available at the current point in time but will present the technical solutions and measures to relevant responsible authorities in October 2015. The official word  directly from VW is that there is no active recall on any of the 2.0L turbo-diesel 4 cylinder engine vehicles, including the:

VW Jetta (Model Years 2009 – 2015)
VW Jetta Sportwagen (Model Years 2009-2014)
VW Golf (Model Years 2010-2015)
VW Golf Sportwagen (Model Year 2015)
VW Beetle and VW Beetle Convertible (Model Years 2012 – 2015)
VW Passat (Model Years 2012-2015)

Vehicles in the UK affected per brand are as follows:
VW Passenger Cars – 508,276
VW Commercial Vehicles – 79,838
AUDI – 393,450
ŠKODA – 131,569
SEAT – 76,773

The Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT, owned by the Volkswagen group, fitted 700,000 vehicles with pollution cheating software to dupe emissions tests. As part of its global response to the damaging pollution-cheating scandal, Volkswagen plans to recall as many as 120,000 diesel cars sold in South Korea,

Meanwhile Volkswagen AG and has setup websites for all Volkswagen Group brands so that VW, Audi, Skoda and SEAT vehicle owners may self-verify if their vehicles are affected. To check if your VW,Audi, Skoda and SEAT is affected, visit one of these address below:- 
______________________________________________________

VOLKSWAGEN

www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/dieselinfo

You will be greeted with: 

Please note: we can give only information about Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. For other Volkswagen Group brands, please visit the relevant brand website. After typing in your VIN number, you will see the following reply if you vehicle is not affected.

Dear Volkswagen customer,

We wish to confirm that your vehicle with the Vehicle Identification Number AAVZZZ9NZ7U052888 you submitted, is not affected by software that causes discrepancies in the values for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) during dynometer runs.

Yours faithfully,
Volkswagen.
______________________________________________________

AUDI

The Audi website  has the following message which I think  is incorrectly translated by Google and is a far cry from what it aught to say. especially "Please rest assured that your vehicle safety and mobility is impaired at any time" I'm certain nobody wants to hear that, even if it is a translation error. The website greeted by the following message.


Dear Sir or Madam, unfortunately, there are some of our vehicles complaints on emission behavior. Please rest assured that your vehicle safety and mobility is impaired at any time. For more answers to your questions can be found here.  Should you have any further questions, you can always contact your Audi partner gladly.

Scroll down and click on VIN check
http://www.audi.de/de/brand/de/neuwagen/layer/serviceaktion.html#

Here you can check with entering the VIN number to see if your Audi is concerned. If the code 23Q4 - service measure diesel exhaust EA189 are shown, you will be contacted by the AUDI AG or your Audi partner as soon as the technical solution is available. If you have further questions you are welcome to use the contact form or directly contact your Audi partner in connection.

______________________________________________________

ŠKODA

http://master.skoda-auto.com/mini-apps/recall-actions

Dear customer,
No relevant recall campaigns have been launched by ŠKODA for the entered
VIN TMBNB46Y6Y3069466.

______________________________________________________

SEAT 

Check if your car is involved. In order to make things easy to you on whether or not your SEAT car is affected, we put together a tool that will help us get information through the VIN number of your vehicle, such as the model, engine type and much more to confirm it its involved or not.

http://www.seat.com/owners/diesel-engines/vin-number.html

Your car is not involved.