Friday, December 2, 2016

VOLKSWAGEN e-GOLF

IS IT TIME TO DITCH VOLKSWAGEN?

The year 2016 is fast coming to and end but will always be remembered as the year that Volkswagen AG  needed to reverse public perception over the diesel gate scandal that affected some 11 Million vehicles globally during 2015. With it's hands full with public apologies, court battles, falling share prices, Diesel vehicle recalls and general damage control caused by the negative impact to their brand after admitting  that they circumvented emissions standards; VW have been somewhat curtailed from their key business of manufacturing cars.

With the uncertainty regarding the future of diesel, especially considering that the mayors of Paris, Madrid, Athens and Mexico City pledged to ban all diesel cars by 2025. And with the ever looming legislative imperative to cut down on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other harmful gases, automotive manufacturers as a whole have started to seriously invest in electric-powered-car technology. 



Volkswagen produced the Volkswagen e-Golf hatchback which is however not a purposely built electric car but rather shares the powertrain hardware of the Golf MK7 MQB (Modularer Querbaukasten) Typ 5G, but  fitted with an electric motor in place of its petrol/ diesel powered engine. The e-Golf is in direct competition with other purpose  built electric cars from  several manufacturer's vehicles, like the Renault ZOE hatchback, Hyundai Ioniq Electric, Tesla Model S hatchback, Tesla Model X SUV, BMW i3 hatchback, Nissan Leaf hatchback and the Kia Soul hatchback. Be that as it may, VW has sold more than 25 000 units worldwide since 2014. The VW e-Golf matches the competition in range, but the the battery management doesn't have an  active cooling system which seriously affects longevity. VW hasn't in anyway been innovative nor produced anything new. Their VW e-Golf doesn't offer anything more than the competition already does and certainly amounts to less bang for your buck. Apparently the Renault ZOE hatchback seems to be the pure electric vehicle that's leading the EV race in virtually all categories. 



However, VW has always been promoting “Clean Diesel” as an alternative to hybrid and electric vehicles, thus pushing their 2009–2015 Volkswagen Jetta 2.0L TDI, 2010–2015 Volkswagen Golf 2.0L TDI, 2010–2015 Audi A3 2.0L TDI, 2012–2015 Volkswagen Beetle 2.0L TDI, 2012–2015 Volkswagen Passat 2.0L TDI,  etc, globally. It has now come to light that not only has Volkswagen cheated on emission testing with the 2.0L TDI engines, but also on the 3.0L  fitted in the 2009–2015 Audi Q7 3.0L V-6 TDI, 2009–2016 Volkswagen Touareg 3.0L V-6 TDI, 2013–2016 Porsche Cayenne Diesel 3.0L V-6. 




Volkswagen had hardly settled to pay $14.7 billion and announced a buyback schedule, thinking  it was putting an end to the Dieselgate scandal when the German weekly newspaper 'Bild am Sonntag' and the 'Wall Street Journal', citing unnamed sources reporting that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have found new Emissions-Cheat Device / emissions-lowering software on an Audi. Test results  revealed that the Audi was emitting less carbon dioxide than it did during normal use, but when the steering wheel is turned more than 15 degrees, this program would shut off, detecting that the test had completed. The Wall Street Journal alleges that Audi management specifically detailed the defeats during their meetings.




This affects all VW owners and by the looks of things, other car manufacturers have surpassed Volkswagen in several categories. Looking at comparisons in Overall, Reliability, Build Quality, Running Cost, Performance, Road Handling, Ride Quality, Ease of driving, Seat Comfort, Practicality, Car Tech, Volkswagen is either doing very badly or in some cases doesn't feature at all. Volkswagen was lying in 10th position on the top 10 selling cars globally but has subsequently been  surpassed by Tesla Motor Company, that is a new entry into the car market or rather the EV market.

Fortunately for VW, its subsidiary Audi is still in the race even though it lost 6% in sales compared to the previous year as can be seen on the "Cars Top 10" slide.  Porsche  is also in the running but there doesn't seem to be stats available as yet. Looking at the three stats sheets above, it can be clearly seen the VW lies 19th for Build Quality, 19th for Running Cost, 16th for Ride Quality but for Overall  and Reliability it doesn't even feature. What were we thinking when be bought into Volkswagen? I am seriously thinking of turning my VW Polo into an EV, then I won't have any more engine problems, especially not issues associated with that pesky EPC light and Limp mode home.


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Thursday, December 1, 2016

VW AUDI SKODA SEAT

VW AUDI   SKODA  SEAT 

Can you believe it, Volkswagen  cars are produced with cookie cutters! Ok, ok that's exaggerating it a bit. I just needed to stretch this  analogy so that you can stretch your  imagination.  Volkswagen AG (VAG) has use the A04 / PQ24 platform for several of their cars during 2001 - 2015. Hence it turns out that the VW Polo 9N1, VW Polo 9N2,  VW Polo 9N3, VW Polo 9N4, the Volkswagen Fox 5Z1,Volkswagen Fox 5Z3, the Skoda Fabia 6Y2, Skoda Fabia Sedan  6Y3, Skoda Fabia Combi 6Y5, the Skoda Fabia-2 542, Skoda Fabia Combi-2  545, the Russian Skoda Fabia-2  572, the Skoda Roomster 5J7, the Audi A2 8Z0, the Seat Ibiza-3 6L1 and the Seat Cordoba 6L2 all share many similar features and electronic modules, engine components, wiring harnesses, if not the same, perhaps even identical. By just looking at the four of them, it is easy to see this, except for cosmetic changes of course. But underneath their outer apparel they are the virtually the same car using the same mechanical and electronic spares.





Volkswagen subsequently revised  their vehicle platform naming and identification system, for their ultra-compact (city cars), super-mini cars, compact cars (small family cars), mid-size cars and their full-size luxury cars to  numbers that look like PQ24, PQ25, PQ34, PQ35, etc. PL45, PL46, etc, PL62,  PL64 etc. For the uninitiated it only brings about more confusion in an already confusing time of information overload.


SUPER MINICARS

"A01" platform for the Volkswagen Polo Mk1,
"A02" platform for the Volkswagen Polo Mk2 - Classic, 
"A03" platform for the Volkswagen Polo Mk3- 6N/6KV,
"A04" platform is now known as the PQ24  -  all cars listed above,
"A05" platform is officially the PQ25 - for Audi A1, VW Polo (6R) and  SEAT Ibiza (6J). 

But for now we are interested in the meaning of platform codes like PQ24, PQ25, PQ34, PQ35, etc. PL45, PL46, etc, PL62,  PL64 and see how it affects the VW Polo range of cars with regards to spares and repair procedures.  When deconstructing the platform codes, we discovered that the  nomenclature for PQ24 is derived as follows:-

P - stands for a passenger car platform
Q - (Quer in German) stands for a transverse engine
2 - stands for the platform size or class
4 - stands for the generation
Essentially implying a passenger car platform with a transverse engine, fitted into a supermini of the fourth generation (MkIV).
Meaning, one of the cars mentioned in the heading of this blog installment, since all of them are classified as supermini cars.

Whereas the nomenclature for PL45 is derived as follows:- 
P - stands for a passenger car platform
L - (Längs in German) stands for a longitudinal engine
2 - stands for the platform size or class
5 - stands for the generation
Essentially implying passenger car platform with a longitudinal engine, fitted into a mid-size cars of the fifth generation (MkV).
Meaning a Volkswagen Passat (3B) or a Audi A4 (8D), etc.

Whereas the nomenclature for PL64 is derived as follows:
P - stands for a passenger car platform
L - (Längs in German) stands for a longitudinal engine
6 - stands for the platform size or class
4 - stands for the generation
Essentially implying passenger car platform with a longitudinal engine, fitted into a full-size luxury car of the fourth generation 
Meaning a Volkswagen Phaeton, Audi A8, or even a  Bentley Continental GT, etc.

Platform nomenclature was decided because car manufacturers are determined to get a better return on investment by using the same robotic arms and software programming on their  assembly lines / conveyer belts to assemble a host of different vehicles that look similar, with predominantly the components.  Also meaning that the space needed to stock parts are greatly reduced because instead of stocking the same part for 15 different models they have to stock just just one.



Case in point is the Joint-venture between Volkswagen and Ford Motor Company for producing the  Volkswagen Sharan (7M), SEAT Alhambra (7M), and the Ford Galaxy (7M). Volkswagen also started a Joint-venture between themselves and Daimler AG, to produce the Volkswagen LT range and the Second and third generations Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. In a sense one can just call this badge engineering, because Mazda and Ford have also have had long-term alliances, making cars until their partnership dissolved.