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.

18020 - ENGINE CONTROL MODULE INCORRECTLY CODED

18020 - Engine Control Module Incorrectly Coded

The VW Polo 9N manufactured between 2002 and 2010 is a real fun car and is available in several formats. Meaning either Gasoline or Diesel, or hatch back GTI or sedan as in trendline, confortline or highline. Each of these  fitted with either a 1.2L, 1.4L, 1.6L, 1.8L, 1.9L or 2.0L engine. As such their Electronic Control Unit (ECU) / Electronic Diesel Controller (EDC) differs quite a bit since they are matched to their respective engines which also varies substantially. Amongst which are the ATD, AMF, AVY, AWY, AZQ, BAH, BBX, BBY, BBZ, BMD, BMS, BMT,  BNV, BNM, divided into 3 cylinder and 4 cylinder engines. These engines have  6 & 12 valves for 3 cylinder engines, and 8 and 16 valves for the 4 cylinders engines. FSI = Fuel Stratified Injection. Often times when an engine is replaced, the engine cranks but just wont start. Scanning the ECU results in a 18020 DTC - Engine Control Module Incorrectly Coded. If the engine does not originate from exactly the same model, the following list of codes aught to help to recode the ECU to the correct type.

VW Polo 9N ECU Coding

01: ECM VW Polo 9N BBY 036 906 034 DD MARELLI 4MV 4448 00031
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BKY 036 906 034 GQ MARELLI 4TV 6280 00031
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BBY 036 906 034 HL MARELLI 4MV 5511 00031
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BBY 036 906 034 DD MARELLI 4MV 4448 00071

01: ECM VW Polo 9N BKY 036 906 034 KA MARELLI 4TV G 7448 00071
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BKY 036 906 034 JC MARELLI 4TV G 6549 00031

01: ECM VW Polo 9N AMF 045 906 019 -C 1.4l R3 EDC 0200SG 1479 00000 
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BNM 045 906 019 BP 1.4l R3 EDC G000SG 8395 00002
01: ECM VW Polo 9N AMF 045 906 019 BF 1.4l R3 EDC 0000SG 5179 00005
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BNV 045 906 019 CA 1.4l R3 EDC G000SG 7537 00005
01: ECM VW Polo 9N ATD 038 906 019 JK 1.9l R4 EDC 0000SG 1558 00005
01: ECM VW Polo 9N ATD 038 906 019 LB 1.9l R4 EDC G000SG 5101 00005

01: ECM VW Polo 9N AVY 036 906 033 D 1.6l/4V SIMOS3 00HS3512 00031
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BMD 03D 906 033 F 1.2l/2V SIMOS3 00HS2509 00031
01: ECM VW Polo 9N AWY 03D 906 032 C 1.2l/2V SIMOS3 00HS2501 00031
01: ECM VW Polo 9N AZQ 03E 906 033 L 1.2l/4V SIMOS3 00HS4726 00071

01: ECM VW Polo 9N BNM 045 906 019 BP 1,4l R3 EDC G000SG 8395 00002
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BMT 03G 906 013 R4 1.9L EDC G000SG 0622 000071
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BMS 045 906 013 R3 1.4L EDC G000SG 9554 0003071

01: ECM VW Polo 9N BAH 03C 906 057 AK 1.6l BOSCH ME7.5.20 0707 0000075
01: ECM VW Polo 9N BBX 06A 906 032 PB 2.0l BOSCH ME7.5.10 0305 00071

1.2 L 3 cylinder  6valve petrol,  55 HorsePower 40 killoWatt
1.2 L 3 cylinder 12valve petrol,  65 HorsePower 47 killoWatt
1.4 L 4 cylinder 16valve petrol,  75 HorsePower 55 killoWatt
1.4 L 4 cylinder 16valve petrol,  86 HorsePower 62 killoWatt
1.4 L 4 cylinder 16valve petrol, 100 HorsePower 74 killoWatt
1.6 L 4 cylinder  8valve petrol, 101 HorsePower 74 killoWatt
2.0 L 4 cylinder  8valve petrol, 115 HorsePower 85 killoWatt

1.4 L 3 cylinder TDI,  75 HorsePower 55 killoWatt
1.9 L 4 cylinder SDI,  64 HorsePower 47 killoWatt
1.9 L 4 cylinder TDI, 100 HorsePower 74 killoWatt
1.9 L 4 cylinder TDI, 130 HorsePower 96 killoWatt