What A Load Of Fahrvergnügen

Volkswagen - not to mention its subsidiaries like Audi - is on the hot seat for faking emissions tests on its diesel cars. It's quite a black-eye for Volkswagen: aside from the dishonesty, they've invested a lot on developing and marketing diesel. But that dishonesty is shocking: the (direct) death-toll here may not be like GM's ignition scandal, but somehow it seems worse because it was blatant and premeditated. We expect companies to panic and cover up their errors, but we don't expect them to make conscious decisions to deceive everyone over the course of years.

How bad is this going to be for VW? It's hard to say. With the ignition scandal, I predicted that it would be disastrous, because it fit the stereotypes of American car companies so well that it would just confirm customers' worst suspicions. But that didn't happen; it really had little impact on sales. Now that could be for one of a couple of reasons: It could be that most people simply didn't hear about the problem, or it could be that people just have highly negative opinions of American car companies already, so further bad news didn't change anything.

If it is because the public doesn't hear about these scandals, then Volkswagen won't be hurt, though we'll be entering a dark age of automotive quality that will have Ralph Nader feeling like he's wasted his life. If it's the latter reason, then VW is in trouble because this will puncture their reputation. Their cars always seem pricey, so if customers don't think the price is worth it, then they're in trouble.

Of course, that's assuming this is as far as the scandal goes. It says something about our perception of the car biz that people almost immediately started speculating that other car makers are just as guilty.  If it does become larger, and other manufacturers are implicated, then Volkswagen might come out of it looking alright.  People will get angry and swear that they'll try to live car-free:   But as with politicians, even if our opinions of all the competitors are low, we still have to choose the least-bad.  At least in voting, spoiling your ballot doesn't require using public transit.