VW Enters.................

[Jolle]

I think we may assume now that VW won't be entering any kind of marketing other then trying to save their asses. Formula one will not be one of those.

[stuartpengs]

Of course entering F1 could be a nice piece of publicity once the epa scandal gets forgotten in the minds of the general public.

I'd say it's less about public opinion (fickle and short-term), and more about bean-counting accountants and shareholders (unrelenting, unforgiving b@satrds).

[ScottB]

Of course entering F1 could be a nice piece of publicity once the epa scandal gets forgotten in the minds of the general public.

I'd say it's less about public opinion (fickle and short-term), and more about bean-counting accountants and shareholders (unrelenting, unforgiving b@satrds).

If they turn out to be facing north of £10billion in fines, those accountants will be running rampant!

There's suggestion they aren't the only company that's guilty of it, could have repercussions for Motorsport in general, depending whose been doing what and how much they get fined...

[stuartpengs]

If they turn out to be facing north of £10billion in fines, those accountants will be running rampant!.

Indeed Scott. I get the feeling the entire contents of one of their advertisements is currently echoing through the halls of VW-HQ



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZJY0NcxUQE

[Moose]

There's no chance they'll be facing billions in fines. No one in any government wants a second GM collapse on their hands. A VW collapse (which is what a $10bn fine would cause) would be much much worse than the GM one.

[bill shoe]

There's no chance they'll be facing billions in fines. No one in any government wants a second GM collapse on their hands. A VW collapse (which is what a $10bn fine would cause) would be much much worse than the GM one.

Mr. Moose, I don't agree. It would cause VW pain (with many zeros) to pay, what, $10 billion in fines. But VW had $13 billion in profit last year. Their current debt load is over $100 billion so they could plausibly pay all of the fine by issuing additional debt and only increase their debt by 9%. On first pass this does not seem like a company that should implode due to $10 billion in fines.

In the event they couldn't afford it then it would not really be a concern to the EPA. The German government might step in to pay/cover the fine, but the fine would still stand.

I suspect the long-term result of this situation will be that VW either loses its image and reputation, or VW becomes known for how to manage a major corporate crisis. I don't see the fine being a existential issue one way or the other.

[sgth0mas]

The major diesel companies that got caught up in this several years ago did have to pay the fine, but i believe it was a settlement with all of them somewhat denying guilt.

I imagine VW will pay a similar type of fine...maybe half of the original amount published. Im sure it wont bankrupt the company, as the EPa may roll it out over several years too.

But they admitted way too much guilt to get off free and clear.

[Alexgtt]

What I'm thinking is, which other car manufacturers or even other divisions of VW/Audi are feeling nervous right now? Usually when this happens others are at it as well.

[sgth0mas]

Now the class action lawsuits are rolling in...so the EPA penalties wont be near the only cost implications from this scam.

Curious to see who else gets dragged down with it.

[ScottB]

What I'm thinking is, which other car manufacturers or even other divisions of VW/Audi are feeling nervous right now? Usually when this happens others are at it as well.

By saying VW, they mean the entire group, well, presumably not Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley and Bugatti, but the Diesel engines were used in VW's, Audi's and presumably Seat's and Skoda's, as the same running gear and core powertrains are used by them all.

[Moose]

What I'm thinking is, which other car manufacturers or even other divisions of VW/Audi are feeling nervous right now? Usually when this happens others are at it as well.

By saying VW, they mean the entire group, well, presumably not Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley and Bugatti, but the Diesel engines were used in VW's, Audi's and presumably Seat's and Skoda's, as the same running gear and core powertrains are used by them all.

Yep, it's specifically's VW's 2.0l I4 turbo engine that's at fault. So all cars that use that (Audi A3, VW golf, jetta, passat, beatle) are at issue. The only reason Seat and Skoda haven't been implicated yet is because those brands aren't sold in the US (VWs themselves are sufficiently cheap that they don't need a low end brand to undercut them).

[ripper]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow
BREAKING: Volkswagen CEO says he is resigning.

[kptaylor]

There's no chance they'll be facing billions in fines. No one in any government wants a second GM collapse on their hands. A VW collapse (which is what a $10bn fine would cause) would be much much worse than the GM one.

Nope, VAG has already set aside US$7B in anticipation of fines. The bigger problems is buying back unsold cars from dealers (or applying new compliant software), and then doing the same for owners of these vehicles.

I think F1 may take longer than first thought for VAG & Red Bull.

[Moose]

There's no chance they'll be facing billions in fines. No one in any government wants a second GM collapse on their hands. A VW collapse (which is what a $10bn fine would cause) would be much much worse than the GM one.

Nope, VAG has already set aside US$7B in anticipation of fines. The bigger problems is buying back unsold cars from dealers (or applying new compliant software), and then doing the same for owners of these vehicles.

I think F1 may take longer than first thought for VAG & Red Bull.

The big problem is not simply applying new compliant software - because that will limit the engine map to getting shitty performance, and mean that they've missadvertised the cars to customers. In order to fix this properly they'll need to fit a urea injection system to all of these cars, and that may be a non-trivial task. For the golf, they actually redesigned the chassis to be able to hold a urea tank in a sensible place, so they may struggle to fit one on the older models.

[Richard]

So Winterkorn had resigned. This will be interesting for Red Bull.

Let's see if Horner is left without a dance partner.