I woke up this morning to find a Volkswagen ad on my Fb page. I noticed the '3.3k' total of comments and became curious about what was being said. I was horrified to see all the pro-VW and 'f**k the EPA' comments among them. It's terrible to see so many people missing the point on this deceptive software issue. A lot of comments were from owners bragging about some pretty impressive MPG numbers. While it may be true that the cars use the diesel fuel more efficiently, the end result is the introduction of NOx in the atmosphere, which is BAD for ozone, contributes to visible smog, and is BAD for people with emphysema or chronic bronchitis (me being part of the latter).
Now, anyone that knows me understands that I love cars and am extremely loyal to my American-built Subarus. I love my ridiculously reliable, comfortable and indefatigable AWD Outbacks, but even I would question my loyalty if they had pulled such shenanigans. I believe VW to be an overall decent company that has made some fantastic cars over many a decade and I sympathize with loyal VW owners that bought one of these NOx-ious vehicles (even some diesel Audi owners are getting the news that they have the bad chip---Yes, they are the same company), but if they don't understand the horrifying implications of such a deep level of corporate fraud that allows dangerous pollution to be added into our atmosphere, I have to wonder about our future.
I admit, great fuel economy would be hard for me to turn my back on. I love my car, and it would be fantastic if its range would be greater. However, it would be devastating to me if I found that the company was buying my loyalty through fraud and damaging the air that everyone depends on to live. All car companies want to make their owners happy by delivering more than what they promised. They want to make that car that delivers magical gas mileage, incredible reliability, and heart pounding performance. At the same time, they have to sell enough of them to stay in business, so they have to deal with a bunch of different countries with a dizzying amount of different, perhaps conflicting, laws.
It's impossible to please everyone on this rock, but a company shouldn't resort to fraud to circumvent laws created for the good of the Earth and the quality of human health. VW TDI (diesel) owners need to understand the seriousness of the issue and become educated on the particle, NOx, that their cars are exuding. Please check out this link and read the section, "Environmental effects".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOx
Also, check out this article by Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2015/09/23/dieselgate-what-vw-tdi-owners-should-know/
I give VW of America a lot of credit for taking responsibility and promising to take action to correct the issues. See the link for a word from the CEO:
http://www.vwdieselinfo.com/?cid=sem_w9QQH23Q_10254433533_c
So, there you have it from every side. I believe the problems will be corrected and that the majority of the VW organization wants to do business ethically and has been for years. For those owners that wish to remain ignorant or evenly oddly defiant of the issue, well, that's up to you.
Peace, kids.
