Volkswagen

[Kwacky]

They're not having a good year are they?

They took a battering over the Suzuki ruling now this emissions testing farce.

VW shares have dropped by about 1/3

I wonder if I can get a Golf on the cheap?

[D6]

What was the Suzuki ruling?

We've been discussing the emissions thing. I'd be very surprised if other car manufacturers are not also using the same defeat strategies.

[Kwacky]

VW had to sell back their 19.9% share back to Suzuki after the 2009 partnership agreement went sour.

Japanese automaker Suzuki has bought back a nearly 20% stake held by German carmaker Volkswagen for 460bn yen ($3.8bn; £2.4bn).

Suzuki bought almost 120 million shares at 3,842.50 yen each in after-hours trading on Thursday, ending a partnership between the automakers.

The deal between the carmakers soured soon after it was formed in 2009.

Last month, an international arbitration court ordered Volkswagen to sell its holding.

The tie up, which resulted in Volkswagen becoming Suzuki's biggest shareholder, included co-operation on technology and expansion in emerging markets like India, where Suzuki had a leading position.

But Suzuki filed for arbitration in November 2011 after the partnership failed.

The companies had agreed to work together on fuel-efficient cars, but Suzuki accused Volkswagen of withholding information it had promised to share.

Volkswagen, meanwhile, had objected to a deal Suzuki made to buy diesel engines from Italian carmaker Fiat.

In a statement on Friday, Suzuki said that it did not see a need to change its earnings forecasts for the business year ending in March 2016 in light of the share purchase.

[duke63]

What was the Suzuki ruling?

We've been discussing the emissions thing. I'd be very surprised if other car manufacturers are not also using the same defeat strategies.

I think the same. If VW thought of it then so have every other car manufacturer.

I see big legal firms are queuing up to fill their boots. I wonder how the employees of VW might view the prospects of them losing their jobs as a result of needless big payouts?

[Kwacky]

And this secret software has been in place for while.

Like I've said before, there's a lot going on in cars we're not told about.

[Monty]

Didn't Ford do the same thing in the US with a switch on the bonnet? Aparently all the tests were done with the bonnet up.

[StMarks]

I think the same. If VW thought of it then so have every other car manufacturer...

It will be interesting to learn if it is industry wide.

Will this mean that there will be a glut of T5's available cheap sometime soon, for trackday transport modules.? (Just when I'd finally got my little Vito all nicely "sorted" )

[duke63]

Is it any different to the Aprilia RSV4 passing the noise tests with the bike in neutral, how they are tested, but once in gear to no longer passes the test?

You have to question the validity of these government tests anyway as they are not about making the environment better and cleaner per se but more about extracting more tax from us all.

[Blade]

They need to apply euro 5 regs to cows as they polute more harmful gases than cars or bikes.

Let's see the scientists modifying and testing cows arse's

[D6Nutz]

How many bikes do you know that have a flat spot at about 4k??

I remember hearing about a Ferrari that would shut down half the cylinders if you held it at a specific RPM..

This has been going on for years, just nobody has made a furs about it until now.

IMO obviously.

[Mac]

I'm thinking along the same lines as Rich, wonder if there are some good deals to be had?

[duke63]

Seems like BMW may also be implicated now.

http://jalopnik.com/german-magazine-cla ... 1732767600" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Really it ought to be the validity of the tests and how they are performed that is seriously questioned rather than the manufacturers themselves.

When American banks caused the whole world banking system to come so close to collapse, i dont recollect the US government going after them with quite the same ferociousness.

[Kwacky]

I'm sure this has everything to do with poor US sales of home built vehicles. Nothing like bashing the Euro brands to make the locals move back to home brands.

[Monty]

The US has a very long history of bashing foreign companies with financial penalties and one of the many reasons we shouldn't be going anywhere near this TTIP trade deal.

[Perkles]

lol ive just been given a company vw diesel,i couldnt give a fook they have cheated the emissions as long as it doesnt effect my tax code
the flat spot on bikes is to get through the test ,there is no difference

[Monty]

lol ive just been given a company vw diesel,i couldnt give a fook they have cheated the emissions as long as it doesnt effect my tax code
the flat spot on bikes is to get through the test ,there is no difference

Expect a whole new world of pain with company car tax on diesels. They have admitted that they were "badly advised" on diesel emissions and only considered the CO2 hence the current legislation. Sadly the reality is diesel engines are far worse for human health than a petrol engines because of the particulates. We should have gone small capacity petrol turbo/super chargers years ago. Much much cleaner and getting to diesel mpg and above in some cases.

There are now millions of diesel company car users, myself included about to get totally stiffed by the feckers and they put us there.

[Perkles]

There are now millions of diesel company car users, myself included about to get totally stiffed by the feckers and they put us there.

lets hope not Monty ,I chose the passat because of its tax band and mpg
as you know company car tax is a right fooker !

[Kwacky]

Given who you work for wouldn't a brand new fully loaded zzr1400 not be better?

[Perkles]

Given who you work for wouldn't a brand new fully loaded zzr1400 not be better?

unfortunately that wasnt on the list of choices ,although it would make my commute to warrington a whole lot easier (and faster)

[kingfixer]