And the Smokescreen Continues

Let me preface this article by stating I for one think Volkswagen puts out some excellent products and has been a leader in the automotive industry for many years. Despite the scandal that was discovered last summer I certainly hope the reputation of Volkswagen through the years should and will allow the company to overcome this scandal. In the end the company may be a bit cash poorer than before and it may be a while before we trust Volkswagen and the diesel engines it produces, but that trust will come back and the company will survive.

With that said it seems abhorrent to me to see that this company is now trying to act as if the knowledge of the test cheating software on their vehicles was not known throughout the company. Even if that were true, enough people in the company would know this is the case before these vehicles made it out the door that this couldn’t be limited to only a handful of individuals. At first look it seemed Volkswagen was going to get out in front of this scandal, but now the denials have begun and they seem to be acting in a similar fashion to many other companies when charged or accused of wrongdoing.

In the recent reports the number of employees that knew about the software that was installed in the emissions systems of the diesel engines has grown from six to seventeen. Is this what we are to believe? After over six months of research, questioning and interrogation only seventeen are involved in this mess; this seems to be a bit of a farce to me and one that stinks of the company looking for a way out instead of standing up and taking this one on the chin.

If you’re not familiar with it, the diesel engines of many Volkswagen models were found to have software installed that would detect when the vehicle was on a dyno being tested for emissions. It was only at this time that the emissions control systems would activate and work. This means all the Volkswagen models on the road (its estimated 600,000 models were affected in the US) were actually putting over forty times the allowable emissions into the atmosphere. This information was discovered by a study at a University in West Virginia and then confirmed by the EPA which has since changed its testing procedures.

The announcement of the seventeen employees that knew about this scandal not only comes in as unbelievable but additional information tells us that the management board of Volkswagen had no knowledge of the programming or installation of the impermissible software or the use that affected the diesel engines. This information was shared in a recent document from Volkswagen.

I can’t believe for a second that someone in the management board didn’t have some involvement in this scandal; it doesn’t seem possible at all. As much as I want to believe Volkswagen this problem was too widespread for them to convince me the leaders of the company had no idea what was going on under their own noses. This sounds more like a serious lack of leadership than the ability of a board of managers that probably are paid in the millions of dollars per year each to be able to claim to be ignorant.

Come on Volkswagen; stand up and take the punishment that’s coming to you and find the fix for the cars affected so we can move on and begin to trust you once again. You are better than this.