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German prosecutors have recorded calls between VW bigwigs talking dieselgate

It's barely possible to believe how poorly Volkswagen continues to handle dieselgate. Depending on which day you catch the news, the German carmaker embodies the corporate venality of "Michael Clayton," the comic blundering of the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading," and the every-man-for-himself vengeance of "Reservoir Dogs." Today is Tarantino day, with news that German prosecutors have recordings of phone calls between former Audi and Porsche development boss Wolfgang Hatz, ex-Volkswagen Group executive Matthias Muller, and current Porsche executives Oliver Blume and Michael Steiner. Hatz made the calls to the trio in November 2015, two months after Volkswagen admitted its diesel-particulate sins to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hatz was still employed at the time, and in his company car. Who recorded the calls? His wife. Hatz and his missus apparently saw the storm coming and started stacking defenses early. Hatz's wife, who can be heard encouraging Hatz during at least one call, sent the recordings to Hatz's attorney from her mobile phone. According to a Google translation of the German newspaper Handelsblatt's report, she included the note, "Here is a very long, but quite informative conversation on the current situation with useful formulations." The report in Handelsblatt said that in Germany it is generally "not allowed" to record a conversation and pass it on to a third party. We don't know how the authorities will handle this matter, since prosecutors found the recordings in e-mail attachments on Mrs. Hatz's mobile phone. Remember, when the diesel scandal broke, VW spent months saying that only a small number of low-level personnel were behind it, and all of the higher-ups had been blindsided. Ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn claimed to be "stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group." Winterkorn successor Matthias Muller said, "according to current information, a few developers interfered in the engine management." Former VW USA honcho Michael Horn told a congressional committee that "a couple of software engineers" programmed the software for reasons no one could understand. In the recorded conversations, Hatz apparently called Muller to find out how VW planned to treat him.

Junkyard Gem: 2010 Pontiac G6

What makes a discarded car a gem? Sometimes it's a car we all agree is very cool, and other times it's a car that tells us something about automotive history. Today's Junkyard Gem is the latter type: one of the very last Pontiacs sold, before The General shut out the lights forever on the storied marque after 84 years. The G6 was Pontiac's Epsilon-platform-based car, sibling to the Chevy Malibu, Saturn Aura, and Saab 9-3 (plus a bunch of Europe-only machinery). The very last Pontiac ever built was a white 2010 G6 sedan like this one (all '10 G6s were sedans, the coupe and convertible having been nixed in 2009), though that car was built in January of 2010 and this one came off the line in July of 2009. They build Bolts at the Orion Assembly plant these days. The higher-zoot G6s came with V6s or even V8s, but this car has "fleet machine" written all over it and has the base 2.4-liter Ecotec four-banger making 164 horsepower. Pontiac shoppers in the United States could buy the Vibe as a 2010 model as well, while Mexican Pontiac dealerships also sold new G2s (known as the Spark here) that year. The G6 was The Final Pontiac, though, bookending a run that began with the 1926 Pontiac Six. This one will go to its grave with the original owner's manual still inside. Even the cheapest 2010 G6s came with an AUX jack for the radio, a feature that was still maddeningly hard to find in rental cars a decade ago. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Before the bankruptcy and the gloom, optimism surrounded the G6. Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 2010 Pontiac G6 View 19 Photos Auto News Pontiac Automotive History Sedan pontiac g6 Junkyard Gems

Steve McQueen barn find: Movie Trans Am surfaces after almost 40 years

An important Steve McQueen film car has emerged from barn storage. No, it's not yet another " Bullitt" Mustang, quite the contrary: The car in question is a 1980 Pontiac Trans Am, and it starred in McQueen's final film, " The Hunter." In the movie, McQueen plays a bounty hunter, and while in " Bullitt" he's quite the wheelman, that's not the case in this one. McQueen's character, "Papa" Thorson, is a horrible driver, and the Trans Am is far too much car for him. A chase sequence sees McQueen driving a combine harvester to catch the perps who are driving his stolen rental Pontiac, and the Trans Am ends up blown in half with dynamite, then returned to the airport on a trailer. The driver of said GMC truck and trailer combination, Harold McQueen (no relation), received the title of the first car used in filming, and for the following decades planned to fix the now-ruined car, but never got around to it. Instead, the 1,300-mile Pontiac wreck sat on a farm for nearly 40 years, until Harold decided to sell it to an enthusiast. There's studio documentation proving the car's pedigree, and stunt modifications can be seen in the Pontiac's floor and dash. While it's obviously in dreadful condition, the car remained more intact than the other stunt car the film crew blew up even more spectacularly — that car ended up as the pile of parts in the airport scene, and those bits and pieces were eventually dropped off at a junkyard after a Pontiac dealer refused them. McQueen did also drive a 1951 Chevrolet in the film, and kept that yellow convertible after filming was wrapped up. Sadly, he was diagnosed with cancer just a month later, after reportedly being in poor health during the shooting, and passed away in December 1980. The yellow Chevy stayed with his estate for some years, later getting restored and auctioned. Right now, it's not clear what the Trans Am's fate will be. The car's current owner, Calvin Riggs from Carlyle Motors in Katy, Texas, wants to know more about the Trans Am and the film shoot: His post on Hemmings includes a lot of information, but more would be useful. Related Video: