Passat Tdi Wagon Diesel Excellent Lots Of Recent Service, Free Autocheck! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Piech is back (kinda) at VW

Before the company was rocked by the diesel emissions scandal, you would've thought that the ouster of Ferdinand Piech as chairman of the Volkswagen Supervisory Board in April was the biggest corporate news from the automaker all year. After all, the longtime exec was a towering figure in the German auto industry. He wasn't gone for long, though. In a fascinating article, The Wall Street Journal breaks down how Piech is now wielding influence within the giant corporation yet again. Piech's continued sway has come in part because two people close to him have started running the company. His resignation reportedly came because Piech was supporting Matthias Muller as next group CEO, rather than Martin Winterkorn. Now, Muller has achieved exactly that role. In addition, Hans Dieter Potsch has taken over as supervisory board chairman. He's also the chief financial officer at Porsche SE, the family holding company that controls a vast swath of VW stock. "The Porsche-Piech family will exert more influence over the company in the future," an anonymous person close to the board said to The Wall Street Journal. Piech appears fully aware of his changing fortunes within the company, too. According to the WSJ, he and his wife Ursula arrived at the VW factory's main gates in a red Bentley the day after WInterkorn's resignation. If you find all of these corporate machinations fascinating, then the piece is well worth a read.

Taxpayers wasted $51 million on VW diesel credits

The scope of Volkswagen's diesel emission rules evasion continues to widen with 11 million vehicles now potentially affected around the world, and the company is setting aside over $7 billion to start paying for it all. However, the costs could go even deeper. In a piece that's well worth a read, an analysis by The LA Times finds that the government distributed as much as $51 million in green car subsidies to buyers of these models in 2009 – the first year of the dishonest engine management software. The short-term effects of this scandal on VW are already quite dire. On September 21, the company's stock fell over 20 percent at one point on the German exchange, ended down 17.8 percent that day, and have continued to tank. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency has forced a stop-sale on 2015 and 2016 diesel models with the 2.0 TDI, and the agency has begun analyzing the 3.0-liter V6 TDI in the Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5, Q7, and Porsche Cayenne to look for similar issues. The Justice Department has also started a criminal investigation, and the automaker has instituted its own external probe, as well. The emissions irregularities were first discovered by researchers at West Virginia University and the International Council on Clean Transportation. The EPA and California Air Resources Board were eventually made aware and launched their own investigations.

Volkswagen Golf Variant will make a lovely Jetta SportWagen

In addition to several other versions of the Golf, Volkswagen is debuting the new Golf Variant (read: wagon) here at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. And if this bigger version of the Golf looks like it might fit right at home in the States, it's because we could possibly see some version of this car as the next-generation Jetta SportWagen here on our shores.
Volkswagen is debuting the Golf Variant with two efficient diesel engines, rated at 110 and 150 horsepower, the smaller of which is good for an impressive 71.3 miles per gallon on the European cycle (when mated to a six-speed manual transmission). The Golf Variant also gets a version of Volkswagen's 4Motion all-wheel-drive system, making it incredibly all-weather capable.
It's a handsome estate, and it wears the new Golf's design language well. We can't say for sure if this car will actually make its way Stateside, but given the fact that the current Jetta SportWagen still rides on the old Golf platform, the odds look to be in our favor.