this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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For what it's worth, all automakers had illegally high emissions (well apart from Tesla I guess). This is something I never see people bring up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_emissions_scandal
VW wasn't even close to being the worst for it (surprisingly they were among the least bad). They were just the first to be tested, and their leadership owned up to breaking the law immediately, meaning news media could happily call them out without fear of a libel/slander case.
VW alone took the PR hit for an entire shady industry.
I mean they also own like half the industry. So, I don't feel particularly bad for them to be honest.
Well yeah I don't feel bad for any big company when bad stuff happens to them (well, within reason, I obviously don't want massive layoffs and people left unemployed).
My point isn't to be an apologist for VW, my point is that the others are just as bad, and plenty are even worse, yet they got away with it. They shouldn't have.
Don't worry, I don't think you are. I just think there's a reason they admitted so easily. Probably just another calculated fallout to save all their other brands from their own mini backlash which would ultimately cause more damage.
But yes, the whole industry is a dumpster fire when it comes to regulations and also lobbying.
VW doesn't own a single one of the other brands on that list.
Yea but many of them were involved. The Audi CEO at the time was on the board making the decision and the first to be convicted.
I wasn’t actually so mad at first. They bought back our smaller cheaper car and we felt very compensated. But for the second car, which was much bigger and more expensive, they only offered a “fix” which they said wouldn’t affect performance (yeah right), and a small amount in restitution. It felt like a slap in the face. In hindsight I would have gone about things differently but let’s just say that I have little to no faith in the way our justice system works anymore due to how we decided to proceed after that, and we will never buy a car from VW ever again.
Meanwhile, we actually replaced those cars with Teslas. And now we feel like we’re kind of back in the same place, having given money to a company that is pretty shit. We try to vote with our wallets as much as possible but there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, after all. It’s just really depressing and disheartening and makes me not want to buy anything anymore.