Dieselgate: The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

A look into the scandal that changed Volkswagen forever, and the family feud at the heart of it all.

Links:

Social media:

Merch:

Hats:

Keytags :

Shirts, hoodies, stickers :

Patreon :

How to submit a car :

Merch:

Hats:

Keytags :

Shirts, hoodies, stickers

Patreon

How to submit a car

[SlackActionBumble]

Hmm, let's learn about dieselgate...
20 minutes later - the guy who designed the DeLorean also designed pasta?!?

[chimpme]

Roman's natural voice sounds like it comes out pre-compressed to 240p

[frank_lotion_]

Roman coming in clutch during the quarantine

[miralemnermina]

I wonder how many ECU tuners knew about this but kept their mouth shut

[joshuagale]

I have an idea for an RCR story : The rise and Fall of British Leyland

[skyemaster]

These videos must take ages to research, write and present. I have unlimited respect for you guys for making these enjoyable and informative videos. Thank you

[TheMarcQ]

"There are many places you can choose to start talking about dieselgate. I chose a time when vw used concentration camp prisoners to build Beetles"

[TheTarrMan]

Everybody always said VW's were over-engineered. Nobody ever thought that included the software too.

[louiscapasso]

Very interesting information that you put together for this video. As for Dieselgate, that was a cash cow for me. I purchased a 2015 TDI Passat one month before the scandal broke. Nothing like 0 % interest for 72 months, to put some cash in your pocket. I had a new car for 18 months and they paid me everything spent on payments, plus the $500 Visa gift card, as well as the $1000 card to spend at the dealership. In the end we purchased a 2014 Jetta SportWagen with the TDI and had it paid off in 11 months. I am torn on thanking the people who figured out the cheat, because I sure did like the 50+ MPG on the freeway that I got in the Passat. But I sure do like the fact I don't have a car payment as well.

[christopherjoy]

When I was working at a full-service gas station, I noticed that new diesel Benzes and BMWs required adding diesel exhaust fluid to a reservoir every few fillups. For some reason, VWs and Audis didn’t. They had smaller engines, though, so I didn’t think much of it until dieselgate broke.
Just this year, my dad bought a refurbished Passat TDI and we noticed that they've added a DEF reservoir.

[vwspeedracer]

"We're in an age where people [...] drive unnecessarily."

I, too, remember February...

[georg-hanisch]

Bit late, but here's the chapters:
0:00 Prologue
3:25 Chapter 1
13:54 Chapter 2
37:17 Chapter 3
1:02:30 Chapter 4
1:12:27 Epilogue

[iBOOM]

the attempted porsche take over of volkswagen would also be a great rcr story. espcially the head butting between piech and wiedeking

[vapsa]

Boeing learned Volkswagon's lesson well. Boeing to engineers, get the job done or get fired. Result: 346 dead.

[werepat]

I worked at a vw dealer in 2010 in sales. The TDIs were very popular and easy to sell. One of the techniques we used to show how clean they were was to put a cloth to the exhaust, rev it, then have the customer smell the rag. It always smelled like laundry. No one understood how it worked, and I couldn't explain it at all (because it also didn't make sense to me).

They eventually sent me to a vw sales course to learn about all the features and benefits of their cars, and I was excited to finally understand how "clean diesel" worked. The instructor explained that the soot was held in a canister until a time when the ignition and exhaust system burned up the soot even smaller and shot it all out the tail pipe every few thousand miles.

When I insisted we discuss this further, because that didn't sound clean at all, and it sounded sneaky, I was literally yelled at by the instructor for taking up too much time and that it really was clean. I told them that there was no way vw invented a magical car and I wasn't comfortable selling it as if it were.

I told a lot of my friends about this and felt vindicated when one of them texted me when the story finally broke. If only VW just had a way to empty the canister of soot responisbly, then I bet they could have avoided all this.

Oh well, they own Audi, Porsche, Bugatti, Seat, and I'm sure others. They'll be fine.

[IvyLeather]

"What's a great car without the reputation of being one?"

Well said.

[ScottishScot]

I'm really glad there's a car channel run by academics.

[adrianh.]

I have an idea for an RCR story: The Takata Airbag Scandal

[CreatureOutOfTime]

Where should I look for compilation of all GM, Harley-Davidson, Ford and whatever other US car companies scandals that only got a slap on the wrist?

[bartholomausallen]

"an engine that uses more expensive fuel"

I remember when diesel fuel was CHEAPER than gasoline. It was less refined and didn't have sky-high taxes.