Feds arrest first VW exec, Oliver Schmidt

[geodug]

Wow, emissions getting real. Oliver Schmidt was denied bail, he has been in jail since Jan 8 and is facing 169 years in jail.

http://www.team-bhp.com/news/usa-judge-denies-bail-vw-executive-oliver-schmidt

 

[kjclow]

So they think a German national is a flight risk? Go figure.

 

[Armby]

I would be shocked if top management did *not* know this LONG before the scandal broke. Something of this nature does not get done without approvals. If you are the one on point for doing something of dodgy legal grounds, you are darn well going to run it by your boss in order to cover your own butt.

Um ... Wintercorn was the boss. He doesn't have a boss (except his shareholders). The article is claiming he knew 2 months before Sept 2015 and took no measure to inform US authorities. I believe that is criminal although whether he gets prosecuted is debatable.

 

[GoFaster]

Yeah. They say he knew 2 months before it became public. If he or his predecessors didn't at least have an inkling of compliance difficulties with the TDI engines YEARS before this, i.e. during development of the common-rail TDI and particularly when the decision was made not to license SCR technology from Mercedes-Benz, somebody wasn't doing their job.

 

[Jeta Life]

Winterkorn's fault

The first head to roll was WiKo as he is known.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...daimler-deal-before-embarking-on-diesel-cheat

his aggressiveness led to the ousting of Bernd Pischetsrieder and soon to follow was Wolfgang Bernhard.

Bernd was a Benz man. Wiko probably pitched a sweet deal to Piech and Porsche families (VWs top brass) where they could save money using cheaper technology, rolled the dice, and no turning back.

You were wrong Winterkorn.

He was a goalkeeper:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmu...industry-gets-noticeably-harder/#479da0d41ab6

Red Carded.

Very ambitious man but took a big risk.

Had VW formed an alliance with Benz and their BlueTec things would have been interesting for us. Cost was the factor. I doubt anybody here would rather have paid $30,000 for their Jetta TDI rather than $27,000.

Or whatever the numbers are.

 

[ericy]

Had VW formed an alliance with Benz and their BlueTec things would have been interesting for us. Cost was the factor. I doubt anybody here would rather have paid $30,000 for their Jetta TDI rather than $27,000.

Manufacturers make these kinds of dollars and cents decisions on a daily basis. Most of the time they work out fine, sometimes there are problems that give them headaches. It is pretty rare that such decisions blow up in such a spectacular fashion as what we saw here.

I have no doubt that VW gambled that if they did get caught, that the penalty would be a slap on the wrist, and they could go about their business after paying a nominal fine.

 

[passatmeister]

Most of you are missing the point: VW intentionally broke the rules and then they lied about it. That is clear criminal intent on the part of VW.

Mr. Schmidt's arrest is the second one in the criminal case against a VW employee. I suspect several more will follow all the way up the VW organization.

What about the CEO's from GM. Do they get arrested for knowing that their vehicles killed people. No they just have to pay a small fine considering.

 

[GoFaster]

GM's ignition-switch debacle was not even remotely close to the deliberate cover-up that VW did.

 

[Jeta Life]

Manufacturers make these kinds of dollars and cents decisions on a daily basis. Most of the time they work out fine, sometimes there are problems that give them headaches. It is pretty rare that such decisions blow up in such a spectacular fashion as what we saw here.
I have no doubt that VW gambled that if they did get caught, that the penalty would be a slap on the wrist, and they could go about their business after paying a nominal fine.

VW was #1 in the world before Dieselgate. VW took a huge gamble with the cheaper technology instead of BlueTec. The act itself was one thing, the cover-up another. I also believed VW thought they would absorb a fine, buyback was unforeseen.
European cities are facing a lot of uncertainty over the proliferation of diesel due to rising petrol. The publicity of this Dieselgate case has continued to fascinate me. Volkswagen has been very lucky they only sold about 600,000 of these small engine diesels. Buying back millions could have bankrupted them but they have survived and will hopefully learn a lesson.
I hope to someday buy another Volkswagen. Just not right now.