German consumers grow increasingly concerned about economy

“It’s clear it’s going to be very expensive”, said Christian Stadler at Warwick Business School.

“In Europe, there is a strong dose of schadenfreude… after the Germans, and primarily Chancellor Angela Merkel, have for years been giving lectures others”, wrote Thilo Schaefer for Spain’s La Marea news magazine.

Volkswagen’s case could prove more costly for the company, though by how much is still unclear.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said the company could face penalties of up to $18-billion, more than its entire operating profit for a year ago.

“Volkswagen was somebody that you could rely on for cutting-edge products and quality and all those things and now you find out that they’re not above lying just flat out”, said Rand, who plans to join a class-action lawsuit against VW. The Department of Justice recently opened a separate probe into the company. We know the value VfL has for Volkswagen.

In early afternoon trading in Frankfurt, the company’s share price was up 3.1 percent at 114.60 euros.

In April, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $2.5 billion to authorities in the US and Britain to settle allegations its traders rigged important market interest-rate benchmarks used to determine rates on a variety of debt.

Australia’s competition regulator said on Friday it was looking into whether Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) had misled consumers over its emissions claims after the German carmaker admitted cheating on US pollution tests.

German engineering and German craftsmanship are “rightly respected worldwide”, he added.

More than seven decades after the Nazis built Wolfsburg from scratch to make the original ‘people’s vehicle, ‘ Volkswagen employs about 72,000 people in the city of 125,000.

It’s the largest single employer in its home state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20 percent of the company and whose governor and economy minister sit on its board of directors.

Three men and two woman, when asked about the scandal in different parts of the city, all politely declined to comment, saying with a smile or a shrug: “I work at Volkswagen”.

Peter Hartz, a one-time advisor to former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who gave his name to the swingeing labour market reforms, was a former head of personnel at the group.

“People have known for years that the diesel models of nearly all the large manufacturers pollute a great deal more than is allowed under testing, but the politicians don’t do anything about it”, complained Daniel Moser of Greenpeace Germany.

“While the German economy defied Greece, the euro crisis and the Chinese slowdown, it could now be facing the biggest downside risk in a long while”, he said in a research note.

Although Australia has weaker emissions standards than the U.S. and Europe, they are unlikely to be 35 times weaker, which is why industry experts believe 50,000 or so diesel VWs sold locally could be recalled.