France Opens Volkswagen Investigation into Possible Fraud

A few 80,000 cars in Ireland are affected by the scandal, in which Volkswagen has admitted fitting its cars with devices to cheat in emissions tests.

If there were any illusions that Volkswagen’s emissions-test cheating wouldn’t spark a broader investigation into diesel-car emissions, please allow us to disallow you of them.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “Our priority is to protect the public and give them full confidence in diesel tests”.

“I have been pressing for action at an EU-level to improve emissions tests and will continue to do so”. That sophisticated software algorithm sensed things such as the position of the steering wheel, speed, the duration of the engine’s operation and barometric pressure.

VW drivers will avoid higher road tax even if their cars are fitted with illegal software to cheat emission tests, the Government has confirmed. Because the emissions criteria are set for the bloc as a whole, approval in one country means that type of vehicle can be registered in any of the other 27 member states as well.

Every British customer who has an EA 189 EU5 engine in their vehicle will have it “corrected in the near future” free-of-charge, Volkswagen said.

“In its first step, effective immediately (Volkswagen Group Australia) has temporarily suspended the sale of affected vehicles fitted with 1.6 or 2.0-litre EA189 diesel engines”, Volkswagen said in a statement.

“Volkswagen has, by far, been the leader in diesel passenger vehicle sales up until now”, says Ed Kim, Vice President of Industry Analysis at AutoPacific.

The report said the vehicles would have a hard time passing new environmental standards being considered in Europe.

Here’s just a few of what we have seen since the news broke a couple of weeks ago: VW shares going into freefall; the resignation of company boss Martin Winterkorn; investigations launched by the United States, Germany, Britain, Italy, France, South Korea, Canada, Norway and India.

When asked to compare the severity of this issue to the safety-related issues of the General Motors ignition switch and Toyota sudden acceleration recalls, the largest percentage of those surveyed felt that the Volkswagen situation is less serious than the recent GM (44%) and Toyota problems (42%).

Millions of Volkswagen’s diesel vehicles emit more than the legal limit of nitrous oxide, a gas that has health risks, including affecting brain function. “Its vehicles are not equipped with defeat devices”.

Customers who were in the process of buying an affected auto would be able to pull out or choose another VW vehicle.