LEFT IN THE DARK VW owners, dealers wait for answers amid scandal

The Environmental Protection Agency told automakers on Friday that it will begin road tests of all new vehicle models and vehicles already on the road to examine emissions claims following the exposure of Volkswagen’s regulation-cheating scandal.

“But technologies evolve and circumstances change, and we are continuously looking at ways to improve our compliance oversight programs”, says Christopher Grundler, director-Office of Transportation & Air Quality at the EPA. The temporary move comes amid a deepening scandal over VW’s rigging of diesel auto emissions tests and could affect 180,000 cars not yet sold or registered in Switzerland.

The company also said it was suspending some employees and would reorganize its North America operations after admitting it used trick engine software to cheat on US diesel emissions tests.

The Obama administration is stepping up its game to see if more vehicle companies are evading emissions-testing standards.

“We are not going to tell them what these tests are, they don’t need to know”. The software activates emissions controls during testing, but deactivates during everyday road use.

On Friday, Matthias Mueller was named as the new boss of Volkswagen – moving from his former role as the chief executive of Porsche.

Volkswagen had managed to dupe EPA testers for seven years before being found out by researchers at West Virginia University, leading to criticism that the agency’s testing procedures were too lax.

He says the VW case has similarities to those involving General Motors ‘ defective ignition switches and Takata Corp.’s exploding air bag inflators, where it also took years before those problems were disclosed to consumers.

More than half a dozen Volkswagen models sold in Singapore are affected by the global emissions scandal that is engulfing the German motoring giant. “Our top target, my top target is that the people continue to trust our great vehicles and drive them with pleasure”, he said. VW’s board is expected to name a successor to former CEO Martin Winterkorn, who resigned this week. So even though the EPA failed to catch on to VW’s games this time, the agency is damn sure not about to let it happen again.

The automaker set aside more than $7 billion to pay for fixes and fines.

However, critics have warned that these figures are just “the tip of the iceberg” as they predicted more companies could be embroiled in the disgrace.