Scandal: VW Emissions Dieselgate Explained | Plainly Difficult Documentary

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Volkswagen Produced Diesel cars with Defeat Devices to circumvent emissions regulations....
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
03:23 Background
07:06 NOx
09:17 VW's Clean Diesel
12:28 The Defeat Device
13:40 Emissions Too Good To Be True
18:52 Aftermath
23:04 Outro Song
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Sources:
►www.justice.gov/opa/pr/volkswagen-ag-agrees-plead-guilty-and-pay-43-billion-criminal-and-civil-penalties-six
►theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/ICCT_PEMS-study_diesel-cars_20141013.pdf
#documentary​​​​ #History​​​​​​​​​ #TrueStories​ #scandal

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I hope you Enjoy the video, Do you have any suggestions for future Scandal Episodes Let me know!

[@kristoffer3000]

The scandal was MUCH bigger than just Volkswagen, pretty much everyone that used Bosch systems cheated.

[@tjzambonischwartz]

The Jeep recall issue that led to the death of Anton Yelchin would be a good one.

[@trentlewis1473]

The Dale car scandal could be interesting, there is alot to unpack in it. Or I am unsure if this is the scandal or not but the Ford and Firestone controversy surrounding tire blowouts.

[@spider0804]

I drive a 1st generation Insight, MY BROTHER!

[@MareSerenitis]

If you want to go down an especially depressing scandal hole, have a look into the history of Diego Garcia. And then compare with almost the exact same thing happening rn on Agalega.

[@CarDietrich]

I was a Volkswagen salesperson in California when these Dieselgate cars first came out. I used to hold a white handkerchief down by the exhaust when the car was idling, or even get down and breathe in the fumes myself to demonstrate to customers how clean it was. Turns out maybe this wasn't such a great idea.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Probably not!

[@cjthebeesknees]

You lost some brain cells, certified.

[@graafisk]

The handkerchief idea sounds like a good one, but I wouldn't breath in the exhaust from any combustion engine - that's the actual suicide scene of many movie scripts, with good reason. Carbon monoxide is the killer! How about we concentrate on reducing that?!

[@surewhynot6259]

@@graafisk CO emissions are already down to almost nothing

[@americansupervillain4595]

" Dieselgate" why does every scandal have to end with "gate"?

[@Alex-em2mw]

I owned a 2013 Diesel Passat, it was honestly a great car but when this whole event unfolded, it was bought back for $17k more than I paid, definitely can't be mad at that

[@__WJK__]

C'mon... $17k more, seriously(?)

[@Alex-em2mw]

@@__WJK__ yup, I believe they paid retail to buy it back

[@wizard_of_poz4413]

That was kinda shortsighted

[@JohnSmith-te6wz]

@@__WJK__ I had a 2013 golf tdi. There was an algorithm set up to determine the buy back cost based mostly on year and mileage iirc. The lower the miles the better you made out. I bought my car new for around $23k, had it for 3 years, put 40k miles on it and VW bought it back for $23k. OP could be telling the truth but I think only if he bought it used for a great deal and hardly ever drove it.

[@P_RO_]

@@JohnSmith-te6wz Yep, I know a few people who broke even and a few who lost a little bit. They all loved their cars and were highly pissed that there was no "we fix the car for free and you keep it" option given to them.

[@tomsparks3259]

One other bit of fallout from this scandal was that several companies had scheduled to roll out diesels as the scandal developed, but strangely some of them had to delay the release of these diesels for unknown reasons. When they finally released them, the diesels didn't have quite as much power or economy as the pre-release hype would lead people to think. They were pretty much all doing it.

[@lukerinderknecht2982]

Like who?

[@otm646]

Remember, the idea came from and was implemented by Bosch engineers. VW is not the one who designed the ECU controls, that's all from their tier supplier. Look who was supplying ecu's and diesel fuel injection hardware to those other OEs.... If you were in Detroit automotive at the time there's a lot more to be known about this than what's available. It's going to take decades to come out as to not ruin adjacent individuals careers.

[@koghs]

Right? Volkswagen and BMW obviously were a scapegoat for everyone else. And noone ever talks about it.

[@carlosoruna7174]

@@lukerinderknecht2982 Mercedes and bmw. Need more names?

[@lukerinderknecht2982]

@@carlosoruna7174 I thought the OP meant companies that hadn't already had diesels in North America.

[@es68951]

John: “Those Japanese engineers at Honda can do no wrong” TV Announcer: “Last time, on Scandal…”

[@hithere7382]

Takata != Honda.

[@kitecattestecke2303]

@@hithere7382 still every manufacturer has some broken designs... Honda = broken automatic gearboxes

[@hithere7382]

@@kitecattestecke2303 only morons buy high compression, forced induction, or v6 Hondas with an automatic. Honda stick trans is the king.

[@farcere]

@@kitecattestecke2303 99% of people have never had their trans fluid changed

[@pranc236]

@@kitecattestecke2303 ur not wrong. That was a cost savings. Honda didnt want to pay to use the patents on planetary gear sets. The time on these patents are well expired and honda no longer has this problem. The high compression engines have caused problem for everyone trying, not just honda. It is the way forward along eith hybrid for internal combustion but its not fully there either.

[@davidelzinga9757]

I like the attention to detail you’ve paid, by making the “smoking gun” a Luger. Given VW’s origin, that is very appropriate

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@christopping5876]

That tickled my fancy too! Nicely slipped in!!

[@acceptablecasualty5319]

Look, buddy, i get your point, but was kind of hard to find a factory or engineer in Post-WW2 Germany that didn't help the War Effort at some point.

[@davidelzinga9757]

@@acceptablecasualty5319 in case you weren’t up on your history, Volkswagen was brought into existence when mustache man commissioned Ferdinand Porsche to build an affordable “peoples car”. It was a pre-war creation, but only shortly. Created by everyone’s favorite villain. There are many companies still making products that made things for that side of the war machine. VW, BMW, and Mercedes are among them, but one specifically had its origin in the mind of an evil totalitarian. It’s funny to me how the woke mob hasn’t canceled all things German yet, not that they should

[@MScotty90]

@@acceptablecasualty5319 VW was founded pre-WWII by Hitler’s government and Hitler himself was heavily involved with them. His order for the creation of a “people’s car” is what led to the founding of the company and the creation of what we now call the VW Beetle.

[@tjzambonischwartz]

For a while, one of the big recalled Volkswagen storage boneyards was at an old speedway a few miles south of where I live. Recalled Volkswagens as far as the eye could see. It was kinda horrifying how overwhelmingly wasteful the whole thing was.

[@TinHatRanch]

Yep. It was totally awesome for the environment!

[@macnorman]

Colorado?

[@tjzambonischwartz]

@@macnorman yup! PPIR south of the Springs.

[@macnorman]

@@tjzambonischwartz I've driven by there twice in 2018. Odd site

[@renakunisaki]

I dread to think of how much harm they did even after being forced to recall some cars. The manufacturing and (if it even happens) destruction or refitting of all those vehicles, the number of them still out there, the profits they undoubtedly still made after paying the fines...

[@vespasian606]

At the time this story started to break I was working for a VW subcontractor. We supplied wipers and trims etc. The terms of the contract were pretty rigid and that was the way both parties wanted it. A degree of overstaffing and oversupply was designed in. The second they were hit with fines everything changed. Long story short ourselves and other companies like us were targeted as a way of funding those penalties. People lost their jobs and those of us remaining were left to sort the mess out. More of those who signed off on this fraud should have gone to prison. Fining a company on its own is no good.

[@EsquireNapalm]

a fine is only a punishment for the poor, the rich always have a way of simply eating the cost, or in your case, passing off the cost to “expendables”. anything to avoid consequences

[@bradsanders407]

Well more people are in prison for this than the Boeing 737 max scandal and that without any doubt was responsible for hundreds of deaths.

[@theglitch99]

Prison for too much emissions, (all a money and power grab to begin with) EPA clearly has it out for the CEO of VW. Guess he didn't donate to thier political party? It's never what's shown NEVER!

[@ArthurX-eg8bc]

Without this, everyone would have lost their jobs. The regulations made a vehicle which was unsafe at highway speeds. Diesel engines are more efficient if left to idle, so the stationary mode did eliminate the main concerns of the type, the idling producing unclean exhaust.

[@alankeith7866]

I remember the Volkswagen "Clean Diesel" commercials with the Mythbusters crew touting the virtues of the new lower emissions, holding a handkerchief over the tail pipe. Script well read...

[@pavelslama5543]

That by itself was not necessarily a lie. Those modern diesel particle filters can easily make the exhaust gasses completely transparent (at least when the engine is heated up). NOX emission are invisible.

[@HooLeePhucingSheet]

I dont understand the whole handkerchief thing... So what people cared about back then was the color of the poison? Do they understand that co2 is invisible to the naked eye? Lmao

[@Wrnrgaming]

@@HooLeePhucingSheetyou call co2 poison?

[@HooLeePhucingSheet]

@@Wrnrgaming fumes? Yes, they are poisonous to humans.

[@KamenracerX]

​@@HooLeePhucingSheetWe breathe out CO2, carbon dioxide... The poisonous one is CO, carbon *monoxide*.

[@bonerlad]

another issue with DEF/adblue is reliability. I've been a truck driver for 5 years and 90% of breakdowns are directly related to it.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I can imagine

[@madkills10]

I was mechanic for abit before the pandemic, when he brought up DPF's/those other systems, I just face palmed.. so many diesels would come through with clogged particulate filters.

[@SteveFrench_420]

As a former heavy duty truck technician, it was my experience that a majority of breakdowns were emissions related. I could change EGRs blindfolded.

[@Morkvonork]

@@madkills10 These systems hate short trips. They cant burn themself free when they dont drive hot enough. I said this to someone that wanted to buy a new car and that he should buy gasoline instead but nope, did not listen. Now he is on the cusp of not being let into the inner city because of emissions :D

[@ninefingerdeathgrip]

I have been truck driver for over 18 years and i can confirm. AdBlue is a total piece of crap with good intent but bad execution. Also it really doesn't do much in winter around here as it freezes around -11'C and thaws only with hot coolant pipes running through tank, which doesn't do much in delivery vehicles that struggle to achieve proper engine temperatures anyway and constant stopping with engine shutdown obviously stops circulation, allowing what little bit it has thawed to cool down again. Also if truck is left undriven for some time, water evaporates from AdBlue, allowing it to crystallize into pipes and nozzles and it usually isn't able to dissolve crystals away, especially if nozzle becomes blocked and they cost around 700e a piece to replace. It's not difficult to see why some companies stick with their old beaten trucks that don't have AdBlue systems and particulate filters. They are so much cheaper to run, even with all other things breaking down due to their age.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

"The company sent employees to meet with the epa and gave them a script to follow, they instead flipped and blew the whistle." gee I wonder how that could have happened, why wouldn't they just commit felonies like good loyal employees?

[@catherinepryce9023]

I’m surprised the Germans didn’t try to use the employees as a scapegoat! Or say they created the whole script beforehand by themselves!

[@Sparky16k]

@@catherinepryce9023 I've watched another documentary here on KZbin where they went more into that aspect of the story. Basically, management did try to blame a rogue fraction of engineers and/or denied knowing anything about the cheating scheme at all.

[@DaFinkingOrk]

Then the VW employees could just claim they verr just following das orders

[@ARUSApacecarHAMPTON]

@@DaFinkingOrk they probably has relatives that tried that line about 70 years ago and figured it wasn’t going to work out so well.

[@andrzejklein7846]

IN SHORT: Germans gassed their neighbors again!

[@erikziak1249]

I can write that the Škoda Octavia I (1996-2004) was *the* ultimate taxi cab in Bratislava as well. Super cheap to run, reliable and durable. Some cars got up to a million kilometers with the original engine.

[@capnskiddies]

I sold a 2002 90 hp 1.9TDi Octavia to a lad who used it as a taxi in Dublin. I know it had a half million miles, (800,000km) when I last saw it. Looked and sounded fine to me. Only on its third clutch too.

[@ma61king]

PD engines weren't part of dieselgate, however they are fantastic

[@anzebeton1869]

Check out High mileage hero on the channel Car throttle. They had a 400k mile octavia and they took it to Nurburring, tore it apart and ran it on cooking oil. 1.9tdi

[@christianbro2]

Another happy owner of a Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI 110hp in Spain.

[@erikziak1249]

@@christianbro2 Those engines are the best. I hope you will enjoy your Octavia in the future as you did until now.

[@ItsEllaBella]

Wait your telling me the giant car companies are corrupt and only looking out for their own self interests!?!

[@MikeOrkid]

This is shocking. I may pass out. Hopefully I have good airbags.

[@Brady73420]

I wonder if any other types of big company’s only car about themselves too?!?!

[@steven95N]

This is new to me. I thought large corporations put profits on the back burner when it came to public safety and adhering to laws. I suck at expressing sarcasm via text so just in case, I'm being sarcastic.

[@tylerlee6613]

Well at least our pharmaceutical industry wouldn't do that to us right....right?

[@ian5395]

Especially car companies But also all companies

[@sheldoniusRex]

The single greatest marketing ploy ever. I was never interested in a diesel powered car until the mad lads pulled this off.

[@JoeOvercoat]

Long before a diesel gate I drove a little diesel four banger FWD hatchback in Cadiz, and it was awesome the way it would drive up and out of very steep underground garage entrances. My 4WD gas-fueled Subie would struggle on similar slopes.

[@DPoner]

Still drive a TDI. This controversy is bollocks

[@daszieher]

​@@DPoner um, no. it is actually very true. however, diesel engines do rock regardless

[@DPoner]

@@daszieher It’s bullshit. Many other American companies were doing the same. It’s was a scale to get rid of diesels because they threatened the electric car.

[@daszieher]

@@DPoner I was there. 😃 Others were doing similar things, the EV is just a marketing ploy. It needs subsidies to compete.

[@therhetorician4683]

I remember when this happened and my dad let the VW dealership buy his car back… He’s a big VW guy, didn’t care much about emissions (he thought it was all BS) BUT he was very excited with the huge paycheck he got for his TDI Passat

[@hukama6911]

did you just turn your dad into a woman mid sentence, or am i missing something?

[@therhetorician4683]

@@hukama6911 yeah I had typo there… I fixed it

[@acrj-alfasaus4825]

@@hukama6911 hey, she can be whoever he wants to be >:[

[@Gigachad-mc5qz]

Probably thinks climate change is caused by jewish spacelaser

[@checkoutmyyoutubepage]

@@hukama6911fragile incels.

[@john1703]

There are some technical errors. It is air which is compressed, which heats up, such that injected fuel burns spontaneously. Early diesel engines used a mechanical injector pump with a separate fuel line to each cylinder. Common rail refers to a high pressure pump-fed fuel manifold, from which separate computer-controlled solenoid injectors admit fuel to each cylinder. NOX and particulates are separate things. The former is a gas, the latter are also called soot. The former results from high temperature oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen. The latter results from incomplete combustion of the fuel. Soot can be burnt off in a catalyst chamber. NOX is removed by reacting it with urea to form ammonia, in a different sort of catalyst chamber.

[@paulhorton5612]

You wrote my comment!

[@flipschwipp6572]

@@paulhorton5612 Too, wanted to say the same.

[@jackking5567]

Yeah the ops words had me confused somewhat too! Thanks for clarifying what my brain thought was wrong :)

[@ma61king]

Well technically you both missed that in between the CR and conventional engines were the PD unit injection models that had camshaft operated high pressure pump/injector units.

[@paulhorton5612]

@@ma61king ... extensively used by Detroit Diesels and others

[@mediocre-motorcycle-modifi6818]

I work in the emissions testing, specifically diesel passenger cars. Everyone cheats on emissions to some level. In the old days you would only reduce the NOx at specific areas of the map when your on test. So you would make more emissions in real world driving as you don't drive at those exact engine speed and torque conditions. Making the engine emission compliant at all times would make the car use a lot more fuel. Ironically after this scandal the test is now any real drivecycle. You have to be emission compliant all the time. Lean NOx traps are shit. You have to purge them with a rich exhaust every few kms which makes a load of soot and fills up the filter then you need to use even more fuel to burn the soot off. That's why they turned off the purging when off test. Manufactures didn't want to have an SCR system due to cost and also didn't want to add the complexity to the consumer to have to fill the adblue tank. So they made it so they were only filled on a service. But then you had to turn those off in the real world otherwise the tank runs dry before a service. This is why VW cheated, to reduce cost to them and the consumer. The way they did it so was completely blatant though. Other manufactures would turn there emissions control down a bit not completely off. All this modern regulation is making cars less efficient but incredibly clean. So much so that you will you'll be exposed to more NOx at home with a gas hob than you would outside with a modern diesel. Also the major source of particulates these days are not from soot but brake and tyre dust. You actually get more tyre dust from a heavy EV car than a lighter internal combustion car.

[@Skelterbane69]

Thank you for this.

[@MakeItWithCalvin]

It raises a legitimate question, what is worse, the emissions from the tailpipe or the emissions from making more fuel to compensate for the lack of efficiency? It is a tricky quandary with no real easy answer since both sides will claim they are right.

[@xenn4985]

@@MakeItWithCalvin Well there's this crazy little thing called math. This would be a piss easy thing to calculate. The only pain would be finding all the relevant numbers.

[@ryanparker4996]

Everyone cheats because the emissions goals are completely unobtainable and ridiculous to begin with.

[@darksu6947]

What does your job entail? Sorry for being nosey, but it sounds like a cool job.

[@alexsnightmare]

I remember this vividly because I had inherited my grandmother's 2009 Jetta as my first car, and like immediately after I got it my parents said we had to drive about half an hour to the nearest VW dealership and get a "software update", which i had no idea what it meant at the time (normally we went to a local mechanic for car problems, hence why it was wild to me that we needed to go to the dealership). I think the dealership was so backed up with software updates I didn't get my car back for like a week

[@andrewk8636]

That was a dumb move. The car ran better before

[@glanzera]

The most shocking thing to me about this whole thing is that VW execs and engineers thought no one would ever test the cars and figure it out. It's like flipping off a police officer and not expecting him to figure out a way to pull you over.

[@cheapskateaquatics7103]

Most cars aren't retested to lab emissions tests after they've gone into production. Get your engine to hit the marks for emissions, you're good to go. Plus, no state, except maybe California, is going to do a driving emissions test. So even the owners would pass emissions in states that required it. What VW did was pretty ingenious although deceptive. Only reason they were caught was because California has an emissions boner.

[@Cas_55]

@@cheapskateaquatics7103 The diesel scandal was discovered by West Virginia University researchers who then presented their findings to the EPA.

[@HooLeePhucingSheet]

@@cheapskateaquatics7103 are you blaming California for (not even discovering) a fraud scheme not working?

[@bradsanders407]

No it's nothing like that. It's like pretending to follow guidelines and criteria and cheating. VW didnt come out and say "I bet no one can figure out if we are skirting around regulations or not". Which would be the equivalent of giving the finger.

[@willissudweeks1050]

@@cheapskateaquatics7103I’m on Californias side with that one. Glad they were caught.

[@tomfuelery2905]

This happened before in the class 8 truck market in the 90s. Detroit, Cat and Cummins also had a program to pass tests but the engines performed differently on the road. After the discovery, all dealers were required to reprogram the ECMs and performance went down dramatically. Fuel mileage and power went to shat. Detroit fuel milage dropped from almost 7 mpg to the high 5s.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I’ve known about this scandal since it started but I’m definitely excited to see this documentary, your videos are amazing. Scarily though, I found out recently that my mum’s family car (a nearly decade old Renault Scenic Diesel) might actually have a cheat device in it, but the lawsuits and things like that are still in an early phase. Hopefully we can win some money from it to help with the inflation issue wracking England right now, but I am worried about getting the software fixed if we need to because it’s already a crap car for fuel consumption and power.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@graafisk]

My point exactly! See my nearby post...

[@azazeldeath]

Agreed. I was a mechanic around the time. Know the sad part when it came out we, my boss and other mechanics, read it and just went ahhh that makes sense and explains trying to dyno tune these things. To explain that sometimes the vehicle would randomly put out less power than it should and trying to chase the issue causing it so hearing there was a cheat device for emissions honestly made sense. Boss said something along the lines of not the first and won't be the last. Wish he had explained the past ones honestly.

[@wizard_of_poz4413]

I'll buy a car with said device

[@fnamelname9077]

It's like poetry: emission standards make cars crappier, so VW cheats on its cars. Then anti-petro politics make *literally everything* unaffordable, so hopefully we get some dosh back from lawsuits about the cheating!

[@justinahole336]

I was working in the industry for a couple of German guys when this came out. They looked down on the American engineers, and LOVED their VW's. Needless to say, it was really hard to not giggle at the mental gymnastics and the "hrumphing" when the topic came up - and, being in the industry, it came up often. Made some difficult days just a little easier - good times! Great video!

[@Ulrich.Bierwisch]

I was working in the measurement area and a lot had to do with car manufacturers. I know how many engine tests under all kinds of conditions they make with own but also engines from other manufacturers. I'm sure when VW said they sell diesel cars in California, every other manufacturer tried to get one of the cars just to find out how they solved the emission problem. So everybody knew how they did it. I'm also sure that the other companies didn't tell this because every company seems to have secrets like that and everybody else know about this.

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

@@Ulrich.Bierwisch yeah, it's like that old saying: every time you point a finger, three more are pointing back at you. (If you - or anyone else reading this - are unfamiliar with the saying, just point your finger and look at your hand. The middle, index, and pinkie are pointing back at you. If you are familiar with the saying, please excuse my exposition.)

[@justinahole336]

@@Ulrich.Bierwisch Totally! Them skeletons have a way of escaping closets the same way chickens come home to roost. Like I said, it made me smile,

[@Psi-Storm]

VW wasn't the only manufacturer that tricked the emissions test. Others used the adblue system, but they only had a small tank for that stuff. They also didn't want people to have to mess with it, so they decided it should only be refilled with the normal car service. These lead to programming where they just didn't use the stuff in many circumstances, like cold weather, high speed, so the adblue wouldn't run out before the car went for service at the dealership.

[@justinahole336]

@@Psi-Storm I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you. 😜 I wonder why people don't trust companies...?

[@TheLockbeard]

I’m still pissed off after all these years. No, it wasn’t because I owned one but because the scandal resulted in VW pulling the plug on the Audi Le Mans program. Ironically Audi ran diesel at Le Mans.

[@mikebuffing727]

So that’s why they stopped running. I thought it was rules at Le Mans or IMSA

[@TheLockbeard]

@@mikebuffing727 unfortunately not. Besides the fine the VW group had to pay, Audi's Le Mans program were fueled by diesel. Wouldn't take much to put the two together.

[@TheTardis157]

I still own a 2012 A3 TDI. Just had its entire fuel system replaced under warranty because of the dieselgate scandal. All VW "fixed" cars have an extended warranty on emissions hardware meaning the entire engine and exhaust hardware. Definitely glad it had that as the repair would have cost me over $5k USD otherwise.

[@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo]

Don't they all have a 100k warranty?

[@clownskill11]

I love my 2011 a3 TDI got the emissions replaced warrantee at 90k now I’m at 140k and the car is running great.

[@leenevin8451]

Is it slower?

[@thepeacekeeper1868]

I just got my entire coolant system and turbo replace about 7000 in total Gotta love that warranty it’s the whole reason I bought the car 😂

[@albertbahtiri5645]

@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo you can go to their website and put in the cars Vin to see if it’s affected and how long the extended emissions warranty is, for example mine is 4 years and 3 months or 54000 miles after it’s modification for emissions (102k/2020) meaning it’s good until 2025 or 156k

[@moonshinerxo]

love you man, was in hospital a while back for a pre bad overdose and your videos were what I woke up and fell asleep to. For anyone out there dealing with anything, know you can beat it and you can continue watching plainly difficult XD

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@Brady73420]

Hope you doing good dawg, stay strong

[@moonshinerxo]

@@Brady73420 I'm getting by the days as they go, least i got a roof over my head and food on my plate. Annnnnd a new plainly difficult upload :/

[@RobBoss757]

Bro stay strong. As a diabetic who's been around I beg you stay strong my dude. Glad you're here man. ❤️👍

[@RobBoss757]

@@moonshinerxo you want anyone to talk to or anything lmk

[@iamthepotato4312]

VW gets the most attention on this issue but the reality is they weren't the only ones involved, mercedes and bmw were also at it, I think it was mercedes that stuck the other 2 companies in so they wouldn't get punished as severely, as time has went on nearly every manufacturer across the world has been found out to be using similar software.

[@SupermanGaming1080p]

The students who originally discovered the vw diesel gate, had two vw’s and one bmw. The bmw didn’t cheat, and that’s why it isn’t called “bmw diesel gate” today

[@monanagel6616]

We bought a diesel-car in 2015 - we wanted some special features and the only available option was a Diesel. We had just read articles about how good the emission-tests of Diesels were and that they didn't deserve their reputation of dirty anymore. So we said "OK" and got the car. Shortly after that Diesel-Gate went viral and I still feel betrayed and angry, especially since the whole lawsuite is dragging on, no one seems to be responsible and even politics are trying so evade the issue, since the Automobile-industry is a heavy Player in lobbying in Germany. Frustrating.

[@alexhinterreiter129]

I know someone who had a golf GTD model which was honestly the best car - super fuel efficient for the longer distance driving he did. When the scandal surfaced he got a letter which said the car was recalled for the oboe reasons and to take it back in to be fixed. This someone knows cars and he knew that the only way to fix it was to take away some of the performance of the engine and he refused to take it in.

[@HooLeePhucingSheet]

I'm glad hes killing the environment to this day for selfish reasons!

[@ericwlezniak2081]

One scandal that you can cover is the Austrian/German "Anti freeze" wine debacle during the 80's.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@Tiberiansam]

Simpsons made a reference to this in their first season if my memory is correct.

[@neilkurzman4907]

Anti-freeze cough medicine is why we have the FDA in the United States.

[@fgsaramago]

@@neilkurzman4907 doesnt seem to do a very good job. Here in Portugal I know of several companies that produce lower, in cases Id say adulterated stuff they export tothe US while they ship the good stuff everywhere else

[@neilkurzman4907]

@@fgsaramago You tried to be clover what you said but I can’t understand what you what it means. What is being exported to the United States? Is it legal to be sold in the United States? What did you mean by adulterated? In the US that would mean that something that was legal was changed to be not legal.

[@Blur4strike]

I was volunteering at the LeMay: America's Car Museum in Tacoma, WA when I heard about VW's "Dieselgate" scandal. That was quite the topic of conversation between museum staff and visitors, the fact that it affected a licensing agreement between Turn 10 studios and VW for the next "Forza" racing game (Forza Horizon 3 in particular) was immediately noticeable.

[@mentalhospital1701]

so this is why forza horizon 3 has no volkswagen 😁

[@robinforrest7680]

I clearly remember the absolutely deafening silence from other manufacturers when this first appeared on the news 😂. VW took the rap but I’m pretty sure everyone else was doing similar things too…

[@bradsanders407]

Yeah without a doubt. The Hellcat gets like 740 hp and you're going to say that it passes emissions once the accelerator is pushed? Please. This has been going on for so long that I was kind of surprised people were acting like they didn't know. Auto manufacturers have been manipulating the camshaft for years before this story broke. Vortec, vtech all those are systems that manipulate the camshaft to give the car more power when on the gas and less at idle to pass emissions. I just can't believe people acted like they had no idea this was going on. Your ave Joe sure but anyone that knows anything about mechanical engineering knew this was going on for quite some time by everyone. I guess those nerds at west virgina got in their environmental feels and blew the whistle to the public at large. But there is no way the epa didn't already know this unless they are brain dead morons.

[@andrewk8636]

Nothing wrong with that. F the epa

[@templarw20]

Given the lack of long-term consequences, that's not a stretch. Personally, I think VW should have ceased to exist as a company after this. But I also feel that if a company does wrong like this, any fines levied should start at 100% of the gross income from whatever action they're being fined for...

[@andrewk8636]

@@templarw20 how about dismantle the epa instead? The vw passes just fine in Europe. Only reason it doesn't pass in the US is because of the epa karens. Reliable diesels no longer exist in the US. CAT pulled out of the market because of the epa. Fine the epa out of existence for betraying the American people

[@glendelong1023]

All of the auto makers have been doing this for years. Some got in trouble in the late 70's for it and nothing happened and I am sure its happening today.

[@robertlapointe4093]

Mostly, I did enjoy the video. Disappointing that the real criminals have still not been charged, or at least sued into poverty. As a chemist, I found your treatment of the chemistry involved a bit frustrating, as most of it was wrong. For example, simple hydrocarbons, such as those found in diesel fuel, can only have formulas corresponding to CnH2n+2. So C12H23 is not a real molecule - the formula for a real 12 carbon simple hydrocarbon would be C12H26. Also, ad blue, a solution of urea (NH2)2CO in water, reacts with NOx to give nitrogen (N2) as the reduced product (not oxygen, O2, as you stated) along with water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Also, at one point you referred to NOx as being particulates. Nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), the two principle components of NOx, are both gases under normal atmospheric conditions. (Nox is actually much more complex, and includes small amounts of NO3, dimers, such as ONNO and O2NNO2, and mixed dimers, such as ONNO2 and O2NONO2, depending on concentration, temperature and ulraviolet flux.) The particulate components of diesel exhaust (aka soot) are composed mostly of carbon (from incomplete combustion of those simple hydrocarbons), ranging in size from less than 2.5 microns (the most concerning, as they penetrate deep into the lungs) to more than 10 microns.

[@sootikins]

Thank you. I was cringing at C12H23 and at every reference to NOx as particulate or particles. You stated it better than I could and pointed out a something I missed: the products of the NOx / NH3 reaction(s).

[@FreightmareFTW]

Repent and follow Jesus my friend! Repenting doesn't mean confessing your sins to others, but to stop doing them altogether. Belief in Messiah alone is not enough to get you into heaven - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Contemplate how the Roman empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years to accomplish the religion of the Israelites C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate though because you can start a relationship with God and have proof. Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life. - Revelation 3:20 Revelation 6 1st Seal: White horse = Roman Empire conquering nations under Trajan 98-117 AD & Gospel spreading rapidly. 2nd Seal: Red horse, bloody civil wars with 32 different Emperors, most killed by the sword. 185-284 AD 3rd Seal: Black horse, economic despair from high taxes to pay for wars, farmers stopped growing. 200-250 AD 4th Seal: Pale horse, 1/4th of Romans died from famine, pestilence; at one point 5,000 dying per day. 250-300 AD 5th Seal: Diocletian persecuted Smyrna church era saints for ten years, blood crying out for vengeance. 303-312 AD 6th Seal: Political upheaval in the declining Roman Empire while the leaders battled each other. 313-395 AD Revelation 7 Sealing of 144,000, the saints, before trumpet war judgments, which led to the fall of the Roman Empire. Revelation 8 1st Trumpet: Alaric and the Goths attacked from the north, the path of hail, and set it on fire. 400-410 AD 2nd Trumpet: Genseric and the Vandals attacked the seas and coastlands, the blood of sailors in water. 425-470 AD 3rd Trumpet: Attila and the Huns scourged the Danube, Rhine & Po rivers area, dead bodies made water bitter. 451 AD 4th Trumpet: Odoacer and the Heruli caused the last Western Emperor (sun), Senate (moon) to lose power. 476 AD With the Western Roman Emperor (restrainer of 2 Thes. 2) removed; the son of perdition Popes took power. Revelation 9 Two woe judgments against the central 1/3rd and eastern 1/3rd of the Roman Empire. 612-1453 AD 5th Trumpet: Locust & scorpions point to Arabia, the rise of the Muslim army. Islam hides Gospel from Arabs. 612-762 AD 6th Trumpet: Turks released to attack Constantinople with large cannons (fire, smoke, brimstone). 1062-1453 AD Revelation 10 The little book is the printed Bible, which was needed after the Dark Ages when Scriptures were banned by Popes. Revelation 11 7th Trumpet: Martin Luther measured Roman Church; found that it’s an apostate church, not part of true temple. The two witnesses are the Scriptures and saints who proclaim the pure Gospel and testify against the antichrist Popes. Papal Church pronounced Christendom dead in 1514 AD. Silence for 3.5 years. Then Luther posted his 95 Thesis, which sparked the Protestant Reformation and brought the witnesses back to life. Millions of Catholics were saved. Revelation 12 Satan used the Roman Empire to try to wipe out the early Church, Satan was cast down as the Empire collapsed. Revelation 13 The antichrist beast Popes reigned in power 1,260 years, 538-1798, is the little horn of Daniel 7, son of perdition. The false prophet Jesuit Superior General rose to power from land (earth) of Vatican and has created many deceptions. Revelation 14 Points to great harvest during the Protestant Reformation & wrath on Catholic countries who obey antichrist Pope. Revelation 15 Overcoming saints victorious over the beast. Prelude to 7 vials and judgment on those who support Papal Rome. Revelation 16 1st Vial: The foul sore of atheism was poured out on Catholic France, leaving them with no hope, led to revolution. 2nd Vial: The French Revolution started in 1793, killed 250,000, as France had obeyed the Pope and killed saints. 3rd Vial: The French Revolution spread to rural areas of France, where Protestants had been killed in river areas. 4th Vial: The bloody Napoleonic wars shed the blood of countries who had revered and obeyed the antichrist Pope. 5th Vial: Judgment on the seat of the beast. Papal States invaded in 1798, Pope imprisoned, removed from power. 6th Vial: The Turks vast domain dried up, they were only left with Turkey. They lost control of Palestine in 1917 AD, Israel became a nation again in 1948

[@rcranch3838]

I burned my toast this morning!

[@sootikins]

@@rcranch3838 Your mom probably shouldn't have let you use that dangerous appliance. And just think of all the particulate matter that you released into the environment! For shame.

[@rcranch3838]

@@sootikins funny you say that because she just rapidly disassembled it by throwing it out the second story window.

[@randomness3465]

I was an Audi salesperson in northeast US when the diesel mess happened. We at the dealership were furious that our "clean diesel" was a lie, and we'd just lost the best engine for the Q7. We'd just gotten a brand-new A6 TDI that spent the next two years on the showroom floor, manager's demo, lunch-fetching car until it could be fixed. Some customers were furious when they sold their cars back, some were upset to lose their cars but couldn't turn down the money. The fix wrecked fuel economy, power, reliability on the TDIs, and many of us VW/Audi nerds are still angry.

[@HooLeePhucingSheet]

It was simply those "too good to be true" scams. I'm just glad this story ended up killing the environment instead of people.

[@jimsvideos7201]

The Luger was a nice touch.

[@kcindc5539]

Those three cars (two VW and one BMW) were tested by the Engineering students at my alma mater West Virginia University, as the ICCT hired WVU to conduct the real-world emissions testing on ICCT’s behalf. The team did an insane amount of testing because they couldn’t believe how badly the two VW engines failed to meet the “clean diesel” claims made by VW and that it was so obvious VW was gaming the system to appear compliant only when under typical dynamometer-based testing. I’m proud of WVU in their vital contribution in revealing the truths about VW TDI emission performance.

[@revenevan11]

That's a cool connection, and definitely something to be proud of in an alma mater! 👍

[@Realz-bb3uf]

it's not that impressive. they stuck a device in a car and drove around.

[@admiral_franz_von_hipper5436]

Nothing better than waking up on Saturday to watch videos on people screwing up big time.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😬living the dream

[@skookapalooza2016]

You do a PHENOMENAL job with your vids! This is the first comprehensive explanation I've seen of the ENTIRE scandal.

[@1gochisox]

One thing that came out of this was they ironically gave me the best customer service I’ve ever had. I have a Q7, kept it afterwards. In 2020, got some engine trouble and took it in to the dealership and they gave me a rental. They couldent figure out what was wrong (turned out to be something with some bad gas no idea how they dident figure that out right away) but they kept it for about four months and even flew in specialist from Germany just to look at it, kept me informed the whole time and I got the rental which was a 2019 model. Probably put 10k miles on it and they dident blink. Kept me informed and answered everything politely. Was the best experience I’ve ever had with a dealership

[@ethanreynolds4942]

Oh man, the intro to this one had me so hyped. Well done dude. You have really gotten making this type of content down to an art at this point. Kudos my guy. :)

[@fabrizioravera98]

Another consequence of this scandal was the termination of (nearly) all Motorsport programs. Their Behemoth Teams ceased to exist in the World Rally Championship (4 Drivers and 4 Constructor Championships for Volkswagen in 4 years) and in the World Endurance Championship, with the latter using TDi engines between 2006-2016 (amounting for 8 of their 13 wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans). Another manufacturer of the VAG Group, Porsche dodged this scandal and continued on racing. Audi's GT3 program also continued to supply teams with the R8 GT3. Only 10 years after the scandal became public matter, Audi is set to re-enter a premier motorsport series, announcing their entry in Formula 1 in the 2026 season - Although with all the rumours going on for the past 20 years, I will only believe them when I see their car on the grid. They were also due to re-enter the World Endurance Championship with the new Hypercar regulations, but called off those plans to alledgedly focus on their F1 plans. Porsche is set to re-enter WEC with their new car being already tested. edit: spelling

[@ninjabob8170]

Always make me laugh the fact that VW got all the flack for this, so many other manufacturers got away lightly as Volkswagen took the fall.

[@hopingforthebest1.9]

Yeah, FCA just got busted for doing the same thing with their ecodiesel and it doesn't get talked about nearly as much as VW

[@Heckleburger]

GM was caught with the Northstar V8 as it disabled certain emissions components when the A/C was turned on.

[@grmasdfII]

@@Heckleburger Opel/Vauxhal, too - MCUs made by GM, of course.

[@clauskohler7560]

Yet VW group is the 2nd largest car manufacturer in the world besides the billions in fine and buyout.

[@anthonyg638]

I admire the genius behind diesel gate, it would never stop me buying a VW.

[@danr8194]

Yeah, who wants a vehicle that get you 750+ miles to a 55 liter/14.5 gallon tank? That would be smart, this is America we're talking about...

[@random_adventuring]

Great job as always, John. I always enjoy the animators bubble comments for a laugh while watching. Keep up the great work!

[@user-sq6nu3rv1m]

I still remember reading an article when the diesel gate news first broke and thinking "Uh oh.. it appears the VAG is screwed.".

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Apparently not as history has proved

[@hawkeye454]

My first car was a canary yellow diesel VW Rabbit...with 48 angry horsepower. The hazard light was the most complex bit of gadgetry on the entire vehicle. Great little car that I miss dearly.

[@stankdog1357]

Rabbits are the best!

[@Gentleman...Driver]

In the year 1998 I read an article in a motorcycle magazine about "defeat devices". I was 10 years old by the time. As a teenager I knew that most cars would have such devices. And I knew that politicians and state officials would hold their protective hands over the car industry (who is really important in Europe, and more so in Germany). To the customer benefit as well, because the emissions influence also the car taxes that have to be paid by individuals. It really baffled me why this was such a big deal in 2015. It was always an open "secret". Yet, the Dieselgate only accelerated the shift in politics towards battery electric cars. I also wondered about the little consequences the car industry faced afterwards. Volkswagen for example was forced to pay a fine of 1 billion Euro to the German state. But afterwards they got it back, without any media attention, as subsidy to develop EVs. lol. Volkswagen did also a profit after taxes of 16 billion EUR in 2017. Yet, they werent forced to pay their customers compensation in Europe. Only customers in the US got them. This was outragious. Just imagine: You buy a NEW car in 2015, and one year later you are not allowed to drive into a major city, because of their individual emission rules. The value of your car drops, because nobody wants it anymore. The car is perfectly fine, but useless for most customers in western Europe. All of those cars are sold off to eastern Europe. lol. What a shitshow it was.

[@jakesoros2376]

Cities shouldn't be able to restrict cars from coming into them just because they don't pass their BS test. If it can hit the highway, it should be able to go into a city, nationwide.

[@Gentleman...Driver]

@@jakesoros2376 Because air polution was/is still a problem in bigger cities, many urban areas in Europe have implemented "eco zones" where mostly older cars are banned. I dont like this either. But the outragious part was that cars got excluded that were only one to three years old because of the Dieselgate. And certain "eco lobbies" (Deutsche Umwelthilfe) were keen to sell particle filters for suppliers and get themselves more donations from them. I wasnt affected, but it still made me sick. Those eco zones are also a farce. While the rich people can afford newer, more "eco friendly" cars, people with cheaper older cars will get excluded. Thats just unfair.

[@Gentleman...Driver]

Oh, and by the way: Volkswagen was also forced to pay a fine in the 1970s in the US for the exact same reason. And the managers and politicians of the Dieselgate of 2015 still claim they had no clue.

[@matttownsend7119]

5:37: "These engines work by compressing diesel fuel" - wrong. These engines work by quickly compressing *air* in the cylinder until it becomes hot enough to spontaneously combust diesel fuel sprayed into it, typically just before top dead centre of the piston travel.

[@TheDiner50]

Well that makes allot more sense. But before direct injection the air and fuel was mixed before compression? But yes it makes allot more sense to say that the diesel ignite due to the hot compressed air. Older lorries and cars had to use glow plugs to compensate for cold starts in winter time. And still even in good condition struggled and failed to start. But modern lorries even in -35c (-40c even) and running bio fuels manages to start with the only requirement being to make sure one has good crank power. (batteries). But then it is this generation of lorry engines that have injectors shooting out of the block and such in the middle of summer. XD Just casual Mondays. I rather stick to the less extreme pressures of today's engines. Even VW PD engines is to much to make sense! 2003 ish?

[@jameshoffman552]

Very thorough coverage of the entire scandal. Thank you for your research.

[@Destilight]

One time a friend tried to get into stocks and asked me, who knows nothing about stocks, opinions about where where i would invest. I told him "you can never go wrong with volkswagen" Two months later the diesel scandal happened lol

[@fatalfallacy]

Your vid made me rewatch the great CCC talk by Daniel Lange and Felix Domke on Dieselgate at the 32c3 congress, capturing a deep insight into the tech details of DG, but also the state and mechanisms of the automotive industry overall.

[@weirdyoda04]

Government doesn’t make anything, they just put undue burden on those that do. Government standards were and are too strict. Standards that are too loose or too strict are both bad, they should be reasonable and feasible.

[@emdotrod]

This and the Takata scandal is probably two of the biggest automotive scandal in history

[@Ethan7s]

Let’s not forget ford pinto.

[@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo]

I feel like that's worse, since Toyota know people were dying because of them, and still didn't issue a recall......

[@joncalon7508]

Thanks for the video. I own and still drive a 2003 VW Golf TDI, and have over 330,000KM’s on the odometer. Was debating upgrading to those “clean diesels”, but in the end figured we would keep the Golf and continue driving it. Because the vehicle was purchased prior to the tier 2 requirements, we haven’t heard a peep about it from VW. The car, with a new clutch, turbo, etc. Is still a nice drive, even though it’s almost 20 years old now. Pity most vehicles these days aren’t available with a manual transmission…

[@spacecase13]

I 'm loving the stylish little musical interludes on your subject headers. Great subject coverage as always!

[@CrookedSkew]

Love to see the branch into Scandals and the format you follow. Much obliged : )

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

If we could stop adding -gate to the end of every scandal, that would be nice.

[@TheEricZ]

The Watergate hotel would agree lol

[@gace1200]

Had to change a dosing tube on a Ford F550 with DEF. For some reason theres no shut off valve and one you start changing it its just a deluge of DEF. Not to mention the weekly regen that has to be done on them is quite wasteful of fuel.

[@popupheadlights]

Best thing we’ve done to our powesrokes is the DEF delete. Way better mpgs and no breakdowns from the absurd system.

[@graafisk]

Exactly my point: DEFs are a scam. One or two catalytic converters is enough to control the emissions, the DEF is a ticking engine fault waiting to happen.

[@popupheadlights]

@@graafisk my grandpas truck is currently going through problems now with the def system, 2020 power stroke with 20k miles and it’s throwing CELS due to the adblue system. Absurd

[@decathec]

All said and done, I love my diesel VW. Gets better fuel mileage than anything else I've owned and it's close to 20 years old.

[@patientallison]

I like how their plan would only work if literally no one ever would bother to test emissions while the car was actually on the road, and they still thought it was a good plan.

[@TheRedstar91]

And yet, the plan almost worked out. I guess a billion people had contact or indirect contact with scandal VW diesel engines and even though - nobody noticed or cared to notice or knew but didn't care. Almost a full scale test of how much anyone can fool people and almost get away with.

[@dave_sic1365]

This is how it's done in Europe. All testing is done in a controlled environment and almost no roadtest are made. After diesel gate there must be done tests on the road

[@StreuB1]

Do one on the Camp Lejeune (US Marine Corps) water contamination scandal here in the US!!! It will be a lot of research but it will be hugely popular. Thank you, John!! Really enjoying the new series as well as your music channel! Cheers mate!

[@alexandranorris1763]

I was seeing ads for that lawsuit everywhere a while back. I’d certainly love have more information on it

[@JoeOvercoat]

I’d like to understand it better as well. America has a history of talking big about supporting its soldiers and treating them like dirt in the real world…the enlisted especially. So yeah, what happened…exactly?

[@darksu6947]

@@alexandranorris1763 My ex-wife bought me a book on that subject recently (she still buys me books all the time because I'm a dork) It was called A Trust Betrayed by Mike Magner. I would highly recommend it if you want a very comprehensive understanding of how bad the government screwed up. I've read some terrible things over the years and like a good American I know better than to trust the government, but holy cow man, it's way worse than what I imagined.

[@alexandranorris1763]

@@darksu6947 I’ll have to read that then, thank you!

[@kingofnfsfan]

I like the way Fiat cheats with their emissions. After 22 minutes of normal driving every cleaning device turns off. I had a colleague test driving a Ducato on the Autobahn while looking at real time data and he wondered why the emissions suddenly went to shit level. He kicked the clutch and everything was normal again. He didnt think much of it but put the pieces together when i told him how Fiat cheats with their diesels.

[@reclhoss]

I don't blame them. Immissions regulations only ever go in one direction. A car that could get 80 mpg gets 30 when they get done trying to make it fit within the "standards".

[@itsmebatman]

This is so bizarre. They could have gone with the urine system from Mercedes they were interested at the start. But instead the decided defrauding their customers was a better idea and it cost them so much more. Those managers in charge were some prime idiots.

[@FntX-Video]

...but even then, it turned out, Mercedes did a lot of cheating with their system too. So they would have been able to shift the blame over but the real problem persists.

[@catherinepryce9023]

Typical just blinded by money. The managers and CEO’s will all be rich and dead by the time the effects of these emissions cheats are truly understood.

[@lukerinderknecht2982]

Urea, not urine 🤣

[@katiekane5247]

@@lukerinderknecht2982 now if you could run a car on piss! 😂

[@halogod0298]

@@lukerinderknecht2982 same thing

[@benedienst]

As a german I was especially disappointed with the scandal handling by my government. Denial, delays, shabby arguments and an overall extremely slow response. All just because Germany holds major parts of VAG, I think.

[@Bird_Dog00]

That's not even the biggest issue. The bigger issue is that apparently, the law makers, not only in germany, allowed the car manufacturer to both have a significant influence over how the tests were conducted, and to simpyl do tests in whatever country in the EU had the most lenient regulations.

[@catherinepryce9023]

Yes because the Germans were blinded by €€€. Then acted like a spoilt child caught stealing candy. Of course it’s embarrassing when you deliberately trick millions into buying your deliberately faulty product, but they could have some decorum in dealing with the clean up instead of sulking and trying to ignore the problem. It won’t go away if you pretend it doesn’t exist!!

[@YG--]

i wouldnt necessarily say germany holds major parts of the VW Group (which sure could be true) but rather major parts of germany's economy is being influenced by VW, matter of fact close to 20%... any logical sense, even if it doesnt sound ethically justifiable is to keep that company going since this is holding up major parts of the countries economy

[@katiekane5247]

@@YG-- too big to fail.

[@YG--]

@@katiekane5247 exactly

[@jenniferofholliston5426]

This sort of scandal is a perfect story for you. Good job, John!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

thank you

[@Ethan7s]

AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CE…oh, wrong video.

[@reecehalpin2537]

I absolutely love your music, thanks for bringing onto the channel!

[@LilDitBit]

Love how passionate you were in this one!

[@thejudgmentalcat]

I didn't realize it was an industry-wide issue. I worked at a small factory making sound deadener sheeting in the mid-eighties and we had two clients: Ford and VW. VW was very stringent with their lab test ranges and we rarely passed; they finally stopped buying from us (Ford really didn't care). I always figured "German engineering" was superior. Yet, I've driven both VW and Fords and prefer Fords.

[@gailgrove]

To be fair the engineering behind this was pretty good, it just wasn't legal or arguably moral...

[@oliverwells8011]

If you want a truck that'll last get a helux

[@Heckleburger]

Ford's ignition switches still will randomly burst into flames. German engineering is but this was more about ethics than anything else.

[@grmasdfII]

At least for Europe, Fords development is also largely done in Germany.

[@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo]

Modern Ford is trash..... You act like it's Lexus...........

[@FutureSystem738]

I will never EVER own another VW group vehicle. Period! This was way beyond disgraceful.

[@zestoslife]

Thanks for explaining I didn't follow the scandal as not my area but knew there was issues, so nice to have it explained.

[@thatguynameddan2136]

I may or may not have worked around people doing this research in my work history. It was a fun time to see the first of the fallout.

[@alexandersheppard1997]

“Japanese engineers can do no wrong” -Laughs in Takata airbag scandal

[@RobertHancock1]

This scandal likely spelled the beginning of the end for diesel vehicles in categories where gasoline vehicles are a viable alternative. You can make a gas engine run cleanly without wrecking its fuel economy, but nobody has yet figured out a way to do that with a diesel. With gas vehicle economy improving and diesel economy getting worse, diesel is just not worth it anymore.

[@sootikins]

Not to mention how much "clean" diesel costs here in the USA. Gone are the days when diesel fuel was cheap compared to gasoline.

[@Swaygooy]

@@sootikins ethanol now

[@CRneu]

@@Swaygooy ethanol is worse for air pollution than just gasoline. it also cuts a few mpg off most cars mileage. then factor in the resources associated with growing all that corn.

[@Papinak2]

@@sootikins diesel fuel was never cheap, but efficiency gains offset the higher price for heavy vehicles. The reason why it became so popular in Europe even in small vehicles is, that most governments have high fuel tax with even higher rate for gasoline, which makes them cost about the same (well, until recent events, which shot the fuel prices up)

[@Papinak2]

@@CRneu why is it worse than gasoline? It's still relatively simple hydrocarbon, so emissions should be more or less the same. But it does have lower energy density.

[@jameshoffman552]

I had no idea about the portable exhaust monitors that the CARB used to bust VW. Thank you for your reporting.

[@Datamining101]

I had two of these. I loved them. Fun to drive, comfortable, and efficient. Honestly with all of the money we got as part of the settlement they were amazingly valuable over time. I feel bad about the environment, but we got 10 years out of two cars for very little cost.

[@Bird_Dog00]

What makes the whole thing even more annoying is that this isn't the first diesel emission scandal in more recent time. In the late 90s, 7 us manufacturers, including Caterpillar, Cummins and Detroit Diesel were already caught in a similar case. Number of lessons learned by the industry: 0 - evidentialy not even the one about not getting caught... Intererstingly, while in the more recent scandal, VW alone had to pay over 4 billions in penalties - not setlements, just the penalties - and several people facing criminal charges, with at least one recieving a multi-year custodial sentence, in the US heavy goods vehicle manufactuerer's case, the total penalty was according to the sources I could find under 100 millions and no mention of criminal charges. Honi soit qui mal y pense...

[@otm646]

It's funny you bring this up. Good friend of mine his father worked for Detroit Diesel in their testing laboratory when that whole scandal went down. As soon as the new VW engine was launched we were at the Detroit international Auto show to check it out, GM couldn't meet those emissions with the same hardware he told us right away "something's wrong here. I think they're cheating" ol man was right.

[@jerrykinnin7941]

Fk the EPA AND THEIR BULL CRAP REGULATIONS. LONG LIVE KING COAL.

[@knotical689]

@@otm646 yeah when Mazda was developing their diesel they had the same thoughts. They used the same tech, but couldn't hit emissions targets.

[@sinisatrlin840]

4 bilions you say. Jail time also? And no one died. What did Boeing had to do after killing 346 people? Slap on the wrist, no one is in jail.

[@GeorgeMonet]

They learned to try cheating better.

[@hlopplopp7066]

I love this series!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Awesome thank you!

[@hlopplopp7066]

Yo i got commented

[@Irondogg2011]

I worked at an auto auction yard in 2018-2020. They had a giant part of the back lot being rented out by VW to store a bunch of the cars they bought back, just trying to figure out what to do with them all. By this time, most had been sitting for years, and it was showing on a lot of them. As part of the storage contract, we had to start every car and drive them around the yard for about 15 minutes once per month. It was a pain, because almost all of them had bad batteries, flat tires, and just other problems from sitting for so long. It bothered me to see over 500 vehicles just sitting in a yard to rot, that can't be sold back to the public without performance-altering modifications, instead of being used for their intended purpose. A good chunk of the cars had less than 60-80,000 miles on them, and would have had a long life ahead of them on the road. When I left, they had started to scrap any of the ones that had more than $1000 worth of body damage on them. I drove a 4 year old Jetta with 9,000 KM on it to the crusher, because the rear driver door had a fairly sizeable, but not unrepairable dent in it. It hurt my soul.

[@brandonobaza8610]

6:20 Diesel injectors, as far as I know, cannot _vaporize_ diesel fuel, they _atomize_ it, due to diesel's low volatility. You need high velocity swirl inside the cylinder, in addition to peak quality fuel atomization for the most complete burn. This is why stock pistons are not valve relieved. Valve reliefs interrupt swirl and can only be overcome by intense turbo boost pressure. This results in very low soot, high fuel economy, but high EGT and high NOx emissions which require SCR to scrub.

[@JackRussell021]

I had one of those VW TDI, and I ended up selling it back to VW. But one nit that I have to pick with the video is that diesel engines really have two pollutants. One is "particulate matter", which is a fancy way of saying soot, namely the black soot that diesel engines sometimes spew into the air. This too is something that is undesirable - this is what the DPF (diesel particulate filter) is intended to catch in the exhaust, and that is what periodically needs to be heated in order to burn off the soot. NOx is a different pollutant, and it is correct that it is linked to smog. But it is really just a molecule, and not a particle. The AdBlue system was in fact intended to control NOx, but my car was a 2014, and did not have this system. My wife's car was a 2015, and did have AdBlue, so the technical fixes required for the two cars was very different. In the US, there was another side-effect of the scandal in North America. VW was forced by the courts to build a nationwide system of electric car charging stations, which are known as Electrify America (and their corporate sibling Electrify Canada). And that's a topic for a whole different set of videos.

[@qwerty112311]

Honestly more impressive than anything what they set up and how long they got away with it.

[@anthonyxuereb792]

In Top Gear magazine there appeared an article on Dieselgate in a section called "Pub facts" and it said this; a large diesel engined ship pollutes 50 million times more than a single VW diesel, 50 MILLION TIMES MORE! One ship!! Puts things into perspective kind of (it doesn't excuse VW in any way and let me clear on that).

[@pegefounder]

There had been an offer of lithium batteries special developed for cars 1995. All big German companies responded “Oil is cheap and eternal, the electric car will never come”, but internal, they thought maybe “Fraud is cheaper than innovation”. There is also an article in 1997 in a popular German scientific magazine about lithium manganese batteries. It reads like an Elon Musk article 2014 why to build the Giga battery factory.

[@remotecontrol1082]

Thanks for covering this, John. Shows how money takes priority, no matter what companies say, sadly.

[@SteveFrench_420]

The pandemic and "vaccines" has been the most glaring example of profit over all, over lives in that case.

[@Tekisasubakani]

I think a lot of people forget that, when you get to the heart of it, a business exists soley to make money, to profit. I've never been able to trust anything a company says, at least beyond a very small, local level [your neighborhood mechanic that everyone goes to because they are honest and upfront, the local bakery, etc]. I'm in no way saying this is ethically correct, but that's how it is.

[@IstasPumaNevada]

It's a perfect example of why regulations are needed; companies will do anything and everything they can get away with (or think they can get away with), no matter the harm it causes. Now, what exactly the regulations should be is another question. But "none" is the objectively wrong answer, otherwise we'll end up with even more things like the DDT disaster and ozone depletion, and no way to rectify them.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Great work on the documentary! I was under impression that the alternative ECU program was activated by the hood switch but it seems that the detection algorithm was more complex than that. Also, I think the cheat version reduced NOx emissions by having very aggressive EGR settings which indeed do reduce NOx emissions a lot but will clog your intake manifold very fast if the fuel contains any sulfur.

[@wizard_of_poz4413]

Not sulphur. It just clogs it up with carbon

[@MikkoRantalainen]

@@wizard_of_poz4413 Yes, carbon is enough to eventually clog but the sulfur make the process much much faster.

[@wizard_of_poz4413]

@@MikkoRantalainen nah I run ulsd exclusively in my truck but I pulled the grid heater off and the valve and intake were caked all the way thru at 35k miles

[@MikkoRantalainen]

@@wizard_of_poz4413 Interesting. We have TDI with factory spec EGR configuration with 300k km on the clock and the intake manifold is barely blacked, definitely not clogged at all.

[@wizard_of_poz4413]

@@MikkoRantalainen well I thought vw takes exhaust off the dpf

[@jaredfarney675]

thanks! this was really good. I remember following this when the news broke. but, then it really fell by the wayside.

[@AsterInDis]

Good breakdown. I had heard of this happening but didn't look too far into it.

[@Neoentrophy]

I posit that this was inevitable simply due to the sheer level of trust placed in companies to regulate themselves.... Why wouldn't they cheat if it's all but certain they will get away with it?

[@katiekane5247]

Regulatory capture.

[@TheKevlarKitten]

I love when you include cute little real world anecdotes like crawling out of the back of a taxi on Friday night

[@RoFKillaBacon]

This got me a great deal on a 2013 Jetta that I still have to this day and have put 50k miles on now at 108k. I remember going to check it out before the fix, it smelled like an engine with no emissions what so ever Pretty ironic they go through all this work just to resell them to people like me who are going to completely remove the egr and dpf

[@ShainAndrews]

Lets see you delete these systems...

[@silversonic99]

Gotta hand it to those bastards, it was a good plan only foiled by complete accident.

[@FutureSystem738]

I believed the hype, and always thought I could stand at the back of the car whilst loading and unloading, hooking up a trailer etc without any worry about the exhaust fumes. How wrong I was! I’m thoroughly disgusted by VW!

[@punkhead-dv9lg]

honda insight for the win with 52 mpg!! !!! ive got one and am currently working on upgrading it.

[@AlphaFoxAdam]

One of my professors worked with some of the attorneys challenging VW...he invited them to speak to our (very small) class. It was super insightful.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That is awesome!

[@graafisk]

It is not necessarily "awesome", but it is certainly ambiguous. Could you tell us in which way it was insightful - was your take-away pro VW or attorney?

[@AlphaFoxAdam]

@@graafisk the attorneys discussed aspects of litigating in foreign courts, and the difficulties therein. I wasn't necessarily in support of either party, so I had no takeaway in that regard.

[@twatacusflinch6218]

John man, I’ve been subbed for around a year and dude I am so hyped to see what you’re doing with the channel. Super proud of you just as a content creator who puts so much fucking effort into their vids. Pls never stop!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you I really appreciate it!

[@jaktucker777]

Great rundown. Thanks for all the info!

[@drown-media]

Right when this mess started, i began training as a Mechanic at a certain VW-Goup brand staring with S :D Looking back at that time, it was absolute caos. The whole shop was full of Diesel Cars getting softwareupdates left and right.

[@ToxCcc]

Question I've always wondered is how did VW fix the issue with a simple software fix? Wouldnt they have to detune the engine so it would perform slower and worser economy?

[@benrussell-gough1201]

Precisely; thank you for buying Volkswagen. We hope that you enjoy your suddenly slow, inefficient and smoky oil-burner.