On 9/25/2015 7:15 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 09/25/2015 08:23 AM, Don Y wrote:
The cars named in the recent disclosure are sure to take a hit -- in the
short term and possibly even longer. A lot will depend on the sort of
fix that VW puts forward and how it affects the perceived value of those
vehicles. My hunch is that any *cheap* fix (e.g., a software upgrade)
will result in a vehicle's performance falling below what their owners
(and prospective resale owners) would be happy with.

My impression is the problem is with the diesels, with about 450,000 in the US.
I can't find a breakdown but I don't think they've sold that many New Beetles
so I assume the bulk of the TDIs are in Jettas followed by Golfs.

Europe is where it will get ugly.

Yup. The fallout here will be "by association"... folks ignorant of
details and just seizing on the words "VW" and "cheating".

You also have a lot more voices and axes to grind in Europe. Lots
of "officials"/politicians to answer to -- and folks who want to
make political hay of this sort of thing.

If I was running the show, I'd go out of my way to *quickly* clean house
and uncover and disclose EVERYTHING that MIGHT be pertinent. I'd even
publish the source code so third parties could examin it to identify
the extent of the "problem" as well as being able to "rebuild it"
(i.e., take a blank ECU and install software that is, theoretically,
identical to the software described in the source code listings to
PROVE that the source code tells the entire story).

Yeah, this is considered trade secret material. But, your pants are
down around your ankles, time to suck it up and take your medicine!
(other car manufacturers undoubtedly have the essence of any of
the *legitimate* algorithms already sorted out... you're not really
giving away much other than your pride -- which you already
lost when you committed/admitted the offense!) Get it over and
done with. Don't give anyone the opportunity to claim you should
have been *more* open ("Hey, we gave you the source code, what more
do you want??")