Ronan

Until now it has been just the VW-based diesel; problem,....this one in new ...UK report. Will surely have an effect in different countries:.see link below

Ronan

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/i...emissions-test

ekam

Perhaps they should just ban all motor vehicles in the whole country and make everyone take public transportation, ride bicycles and god forbid, walk.

928gt

No, they shouldn't... just like automakers shouldn't cheat and fudge results. I have no sympathy for VAG.

wc11

Wouldn't surprise if they all did it.
It's just about not getting caught is all.
Chrysler did it too but the media and US government doesn't go after the North American brands the same way.

928gt

^ This.

As for Chrysler, they can't go after them... Chrysler already failed and the government bailed them out with taxpayer money. Going after Chrysler and imposing fines that Chrysler can't pay would mean another bailout... it would be like writing a cheque to yourself.

petee1997

VAG has been proven to be a cheat. Now, if Porsche is proven to also being a cheat, all governments should be rechecking all their vehicles for the veracity of their emission controls. Severe fines should be levied as a deterrent and taxes collected on every vehicle plus interest. Cheating is fraud and fraud is theft.

928gt

Porsche is part of VAG as is Audi and a number of other brands (Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT and Skoda). Dieselgate already involved vehicles from VW, Audi and Porsche as well as SEAT and Skoda where they are sold.

If governments really started checking all vehicles for compliance with their published emissions under normal operating conditions, I suspect there would be considerably fewer cars left on the road... of course the Ameriken pickup trucks adn heavy SUVs would remain are they are conveniently classified as commercial vehicles.

Rampage

Is this really a cheat? I read the article but it isn't exactly clear what Porsche did / didn't do.

For instance, if the vehicle was a PDK model that detected it was being driven on a test cycle (ie. monitoring the lack of steering angle as the VW cars did) and then engaged a different transmission algorithm that a customer would not have access to, then yes that's clearly cheating. This would be a "defeat device".

But if it was a manual equipped car and the operator intentionally started in 2nd gear - which is something anyone could do - then how is that cheating? Most test cycles do not stipulate what gear you must use, they are simply speed vs. time profiles. Nothing changed on the vehicle during the test versus what would happen for a customer on the road. Yes, it may not be what most drivers would do, but then this is down to operational differences and these cycles are not great at matching real world usage habits in the first place.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying cheating is right because what VW did with their diesels was definitely very wrong. But this particular situation is unclear as to what exactly took place and only makes a nice sensational headline.

928gt

Well, that's like saying "The safety of our cars is absolutely amazing - the crash test dummy didn't have a single scratch" without disclosing that you tested it only at a 25 mph impact because that is how fast you intentionally chose to drive, which is something that anyone could do. It is not a real-world scenario - it is a test DESIGNED to produce a favourable outcome. I strongly suspect that the vast majority of people that buy a Cayman R will not be starting in 2nd gear all the time.

If you want to make sure that no one cheats, the fix is easy... get Mercedes and Toyota to test all VWs and Hondas, get BMW and Honda to test the Mercs and Toyotas, and VW and Toyota to test the BMWs and Hondas... problem solved.

wc11

And who testes the "big three" North American brands?
Oh yeah. The US government turns a blind eye to protect their own.

Tj40

Most of these tests are self-reporting by the manufacturers. There are rules and ways of getting the results you want within the rules. Look at fuel economy testing, you only have to have one car produce the result (test 5 pick the best), you can test with options as long as the option is available on 20% of the range (use the 20 inch 'sport' tire package that raises effective gearing by 3-4%), sell the car initially with bigger rims/tyres and then swap halfway through a model year. Test the base stripper car that weighs less and then claim that result for every car in the range etc etc etc....

Some of these loopholes have been closed but I'm sure there are others, when Car and Driver is publishing articles about how unrealistic in the real world fuel economy numbers are you know these things are a general guide at best :-)

Mark Lue

Really!!! This is f*cking petty, Porsche shouldn't lower themselves to this,... BUT they do.