The Volkswagen emissions scandal, amid allegations that emissions test results were manipulated, has cast a very dark shadow on the company. If it turns out that these emission tests were manipulated does this help the electric vehicle market?
There is also the question of trust in Volkswagen in relation to the company’s electric/hybrid portfolio of vehicles? Can Volkswagen recover? Would the rumoured resignation of the company’s CEO restore any trust?
I own a 2012 Passat TDI SEL named in the fraud case. I went without even owning a car for six years before picking out that particular car. I really, really liked it. It was a smart used purchase at $25.5k and made me money. Now that they have to buy it back, I’m out for the buyback price of $23k. It was worth more than that to me with only 37k miles on it, but I’ll take the cash and look at other options. Since it’s been parked, I drive my pickup and now my Ford think. This process caused me to re evaluate my driving needs. I’m not sure I’m ready for a full time EV, but VW definitely helped me to look at EVs for around town use. I live in downtown Houston and most of the time, the Think is fine for getting around town. I got the Think as an experiment to see how it would affect my driving and car ownership. So far the Think is fun and real easy to park…huge bonus in downtown area. Who else owns a TDI? Whatcha gonna do with yours? I know I’d never let VW detune it. They can take it to the crusher.
Hi Radar5667
I think many people have the same opinion as you with some concern about where to charge on longer journeys. Personally I think in the short to medium term we will see a massive increase in journey capacity per full charge and this will make people think again.
I would be interested to see if you share this view?
I am even concerned about running out of go in the Think and I only use it to run errands very close to home. If I was fully committing to a full time EV, it would likely be the Tesla model S. From what I have read it seems they are quite ahead of just about everyone else in every metric. I just can’t wrap my head around parking a $100k vehicle on the street in the city or leaving it parked at the heliport for a month while I am at work. For the time being I will get around with the Think and if I have to go out of its limited range, I’ll be in the pickup. I have some environmental guilt over the way I make a living. Buying the TDI and getting 47 mpg on a 900 mile commute was my way of being “green.” I cannot tell you how angry I am with VW. It seems like BS that the only two options are detuning the car and keep $6k, or sell them the car back for $23k. I get nothing if I keep the car and do not agree to have them install the computer program to make it suck. Best alternative for a diesel replacement for the 2012 Passat TDI seems like the 2014/15 BMW 535d…used 15k-20k miles…$40k, but a nicer car than the VW. Not sure what I should do about my next car. I am currently flying to work, but with the state of the market, I could be making the 900 mile round trip again in a car so having something with enormous range is still very important to me.
How about a new Dodge Half Ton.
My colleague just got one and speaks very highly of it. He also had a TDI…an A3 for long commuting, but he traded it just before the scandal broke. I already have a nice Chevy crew cab with 1000lb lift gate for handling my jukeboxes, and it’s paid off. I’ll probably just keep the Chevy and let VW crush the Passat. The oil patch is a tough place to work at $40/bbl. Best not to take on any new debt until the market stabilizes and producers commit to deep water drilling. I really liked the TDI. It was an extraordinary car and I’ll be bummed to send it to the crusher but VW leaves me no other decent option. If nothing else, this event caused me to take a hard look at my driving needs and for now the Think is easily getting the job done around town. I had never even considered an EV before this so maybe that is a positive I can take from all of this.
There is going to be so much mistrust amongst motorists after the VW scandal with rumours that others are not whiter than white. Quite how VW can sell you something under false pretences and then offer to buy it from you at a lose to you is bizarre to say the least. Tesla has the trust of motorists because it is more open and appears to be fighting the cause for EVs but the recent accidents when drivers have been using the autonomous driving service does not reflect well.
VW is finished!