Karl wonders whether we’re all too reliant on our cars to really care about what comes out of the tailpipe.
“Another day, another scandal in the car industry.” They’re words that we don’t really want to read, yet they have become a reality for one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the world.
Some of them don’t affect us that much. Sure, extra carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere isn’t exactly healthy, but a volcanic eruption will easily eclipse the fudged figures that Volkswagen had published. A few litres more of fuel being consumed is annoying, but it’s only going to cost us a few extra dollars at fill-up time. Safety, though, is an issue that we cannot be complacent about.
Takata’s airbag incidents are unforgivable. When people end up dead, that’s where outrage should be directed. So why the disparity between something like the Toyota recalls a few years ago and the massive skewering of Dieselgate? What Volkswagen had done was wrong, but it appears that there’s more hype about the scandal than actually the action itself.
It’s the stuff of gossip magazines. Deception, cover-up, and a CEO’s resignation. That’s why it’s such a story, and we’re still hearing about it today. But Dieselgate pales into insignificance compared with what Mitsubishi has done.
As we know, Mitsubishi has been building cars for Nissan, and we also know about how Nissan discovered Mitsubishi’s fuel use – by double checking itself. But what has come to light afterward is the way Mitsu has been testing fuel consumption has been incorrect for nearly a quarter of a century.
There’s no way on earth that it could have gone on for 25 years and no-one know about the practice. It smacks of corporate greed and payoffs to staff to keep their mouth shut. Nissan ultimately gained from the whole ordeal with Mitsubishi’s share price taking a massive dive and Nissan using that to buy a controlling stake in the company for a discounted price.
The scale of this deception is massive, yet it only rates a small mention in most news stories. Is that not juicy enough? The story goes much deeper than just VW and Mitsubishi, though.
Testing by independent company Emissions Analytics this month has revealed that a huge proportion of cars do not live up to the emissions standards they claim. Brands such as BMW, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini, Skoda, Citroen, Mazda, Peugeot, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and plenty of others all failed to reach Euro-6 emissions targets. The vehicles range from a Fiesta right through the S-Class, and everything in between. And it’s apparent in both petrol and diesel cars.
If everyone’s going to get so upset at Veedub, why not at all of them? Do we just shrug and not care, or should we be marching in the streets, blaming car-makers for killing our future by polluting the earth?
The scandals won’t gain much more traction after this. No more CEOs will step down, middle management will carry on and the world will keep turning. We’ll continue to burn fossil fuels and not worry about what may happen to the earth if this all keeps going.
The real issue is we’re all too reliant on our cars to really care about what comes out of the tailpipe.
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