GaTHE VOICE OFvin GrEXPERIENCE een
20 TOPCAR.CO.ZA|January 2016get his revenge and start a rumour that he
wants to bu y Audi or Porsch e – or maybe
the whole VW Grou p. Hemay even be
serious (he tried to bu y GM Europe in
2009).
9.The Gree ks will be laug hing.
10.Gree d and megalomania caused VW’s
downfall. They were so desper ate to be the
world’s number one car maker, they
cheate d.
11.The availability of go od electric cars
can’t come soon enough. Anyone who has
driven a BMW i3, i8 or Tesla Model S
knows this.
12.Diesel sales will continue strongly in
Europe, with only a modest dip, at least for
another five years.
13.Diesel sales will collapse in America.
14.Environmentalists who urged us to
embracediesels 20 years ago will take no
blame. ‘It’s all the fault of multinationals.’
15 .Yet they were right – diesels were the
best solution toreducing CO2 in the ’90s,
and are still the best shor t-term solution
now.
16 .Americans who now reject fuel-efficient
VW diesels will buy over-sized petrol SUVs
instead. So that’s real eco progress...
17.Future ge nerations will look back in
amazement and wonder how legislators
allowed factories and vehicles, burning filthy
hydrocarbon s (coal, diesel, oil, petrol etc) to
poison our air.
18.The legendary LJK Setright, a Cice ro
among we scribblers, will be spinning excitedly
in hi s grave. He always detested diesels.
19 .Official consumption and CO2 figures
are, of course, a joke. The biggest disparity
between real CO2 and official figures is with
plug-in hybrids, darlings of the self-
righteou s. Anyone seriously believe a
Cayenne hybrid is cleaner than anAygo?
20.Finally, German car makers will show
great humility at the next Frankfurt Show
(I am not confident ab out this).tcreassuring words VW utter. As the recall is
not ‘safety related’ , it is not mandatory. So
watch those VW recall letters head for the
bin... Unless there’s compensation onoffer,
of course.
2.Despite suggestions that owners of Golf
diesels are emitting equivalent toxins to
Puffing Billy every time they accelerate, the
affecte d vehicles are still cleaner overall than
almost any car morethan five years old.
3.If legislators are serious ab out NOx and
particulates in cities, they should ban most
buses, taxis and trucks.
4.Diesel fumes, even from ‘clean’ EU
compliant cars, suppos edly cause cancer.
Then again so does sunshine, wine, coffee,
bacon, coco nut oil, pickled vegetables, shift
work and ham sandwiches.
5.The Golf was the best mid-si zed hatch on
sale in early Septemberand it still is today.
So don’t cancel that order.
6.On the ot her hand, if you ordered a Jetta
or Touran and still await delivery, this may
be a good excuse to get your money ba ck.
7.The VW Grou p will no lo nger sp lash cash
on vanity projects, meaning no Audi F
team and probably no more Le Mans.
8.Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne, annoyed by
VW taunts about buying Alfa Romeo, willT
HEFRANKFURT MOTOR
Show, as usual, was full of
German car company chiefs
looking pleased with th emselves,
apart from BMW’s Harald
Krüger who fainted. Expansive and
expensive stands promoted the collective
industrial mi ght of the world’s most
successful car producing nation, including
the achievements of the newly crowned
number one global car maker, Volkswagen.
Of course the senior people at German car
companies are (mostly) very clever and there
were some great new concept cars. But
sometimes their sense of their own
perfection can be trying, so it was something
of a relief to have a cup of tea at the end of
the first press day with Peugeot’s likeab le
CEO Carlos Tavares. As we spoke ab out
possi ble trends, he said: ‘You know anything
can happen in this industry – tomorrow
morning you may have a big surpri se.’
Four days later the VW emissions scandal
broke and many Volkswagen senior
managers su ddenly beca me (to paraphrase
Churchill) immodest men who have much to
be modest about. Howthe mighty fall! This
wasn’t so much progress through
technology, as Vorsprung du rch Treachery.
There was muchschadenfreudefrom rival
French, Italian, American and British car
boss es, untilthey sa w their share prices
fall too.
The VW scandal moves fast. As you read
this, there may not even bea VW Grou p.
Here are a few observations and pred ictions.
1.Many owners will ignore the recall. Their
‘fixed’ cars will almost certainly use more
fuel and/ or be less po werful, no matter what‘VW will no longer
splash cash on vanity
projects, meaning no
Audi F1 team and
probably no Le Mans’
French, Italian, American and British carThe VW scandal moves fast. As you read
this, there may not even bea VW Grou p.
Here are a few observations and pred ictions.
Many owners will ignore the recall. Their
‘fixed’ cars will almost certainly use more
fuel and/ or be less po werful, no matter what