VW’s Proposed Fix For The 482,000 Sold In USA Will Not Meet Emission Standards
Unable to Fix Emissions Issues
In the midst of the Volkswagen suit, fixes for the issue have emerged. However, the fixes will not make owners of any of the VW cars affected by the recall happy.
The cars sold in Europe will be having software and hardware update. In the United States, however, these fixes will not be enough to deactivate the defeat device and still have the cars operate within the legal emissions limit. When the device is not active - or when it is taken out of the equation altogether - VW cars emit up to 40 times more emissions than what the legal limit in the United States allows.
There are two fixes for the United States cars, but neither will make owners particularly happy.
The first of the two fixes is to run the cars in test mode the entire time. However, when they run in this mode for a long, sustained period of time, the cars lose some fuel economy. Drivers won't be happy with this since VW has advertised that the cars have great fuel economy, and therefore would have to spend more on fuel than they want to.
If this is the case for the fixes, then the fuel economy would be downgraded by force of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When Kia and Hyundai were forced to downgrade their fuel economy ratings they had to spend about $395 million to settle with vehicle owners.
The other fix for United States cars is a urea tank. This urea tank offers the ability to make a diesel car run cleanly. By injecting the urea into the emissions, they are turned into nitrogen and water. Effectively, this gets rid of between 70 to 90 of the harmful emissions that diesel fuels create when run through an internal combustion engine. However, this fix is not going to be embraced quickly by either VW or by any of the customers. The hardware would cost more to install on the half million cars than a simple computer update. It would also mean the owners of any of the cars that are being recalled would need to make room for the urea tank - either by giving up some trunk space or giving up the spare tire.
It's very possible that a close majority of VW owners who are being affected by the recall will not get the updates done. In 2011, a report found that only 65% of cars under recall get the necessary fixes - even if the fixes are critical safety issues. This particular recall could possibly be one that no one can escape if they want to be able to drive these cars. State agencies or NHTSA will more than likely flag them and refuse to let the cars pass a smog test or issue a new registration until the issue is fixed and there is a proof of the fix. The resale value - without the fixes - will plummet on any cars that don't get fixed.
For this reason, the EPA and CARB (California Air Resources Board) are still working closely with VW to create a good fix.
