How autobid works...

I bet shareholders (of which, ignoring index funds I'm not one) are hoping at least one other company is found to be doing something similar, as it would help distract and reduce the pain. The longer that takes to happen, the more chance of vw going, but I still think that is a pretty remote possibility.

I wondered if they might rebrand, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Beetle, Rolls Royce, Porsche, now that might make a nice name with few Diesel associations. 

Isn't there an EU law preventing a country from bailing out a local company?
Interesting to see how they get round that, as they surely will if there is a need.
Or maybe the public will just keep on buying VW/Audi/Skoda/Seat and it will blow over?
If it's possible to fix an emissions test, it's a small step for the EU to fix the 'fines' ☺

I actually have some (small amount of) sympathy for VW .. 'you get what you measure' .. if the emissions tests measure something other than what they should do, I'm not sure VW is 100% to blame. Now if VW advertised that that's what actually happened on the road (when they knew it wasn't), that's a bit different.

As a diesel (not VW) car owner (that being the only engine type BMW would sell me)  I am waiting for the other shoe(s) to drop. I guess we can add diesel to a long list of wonder products which turned out to be quite the opposite .. asbestos, DDT, inert CFCs, Leaded Petrol, fossil fuels,  .. whither next? .. graphene and buckyballs maybe? I expect we'll eventually manage to find something which is eco-terminal, if we try enough times.

But I thought they fixed the emissions just for the period of testing, which would be deliberate and fraudulent imo. They must be 100% to blame - it's not the inadequacy of the testing regime, which is another matter. Not long ago I had one of the offending VW diesels, and like GSV now have a BMW diesel (all those FC earnings no doubt). We wait to see if the VW group is the only offender. What VW need is to find a US car manufacturer who was up to the same tricks - then they might retain some shareholder value.
(Did not see registerme post - we agree).

But the car may also recognise lots of other road conditions and adapts the ECU accordingly. If VW just said 'the on-test CO2/NO2 output was X' is that actually criminal? (obviously stating that the real world numbers are also X would be). Misleading, yep. I mean how many boxers step into the weigh-in about 5kg lighter than they step into the ring? (Or as one sales manager was heard to say, when asked 'How far is it to Oxford' .. "Are you driving it, or claiming for it?"). Yes, Ok, I am playing devil's advocate today ..

It will be interesting to hear how VW intend to 'fix' the cars that are being recalled.  My understanding is that the defeat devices switched on Urea injection when testing conditions were detected.  To fix the problem they will have to keep the urea injection on (cost of increasing size of urea tank/refilling of urea?, but no other performance effect) or change other parameters which undoubtedly have a significant impact on performance (hence why they resorted to defect devices in the first place).

I think there is a risk that the VW business will be brought out from its current corporate entity to strand some of the massive liabilities heading their way.  The number of diesels affected in Europe and the US (admittedly mostly the former) is mind boggling as is the potential civil liabilities from consumers and to a lesser degree, government (except the US).