Well, that is me done with VAG cars!

I simply cannot believe what I have just watched and read - it is horrifying, no other way to put it.

According to this New York Times report, VW put 10 monkeys into hermetically sealed 'gas chambers', let them watch cartoons to entertain them, and then pumped in the exhaust fumes from a diesel Beetle in an attempt to prove that their emissions were not dangerous. Worse still, the car supplied for the experiments was one that had the defeat device that cheats the emissions tests fitted! Now whilst this device would have made sure that the exhaust gases were not as bad as they would be in real-world use conditions, that is a bit like saying it is less painful to hack the monkeys eyes out with a spoon as opposed to a fork!

I have had a number of VAG cars over the years, and could even find it in my heart to forgive them for the dieselgate scandal as I have modicum of understanding as to how it reached that point (not saying they were right, just saying I can see how it ended up there); and more recently had put the Skoda Kodiaq on my shortlist for my next car. That was until I watched the video below, and read the associated reports.

We live in a world where men are being sacked and vilified for putting their hand on a ladies knee (not saying that is right either by the way, just adding perspective), yet a global company saw fit to pay for this to happen? Seriously?

They deserve to go bust. End of. Bar-stewards

My shortlist now consists of:

Volvo XC60 (doubt I can afford it)
Volvo XC40 (maybe, if I can find one at a year or so old at a decent price)
Hyundai Santa Fe
Hyundai Tucson
Kia Sorrento
Kia Sportage
Range Rover Evoke (the only if I am leasing rather than buying option!)
Jaguar F-Pace (doubt I can afford it)
Jaguar E-Pace (maybe, if I can find one at a year or so old at a decent price)

I am SO angry at VAG for this, it is going to take me a VERY long time before I will ever consider one of their products ever again.

The video below is what drew my attention to this - WARNING! This guy swears, he tells it like it is, and gives his views from an Australian market point of view (which is not all that different from the UK if truth be told, as they even drive on the same side of the road!)

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I didn't think that Daimler existed any more.

 

I won't look at the video but shall take your word for it.

As I'm a Volvo man I shall continue to stick to them.

@Fat Controller pity you're not into the bigger, and older, Volvos, otherwise you could have had mine. It's going to be a bargain for someone. The dealers have offered me a reasonable price - for a dealer

 

@Sandy Ground apart from being a company that owns a number of brands, does Daimler actually produce a Daimler car?

 

I won't be in a position to change my car for some time, however I do tend to start watching and planning 18 months or so before hand..... My QQ has only got 25k on the clock, and is just over three years old, so there is no desperate rush either - it is a diesel, so the value has taken a beating, and some of its French DNA is coming out already, hence I doubt I will keep it more than another couple of years.

Daimler as we know them, don't exist any more - Daimler AG is essentially Mercedes-Benz, who themselves are tied up in so many things it is almost untrue; they are now buying in stuff from the Nissan/Renault/Mitsubishi Alliance (such as this X-Class which is a Nissan Navara with a bit of added bling and a price hike for the badge. There was a time when German engineering made their cars stand out, and (generally) their reliability was rock solid. Now, they are only interested in volume of sales, and are even happy to nail their badges onto other peoples products to make a quick buck. It is sad. The jewel in the crown of the VAG group should be Audi, Bentley or Bugatti - the truth of the matter is, it is Skoda, simply because they are "Audi's built by people who actually give a toss" as I have heard them described. However, they too are tarnished by association with diesel-gate and now this nonsense.

When I read the further information about humans also being trialled in a similar way, and that the other companies were also involved, I can't say I was overly surprised. BMW have always been arrogant at best for sure; what really beats me, of all things, if there was one thing that you would expect German companies/people to want absolutely no association with, it is gas chambers!

They deserve to lose a hell of a lot of business over the head of this one, and time for those at the head of the company to take a very long, hard look at themselves and take some serious action to take a very different path in the future.

 

My Volvo is coming up for ten years old and has never given me any problem in all those years. Starts first time, never broken down and feels almost new. It's just that I change my car every ten years.

 

They are good motors - I've had a couple over the years, a 340 (Renault engined), and a 360GLT - that was a bit of a sleeper in its day; it would lumber around town like a heavy tank, but once you got it out on the open road and got that turbo whistling it went like a stabbed rat.

What model is your current one @shiney?

 

They actually used both Monkeys and Humans, Jiffy You'd think a warning bell would sound in the minds of German Companies as gassing in the past still resonates in a lot of peoples minds.

 

@Fat Controller it's an S80 de luxe 2.5 and think it's a Mark 2. I don't know much about cars, except how to drive them, and it has whatever came with the car. Leather seats that are heated and air-conditioned, built in satnav (pop up version - but a bit out of date).

The only problem that I have is with the keys with automatic locking and unlocking. I'm not sure that it's simply that they need new batteries. Sometimes I have to walk right up to the car to get them to work and other times they will only work from a distance of 30ft-100ft!

A few months ago, before I had ordered a new car, someone suggested that they need reprogramming. I phoned the main dealers and they wanted £70 +VAT just to plug the car into their computer system to check it - plus whatever may need doing. Being stingy, I decided that I could manage without having it checked .