EPA accuses Fiat Chrysler of excess diesel emissions

D-Fence said:
Amazing how VW (import) gets sued and FCA (domestic) doesn't, eh?
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Psst: FCA went to the EPA ahead of time and told them that their products weren't going to be able to comply with the regs in a timely fashion. They asked for time and patience and it was granted. This is not the first time - Navistar did that with their heavy truck motors and in a different area of regulation Lotus (who is not notably domestic) asked for and got a time-limited waiver for bumper heights and crash testing. Our regulatory bodies are actually sometimes quite willing to work with you if you are trying to get compliant.

Amazing what happens when you try to work with the regulatory agencies instead of lying your ass off to them from square one. If VW had been open with the EPA and the rest of the US regulatory agencies, they wouldn't be in this mess in the US. While FCA was slow to progress on compliance (due to, as best we can tell, pure Italianism) and then when the procrastination caught up with them, apparently installed cheating software, it wasn't like they had assured the EPA that the cars were clean and compliant from day one. Unlike VW.

I understand that in Europe it's a different matter entirely with the FCA cheating. But that, honestly, is not my problem nor is it something I care about.

Oh, by the way? FCA *did* get sued too. The charges are different because FCA didn't initially lie to the EPA. The EPA has zero sense of humor about that.
 
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Didn't know that, you got some more info, data and sources on this?
 
D-Fence said:
Didn't know that, you got some more info, data and sources on this?
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Not sure which you're referring to, but most of what I referred to is up on the long VW Dieselghazi thread with citations.

Obviously there's the cite for FCA getting sued linked right there.

Navistar going to the EPA and asking for help from the EPA in the *exact same situation* that VW was in - couldn't meet the regs without SCR. VW lied and claimed they did it with EGR, Navistar couldn't get it to work, asked the EPA for more time, the EPA granted it with the caveat that if Navistar failed they would have to pay a pre-arranged discounted fine amount, Navistar didn't get it working, looked like idiots because "VW had gotten it to work, why couldn't you" and ponied up. Between the fines and angry customers with 'beta test' EGR systems, it almost broke them. Long but good article on it: http://www.commercialmotor.com/news/navistar-s-spiral-of-despair-some-background

More: http://www.justcarnews.com/years-later-navistar-is-haunted-by-a-big-engine-blunder.html <-- reprint of an original Bloomberg article now behind a paywall. Note that you will not see any articles about them being sued by the Feds over this - they got their waiver on conditions that they couldn't meet, so they ponied up. Cummins also tried EGR, couldn't get it to work and bailed to SCR a bit earlier than Navistar.

Supplemental article about the agreement and aftermath after everyone agreed Navistar had failed: http://cpatrucking.com/navistar-gets-to-pay-penalties-for-emissions-noncompliance-epa-rules/

Lotus bumper/headlight height/etc., waiver, including the original filing text:
http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elise/thecar/body/fedexemption.html
http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elise/information/technical/waiver2004.html

FCA waiver article: Can't find it in the monster VW Dieselghazi thread now but someone posted an article that pointed it out - think it was rick. I'll go look again later.
 
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Not sure if this is directly related, but it doesn't deserve it's own thread.

 
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