Volkswagen is in trouble with just about everybody on the f'ing planet

I feel for VW TDI owners right now. I know they're popular at my office.

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Turbo shit injection? Sounds messy.
 
I know it's the Daily Fail but... Damn. Golden parachute deployed!

Volkswagen chief could receive a ?60MILLION payoff after stepping down...

VW has set aside ?28m for Martin Winterkorn's retirement, accounts show
Also in line for possible payout worth two years remuneration of ?31m
Comes as BMW denied claims it rigged its emissions as VW has done
Diesel emissions on a BMW model 'were 11 times higher than EU norms'
Scandal could cost VW billions in class action lawsuits around the world
Cars in UK to be re-tested to compare lab results with real-world emissions

By Simon Tomlinson and Corey Charlton for MailOnline

Published: 11:21 GMT, 24 September 2015 | Updated: 19:33 GMT, 24 September 2015

Volkswagen's chief executive is in line for a ?60million pay-off despite resigning over the emissions testing scandal.

Martin Winterkorn stepped down yesterday after taking responsibility for the pollution cheating storm that has engulfed the company and could cost it billions in class-action lawsuits.

According to last year's annual report, the company has set aside ?28.5million ($32m) for his retirement, a sum that Winterkorn is entitled to receive.

Added to that is a possible payout for 'early termination' of contract, which is worth 'a maximum of two years remuneration'.

Winterkorn, who had been at the helm of Volkswagen since the beginning of 2007, drew a salary of ?16.6 million in 2014 and ?15million in 2013, according to the company's last two annual reports.

That would therefore amount to more than ?31million for the man who has been Germany's highest paid executive.

If he obtains the early termination payout, that means the married 68-year-old stands to draw a total of around ?60 million after his departure from the company.

It is nevertheless uncertain whether he will get the full sum as 'no severance payment is made if membership of the board of management is terminated for a reason for which the board of management member is responsible'.

The group based in northern Germany's Wolfsburg declined comment on the subject when contacted by AFP news agency.

In a statement issued to announce his resignation, Winterkorn, said that he accepted his 'responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines,' but insisted 'I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.'

'Volkswagen needs a fresh start ? also in terms of personnel,' he added. 'I am clearing the way for this fresh start with my resignation.'

Investors appeared to agree, with VW shares shooting up 7.9 per cent to hit a high of ?120.30 in the morning in Frankfurt.

The steering committee of the group's supervisory board expressly said in its own separate statement that Winterkorn 'had no knowledge of the manipulation of emissions data.'

Rumours of potential successors circulated widely on German media but it seems likely the new boss will come from one of the sprawling family of brands that make up the group.

The global empire owns brands such as SEAT in Spain, Skoda in the Czech Republic, Audi and Porsche in Germany, Lamborghini in Italy and Bentley in Britain.
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MacGuffin said:
Porsche CEO Matthias M?ller will become Winterkorn's replacement.

That's not without irony because he was already handled as his follower earlier this year, when Piech had to go. So if M?ller had become CEO of VW then, it would have probably him who had to resign now.
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I would suggest that this would not be the wisest move in the current circumstances since he has been VW's Head of Vehicle Projects since 2003. Far better to hand the reins to Herbert Diess since he only joined from BMW in July and therefore can't be implicated in this.
 
Early indications are that drivers of hybrid and electric vehicles are at least 74% more smug than this time last week.
 
Do e-bikes count as electric vehicles? :D
 
India, Australia, South Africa and Norway all beginning inquiries and just about every politico with an angle is looking to use this to boost their profile.

At this rate VW will be looking to rebrand - my suggestion would be BandWagen.......

Or more likely BannedWagen.
 
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MWF said:
India, Australia, South Africa and Norway all beginning inquiries and just about every politico with an angle is looking to use this to boost their profile.

At this rate VW will be looking to rebrand - my suggestion would be BandWagen.......

Or more likely BannedWagen.
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One thing is punishment and fines, but it will be interesting to see just how hard this will hit their sales.
 
You know what? The headlines are already dying down again. First I thought "Oh wow, that will be terrible for their sales numbers" but right now I'm starting to think that it actually won't have such a big effect after all. There is some damage to the image but frankly Toyota had a much bigger image problem back when they had their accelerator pedal affair - and they survived. Hey, even after all the disasters and dramas and failures of GM the company is still in action. And they had a much bigger problem because they were bankrupt. Even Opel is still alive and kicking, despite all the doomsday prophets (including myself).

The bitter truth is that the memory and interest of people quickly fades away. Most don't care anyway. This will be solved in court and in drastic sums of money but that'll be it. Sorry for those who hope for bigger trouble but as one commentator here wrote: It's time to pull over and have a breather. There were companies with much bigger trouble and they all came out of it relatively unharmed. In 2010 for instance many experts said that BP was finished after the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe but one year later they actually made a profit of 25 billion dollars again: There was a disaster at sea? The Gulf of Mexico was catatstrophically polluted with oil? It's already forgotten in the minds of the vast majority of the people. The collectice memory is really bad - as any politician can tell you.

Same thing will happen here. Some people will be fired, some serious amount of money will flow, maybe a few persons go to jail but that'll be it. People will soon forget about it or shrug it off and keep on buying VW cars - maybe not so many diesels anymore but more petrols. As much as it might bother and disappoint those who don't like VW or think there should be more suffering and pain, that is what will happen. And not more.
 
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Mac I respect your viewpoint on many things but in this case and to borrow a mis-speak from a British TV sports reporter I think you may be looking at things through rose-cunted spectacles.

We aren't talking about a design flaw requiring a safety recall which most people both within and outside the industry accept happens, nor are we talking about an incident that is country specific such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster. What we are talking about is a deliberate attempt by an organisation to cheat and deceive and while that may have been done in order to appease the needs of a specific market it has opened the floodgates worldwide because VW truly is a global brand.

What they have done is provide traction for every lawyer, politician, NGO, environmental activist and anyone else with an axe to grind the chance to crawl out of the woodwork and start sticking the knife in. Only this morning four more countries have announced they will be investigating and you can bet pounds to pesos that tide isn't going to weaken any time soon.

The headlines may be dying down a little in Germany but that is to be expected; German media may have to be seen to be reporting the news but they will also have the common sense not to keep kicking one of the country's biggest national assets while it is down. Unfortunately for VW in the rest of the world there is still a lot more mileage in this story than in the brimmed tank of a Golf TDi and you can be sure that it will be milked drier than an Egyptian mummy's teat.
 
Also Toyota is a very different brand from VW, Toyota buyers buy Toyotas because they are Toyotas. At least stateside VW buyers are generally not brand loyalists and get them because "German Engineering". This will certainly hurt them quite a bit here because they've been exposed as frauds.
 
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Ohhh, cars from Europe also affected. Who would've thought!?!?!?
 
Daily Telegraph reporting that light trucks and 1.2 litre engines may also be affected. At this rate it's looking like the last honest vehicle VW ever made was this one....

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MWF said:
The headlines may be dying down a little in Germany but that is to be expected; German media may have to be seen to be reporting the news but they will also have the common sense not to keep kicking one of the country's biggest national assets while it is down. Unfortunately for VW in the rest of the world there is still a lot more mileage in this story than in the brimmed tank of a Golf TDi and you can be sure that it will be milked drier than an Egyptian mummy's teat.
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Yup, pretty easy to see here in the rest of the world that if anything the story is getting *bigger*.
 
Spectre said:
Level, go back and read the thread. This isn't a 'silly' pollutant like CO2 or H2O VW got caught venting. You should know me well enough to know that I would have laughed at the EPA and supported VW over this if this had been the case. They got caught spewing nitrogen oxides into the air, which *are* proven pollutants and whose action can be shown in a lab in less than a day.
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I hope you know that I don't endorse pollution and VW should, without a doubt, remedy the situation and be fined. I'm just amused that for so many years the EPA got duped, simply because I don't like the EPA.
 
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