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First the emissions scandal, and now the unlock hack scandal
- Thread starter GaryM
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Remember the Audi A4 key cloning scandal that aired on WatchDog in November 2014 Gary? Audi were on the program and promised a fix within weeks. Every time I took my car for service I asked them to check my software levels and they told me "Everything is up to date Sir". Having VCDS scans from when I purchased the car - they have done diddly-squat.
Sometimes I think they treat us in the EU with contempt; as although Uwe keeps telling us the VAG population percentage is very low in US (10ish%??) - they have a much greater influence.
I'll see if I can find the WatchDog article for the wider community.
*Edit: It was BBC WatchDog Series 34 episode 3 but is not available on iPlayer or YouTube.
Sometimes I think they treat us in the EU with contempt; as although Uwe keeps telling us the VAG population percentage is very low in US (10ish%??) - they have a much greater influence.
I'll see if I can find the WatchDog article for the wider community.
*Edit: It was BBC WatchDog Series 34 episode 3 but is not available on iPlayer or YouTube.
Last edited:
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^^^^ Zenerdiode: With the deepest respect, I don't believe that the good Burghers at VAG HQ treat their EU minions differently to buyers in other countries! My understanding from reading lots of forums is that the same value-set that you observed locally is universally applied world-wide (certainly it's the same dynamic down here in VW/Audi's puny little market in Australia). In a perverse way VAG HQ's world-wide (glacial) speed in responding to these matters is a good thing because it's non-discriminatory (as I said, perversely)!!
So, the real question is why is this happening? My hypothesis (which is based on nothing more than my analogy of VAG HQ to a dinosaur) is that the company is now so big and so successful that it hasn't yet linked the smoke that it sees to the fact that its feet are on fire! Sales are still reasonable world-wide that even a problem as important as the emissions scandal was treated as a niggling pesky insect buzzing around the Monolith's cranium - and this problem had the advantage of providing a convenient excuse to get rid-of an otherwise entrenched CEO!
Moral of the story: As Bernoulli observed in his second law of thermodynamics - the bigger the company, the more "commercial entropy" is acquired by the business as the complexity of day-to-day operations increases. The natural consequence is that is that the ability of the business to react to evolving market issues becomes more sluggish because of need to move a larger commercial momentum! And as Bernoulli's formula predicts, the larger the complexity of a machine (read commercial entity), the more prone it is to fail!!
So- perhaps your observations regarding VAG's behaviour (which I have also observed) is just the natural order of things!!
Don
So, the real question is why is this happening? My hypothesis (which is based on nothing more than my analogy of VAG HQ to a dinosaur) is that the company is now so big and so successful that it hasn't yet linked the smoke that it sees to the fact that its feet are on fire! Sales are still reasonable world-wide that even a problem as important as the emissions scandal was treated as a niggling pesky insect buzzing around the Monolith's cranium - and this problem had the advantage of providing a convenient excuse to get rid-of an otherwise entrenched CEO!
Moral of the story: As Bernoulli observed in his second law of thermodynamics - the bigger the company, the more "commercial entropy" is acquired by the business as the complexity of day-to-day operations increases. The natural consequence is that is that the ability of the business to react to evolving market issues becomes more sluggish because of need to move a larger commercial momentum! And as Bernoulli's formula predicts, the larger the complexity of a machine (read commercial entity), the more prone it is to fail!!
So- perhaps your observations regarding VAG's behaviour (which I have also observed) is just the natural order of things!!
Don
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Uwe:
Again, with the deepest respect:-
VW sales for Australia for the entire year 2015 = 19,383#
VW sales for USA for the month of March 2015 alone = 30,025*
If VW America treats you guys with disdain, then imagine how infinitesimally insignificant VW Australia treats its customers!
Don
*http://media.vw.com/release/954//
#http://www.caradvice.com.au/352833/volkswagen-australia-notches-new-sales-record/
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VW of America was their only money-losing venture several years ago. Don't know if they have turned things around recently, but this is why I keep waiting for VW/Audi to take their ball and go home rather than face even more music from dieselgate in the USA.....
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VWoA and AOA sell less than 6% of their world sales in the US. All of North America is around 9%. Not a big market. Their largest market is China at 30%.
Sure, but what percentage of the market is that in Australia?
The other "catch" with the US market is that the US is the odd man out when it comes to regulatory (safety and emissions) requirements. In most of the rest of the world, if a car is certified to EU standards, that's more than good enough. In the US, it isn't. It costs millions of dollars to adapt and certify each car model to the safety standards and each drivetrain to the emissions standards. The end result: We only get a small sub-set of VWAG's models here, and those models only get a subset of the drivetrains that are offered in other markets.
-Uwe-
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