Volkswagen’s fear and failures

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Published on Friday, December 18, 2015

By Neils Mack

The Neepawa Banner

Three months have passed since we learned the truth of VW's diesel engines creating harmful emissions and destroying the environment. For the past three months, dealerships have been working hard, offering gifts of goodwill to keep customers happy. From the actual manufacturer, however, it has been three months of silence – there has been no recalls or fixes offered to customers.

These customers bought their TDI diesels believing they were driving about using just a sniff of fuel and doing absolutely no harm to any polar bears. However, the truth is that just one clattering diesel does as much harm as two GMC Yukons with 6.2 litre V8s. 

So how did Volkswagen mess up so badly that their 2.0 litre, four cylinder is as bad as 16 cylinders and 12.4 litres from GM? The answer may just be fear.

A few months before the scandal hit the press, CEO of Volkswagen Ferdinand Piech stepped down in a surprising move. His resignation wasn’t voluntary, more so, he was complying with the wishes of the board.

Piech is a determined man, and his name is, to me, synonymous with the engineering excellence of Volkswagen’s luxury sedan, the Phaeton. Back in 2003, Piech wanted Volkswagen to create one of the greatest and finest cars in the world. Something to put even the Mercedes-Benz S Class in its place. 

Piech assembled a team of the greatest engineers he could get his hands on and laid out a set of parameters for the new car to live up to. Not all of these are known to the public, but a sample of his German-ness was told to reporters. He wanted the car to be capable of driving 300 km/h, with an exterior temperature of 50°C, whilst maintaining an interior temperature of 22°C, even though the car’s final top speed was limited to 250 km/h. Another requirement was that the car have a torsional rigidity so high that with the weight of another car on top of it, the frame would not flex more than one degree.

The parameters are so ridiculous and redundant that over half of the engineering team quit, but Piech would not budge. He was a fierce leader who wouldn’t compromise his beliefs or take “no” for an answer.

The Phaeton was indeed one of the most incredible exercises of automotive attention to detail of our time, however it was a sales disaster. It was incredibly expensive and wore a badge that says “Peoples’ Car”. 

It was later redesigned into a Bentley and is doing well there, but for Volkswagen, it was a flop.

I believe that Piech’s rigid manner of leading is what brought the company to its current “dieselgate” scandal. When the current diesel emission standards were being implemented, the first year of complete compliance was 2009 (which is why this scandal only effects cars 2009+). Volkswagen had to do a complete overhaul of their TDI motor and exhaust system design.

Piech inevitably wanted his team to meet the new standards while causing as little disruption and incur the least amount of cost possible. In fear of failure and loss of employment, it is conceivable how corners would be cut to oblige with Piech’s demands. 

Although this isn’t a fable, as it is at the cost of the environment and all of us who live here, the lesson is certainly clear, failure is okay. If Volkswagen would have embraced their failure to meet the emission standards with what they were given to work with back in 2009, they would have been able to go back to a blank slate and create something that wasn’t cheating and scandalous. 

I hope this helps Volkswagen turn a new leaf and out of this mess, they can build something better.