Lack of charisma can be fatal.
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Porsche diesels are found to have VW emissions cheating software.
Log In - The New York Times
(Unless you read the NY Times a lot, everyone should get 10 free articles a month. Also, the NY Times article doesn't really say much.)
Basically, the 2014 VW Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L and Q5.
I wasn't too worried about Porsche because they don't make diesel 911s when the news first broke, but I completely forgot about the Cayenne. I somehow had an automatic cognitive block on the Cayenne.
Audi I was suspicious about from the very beginning, as they share many direct platforms with VW. It was just a matter of time until they got around to testing Audis to find the cheating software.
It makes you wonder if everyone is cheating.
This time, VW has denied the software was installed. Fiesty.
Volkswagen has indeed denied everything.
And Audi was already in trouble as they use the four cylinder diesels which were found to be illegal. In fact in Euroe they use them in everything from the A1 up to the A6.Originally Posted by Volkswagen
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
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What if... The puppet master Piech leaked this to screw over Winkertorn?
PS I don't believe this to be the case, but the timing is hilarious. Marty waited so long to be CEO...
Alfa Romeo being Alfa Romeo... again?
Oh, No! Alfa Romeo Giulia Launch Delayed By Six Months, Report Says
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
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Guys, this doesn't bode well. Combine this info with Fislers legendary quality (Jeep and Fiat, I am looking at you...) and I am skeptical, to say the least. How nice would it be if the Giulia joined the XE and ATS to give a real alternative to the 3 series in the luxury performance sedan class though?
Also, how sad will it be that even if all 3 cars are "better" (or at least "dynamically better", whatever both terms mean), that the 3 and C will crush them in sales, profit, prestige, and the perception of the general public?
EDIT: After reading that article, both Sergio and his - highly attainable - sales projections are hilarious. It will be a shame when he retires.
It is not looking good certainly. The only difference with all the other Alfa Romeo plans is that on this occasion there's actually a car not just some power point slides.
Will this mean seriously cheap brand new cracking spoarts saloons in the future?
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...kvjjaCGY8DB.97
I wonder that if it hadn't been Volkswagen who was caught cheating, would the German government have been so interested in investigating other car manufacturers?
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
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I recall having a discussion with a user named something like f6fhellcatwtfbbq ages ago and it came out that I wasn't as concerned with the increasing mass of new cars as he was. As I recall (this could be hearsay), he thought this was heresy (see what I did there?) coming from a so called enthusiast.
Now, as I was sitting on the subway today reading Car and Driver and Autoblog's reviews of the aptly named 911 991.2, a few things kept running through my head. Both reviewers all praised the car; and rightly so. Great on road dynamics (despite a 100 lb increase in half a generation), the best electric steering in the biz, minimal lag, standard fare 911 excellence. No problems here then, right? Maybe all the cavepeople who still want synchromesh and watercooling in their Porsches were wrong.
Yet, at the risk of sounding like a luddite myself, I kept wondering: wouldn't this car be more fun to drive if it had all the other improvements that go along with a model refresh/new design, but it still retained hydraulic steering, a naturally aspirated engine, and a either no change in weight, or a weight decrease?
The thing, is reviewers and the public can never know, as Porsche does not build this hypothetical 991.2 which we could to the actual 991.2. I'm sure the new car is fabulous. But is it a more fun to drive/enthusiast peach/"better" car than the hypothetical 991.2 that I describe? I doubt it.
The new car will probably be moderately more fuel efficient than the old one in Euro/EPA testing, and only slightly more efficient in real world driving, so the drive for efficiency while admirable, will not have a huge impact (especially considering this is a sportscar that sells a pittance compared to commuter vehicles and trucks worldwide). Is any engineer gonna say with a straight face they are adding EPAS and turbos and 100 lbs to make the car more fun to drive? This is a sports car, not a commuting car. The drive to lower emissions and cut down on global warming or climate change or whatever you want to call it is a noble goal. The proliferation of features that take the essence of driving even further away in cars that sell in very small number is slightly depressing.
Guess I can open the tab for Craigslist; maybe I'm just as bad as those cavepeople who always see the world through a tinge of rose.
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