Are you ready to be appalled? No, really, are you? Because this is appalling.
As if Volkswagen’s lies about its “clean diesel” vehicles weren’t bad enough — and hoo-boy, they are — the company has launched a new website for diesel owners to answer questions they may have — and hoo boy, they do.
This is probably a good time to add in some advice on website creation. Most websites are created by specialist web designers, although it is possible to do it yourself. There is advice on website planning and all things website creation if you visit the slickplan blog. If you’re looking to launch a new website yourself to help build your business, instead of wanting to cover your own back like VW have, you’ll probably want to look into these different web hosts compared and see which could be the best choice for you and your new site. Put simply, web hosting is the process of renting or buying space to house a website on the World Wide Web. Website content such as HTML, CSS, and images has to be housed on a server to be viewable online. If you’re planning on creating an online presence, reliable web hosting is essential. You can find out more about web hosting services at www.hostiserver.com, including the price and what’s included.
Anyway, back to Volkswagen. The first thing you see at VWDieselInfo.com is a video from the company’s U.S. CEO, Michael Horn, which we’ve embedded above. In a brief speech, Horn makes it sound as if he and the other VW bigwigs are still trying to wrap their heads around this thing, still trying to figure it out. And maybe they are, but only to save their own jobs — only so they can point fingers at other people further down the totem pole.
Watching Horn’s video, you just want to scream, “Dude, do you think that just because we’re watching a YouTube video, we can’t read? We really don’t care who’s at fault. That’s beside the point now. All we need to know is that you lied. Your endless speeches and reports about the awesomeness of ‘clean diesel’, the software you built, your advertising: they were all lies. You screwed the public, regulators, and VW owners royally. End of story.”
That tone-deaf language shows up in the copy on the website, too. This is the first paragraph:
On September 18, 2015, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. and Volkswagen AG received notice from the US Environmental Protection Agency, US Department of Justice and the California Air Resources Board informing VW that those agencies had determined that certain of our 2.0L 4-cylinder TDI vehicles do not comply with applicable emissions standards.
Which again inspires screaming because, no, Volkswagen, the problem is not that your vehicles “do not comply with applicable emissions standards”. The problem is that you lied. You built software to cheat on emissions tests, then told us that your cars were “clean”.
In short, Volkswagen, the problem isn’t the cars, it’s you. The problem is you.
Ugh, if you can stand it, the rest of the highly spun, ludicrous PR blitz is here.
Quite the sea change on this website in just a matter of days, going from the everyone’s done it VW apologist article to this. Personally, I gave up on VW years ago. Despite all of the attempts of LGBT branding by corporate offices, it appeared they did zero outreach to dealerships. I literally got kicked out of a dealership office while negotiating how they would repair my husband’s car for the 3rd time in a few months (hello lemon laws) following an exploding battery incident because I was not on the Title of the vehicle. Was I angry & loud? Yes. Would they have done the same to a husband of a woman speaking for their spouse? No. If they can’t teach what they preach to their dealerships, then I have zero interest in doing business with them. Signed, Former 2 VW household
As for the sea-change in tone, I’m guessing you’re comparing this piece to James’ article about the 2016 Passat — and you’re right, there’s a big difference. James is more even-keeled and optimistic about the whole debacle than I am. We have very different opinions about which is worse: installing an ignition switch that’s supposed to work (but doesn’t) or installing software that’s supposed to cheat on emissions tests (and does). And honestly, that kind of debate is okay, that’s life. We can agree to disagree.
As for your complaints about your VW dealership, however, that sounds completely unacceptable. Sadly, as we’ve been told many, many times before, automakers have little/no control over employment policies at dealerships, so long as those policies are legal.
Am I surprised, though? Sadly, no. That kind of crap is why we still write for this site.
Actually my view comes from a young man who right out of college took a job at a Ford dealership service department to learn everything technical I felt I needed to know before becoming a journalist. I later learned no one does this but my first day was the announcement of the Firestone Tire Recall and when that happened tires trickled in haphazardly (Goodyears or Michelins, the Goodyears had 200% higher failure rate than the Firestones but no comment) and I treated every customer who walked in the door with the respect I would give my mother. She told me when I started there how she hated being talked down to, ignored and all she wanted was to know you would help her as soon as possible. There were lots of recalls back then at Ford and it’s amazing how they turned around. But if you walk into your dealer (I can’t speak for your exploding battery…yikes!) but people who work at car dealerships are human beings. They did not build your car. No one at your Volkswagen dealer engineered this. I am getting letters from guys at VW dealers who say they are scared to work there any more. One lady, I usually tell this as funny but it’s not. She stood in front of me using every imaginable curse word in front of her three kids under 8 who were all traumatized as she accused me of killing her babies then she slapped me across the face and threw her keys at my head with enough force that I had to go get three stitches. Mechanics, most of them, want to fix your car. I know there are bad seeds at dealers that offer poor customer service. But there are exceptions. That experience is where I wrote that from. And yes I was out when I worked in the service department. If you have that amount of bad luck, call another dealer and ask to talk to their service manager and director and ask what they can do to help fix your issue. Set an appointment to meet with them I promise things will get done.