Whereas we have a government that pre-2010 were promoting themselves as the greenest ever. While in partnership with the LimpDems, they were restrained from ditching their superficial environmental credentials entirely.



Since May, they have had no such restrictions and have gone balls-out to show just what they really think of the environment. This is epitomised by that economic illiterate Osborne's decision in July to tax cleaan power stations at the same rate as dirty ones. That decision led to DRAX losing 1/3 of its value and the cvompany announcing that it was withdrawing from developing Carbon Capture & Sequestration technologies.



Green tories my 'arris

Meanwhile back in the good ol' US of States, GM have announced the specs for the 2016 Chevrolet Silverado, the country's second best selling pick up truck. You can either have it with a modest 6 litre Vortec V8 or a slightly bigger 6.6 litre Duramax V8 turbo diesel.

They are ALL cheating the regulations. As is usual with high-profile cases involving the state vs a major international corporation - the alleged infringement is insignificant next to the politics surrounding it.



No different to the EU's incessant targeting of IT companies such as Microsoft and Google.



No one seriously believes the EU is motivated primarily by the customer's interests. It's all politics.

Pick up trucks rule in the USA. They could run on uranium and spew weapons grade plutonium from the exhaust and it would be legal.

The latest ford focus runs with 5 times the maximum NOx, compare that with the shady VW golf (2013 flavour) which was only 4 times more, the golf also achieved much closer to its stated mpg www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34425306 As above, they're all at it, just that one got caught and will of course be made to pay big time whilst the others will get off relatively Scot-free if punished at all. It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.

The latest ford focus runs with 5 times the maximum NOx, compare that with the shady VW golf (2013 flavour) which was only 4 times more, the golf also achieved much closer to its stated mpg www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34425306 As above, they're all at it, just that one got caught and will of course be made to pay big time whilst the others will get off relatively Scot-free if punished at all. It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.

Quote knockersbumpMKII="knockersbumpMKII" It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.'" Vehicle usage is largely irrelevant compared to veganism vs meat eating freakonomics.com/2011/11/16/agno ... -not-cows/ and that's without factoring in extra calories to be consumed if replacing motorised transport with physical effort.

Quote knockersbumpMKII="knockersbumpMKII" It's all massive red herring with regard to pollution anyway, getting people out of cars and walking/cycling more with less use of motorvehicles should be the goal.'" Vehicle usage is largely irrelevant compared to veganism vs meat eating freakonomics.com/2011/11/16/agno ... -not-cows/ and that's without factoring in extra calories to be consumed if replacing motorised transport with physical effort.

Indeed. If only the population of Ludhiana would switch to nut cutlets, the place would be like a forest glade

Quite apart from all the hysteria, finger pointing and basically "throwing a dead cat on the table", surrounding the VW revelations, is the stupidity in expecting engine emissions recorded on-test to be replicated in "real-world" driving conditions.



When an engine is submitted for Type Approval emissions testing, it is tested on an engine dynamometer, programmed to replicate different drive cycles. The test is a multi-thousand stage programme and although different stages are included for different vehicle types (passenger car, commercial vehicle, bus etc), it is common and standard across different engine manufacturers. It is not there to show what actually comes from the tailpipe in "real world" application, it's there to provide a minimum standard to achieve and also to make comparisons, so that consumers can make a more informed choice.



The problem with "real world" testing is that one "real world" is never the same as another.



This whole charade is based around comparing apples with oranges

The CEO of VW US has appeared before a Congressional Committee and claimed the problem was the fault of "a couple of rogue software engineers". Absolute, total garbage.



Having worked with and for Daimler Benz, I can categorically state it is not within the German industrial culture or even the German psyche, to allow such a situation to ever occur. No software engineer would be ever allowed to make such a decision without various managers approval, probably reaching to those directly below board level, if not higher

Oh don't worry a German leader in a sector of the global market that the Americans don't dominate won't be able to get away with the same kind of lies and bull excuses that the banks were.



There aren't enough ultra wealthy Americans heavily tied up with VW for them to be given leniancy.

These "lone nuts" have a lot to answer for ...

Indeed.

Let them produce the rogues, and even if said rogues were heavily rewarded in secret to fall on their swords and cop the blame,

I bet very simple procedural checking of production processes would show quickly that they couldn't have done it unnoticed and as soon as two becomes three etc the game's up!