It’s been at least a month since I last wrote a blog about the Volkswagen Group emissions fallout, but this story shows that we’re not exactly done with the issue and its implications.
Developments in the past couple of weeks are twofold. Firstly, Audi and Seat felt the need to adjust emissions figures on models long-established in the marketplace – although I heard a whisper from a Volkswagen Group source that this was the kind of minor tweak most manufacturers wouldn’t have bothered with until a model year revision, but the need for transparency meant the company felt compelled to do it immediately.
And then I found from chatting to a number of residual value experts that they can’t agree on what impact the ongoing public mistrust is having on current values, let alone future ones.
Especially as with certain models, such as the Audi A1 and Seat Leon, identical cars could be parked next to each other on dealers’ forecourts with different emissions and economy figures, depending on whether they were built on one day or the next.
I’m struggling to believe they will be priced identically, especially those traversing two VED bands, unless even the dealer doesn’t realise there are two different figures involved.
And all this is set against the backdrop of Volkswagen’s long-term lack of clarity over the issue and how, when and what impact its fixes will manifest, a policy being defined by its German headquarters.
Plus, there is also an ongoing lack of public understanding of the issues thanks to a combination of shoddy and deliberately misleading mainstream media reporting, leaving the public with a distorted view of the brands, diesel fuel and the automotive industry as a whole.
