More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal

More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal
Volkswagen has admitted it installed illegal software into 11 million 2.0 liter and 3.0 liter diesel engines worldwide (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson)

Volkswagen emissions scandal

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission
Analsyts say it is irresponsible to link the crash of a Ukraine International Airline Boeing 737-800 to the 737 MAX accidents (AFP Photo/INA FASSBENDER)

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 commercial jet.

QZ8501 (AirAsia)

Leaders see horror of French Alps crash as probe gathers pace

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Volkswagen faces first mammoth diesel lawsuit on home turf

Yahoo – AFP, Yann SCHREIBER, September 30, 2019

Dieselgate is now 'part of the group's history' (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

Braunschweig (Germany) (AFP) - A case pitting hundreds of thousands of owners of manipulated diesel cars demanding compensation opened against German car behemoth Volkswagen Monday, four years after the country's largest post-war industrial scandal erupted.

Around 450,000 people have joined a first-of-its-kind grouped proceeding, introduced by lawmakers after the "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal broke in 2015.

The first hearing in what is likely to be a grinding, years-long trial began at 10 am (0800 GMT) in Brunswick, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from VW headquarters in the northern city of Wolfsburg. The second is planned for November 18.

Consumer rights group VZBV, representing the plaintiffs, says the German carmaker deliberately harmed buyers by installing motor control software that allowed vehicles to pollute far more on the road than under lab conditions.

"I would like Volkswagen to reimburse the purchase price" said Andreas Sarcletti, a customer who had made the trip from nearby Hanover, "but I'm worried the trial is going to last a very long time."

Uwe Reinicke, who bought a manipulated vehicle in 2011, said "I don't think it's right, the way Volkswagen treated us."

VW fooled authorities about the real level of harmful emissions from 
its cars (AFP Photo/THOMAS KIENZLE)

"VW ought to finally, properly admit that they lied," he added.

The trial is Germany's largest so far in the tentacular diesel scandal, which last week saw VW chief executive Herbert Diess charged with market manipulation over his role.

50 questions for judges

"Several regional tribunals have already found against Volkswagen" and granted plaintiffs compensation, judge Michael Neef noted as the proceedings opened.

Alongside the grouped proceeding, 61,000 individual lawsuits have been filed in Germany, but Brunswick may not follow those earlier rulings.

Of the around 50 questions about the case judges must decide on, whether Volkswagen "caused harm" by acting "dishonestly" will be "one of the central, difficult questions," Neef added.

"We're confident of our chances, since Volkswagen committed fraud," VZBV lawyer Ralph Sauer told AFP ahead of the hearing.

VW lawyer Martine de Lind van Wijngaarden countered that there was "no harm and no basis to this claim" because "hundreds of thousands of cars are used" on the roads without problem.

A lot of files to get through (AFP Photo/Ronny Hartmann)

Judges said that even if they find there was harm, the amount diesel owners receive in compensation would be based on the present-day market value -- not the original purchase price.

Every owner registered in the trial will have to claim individually, even if the plaintiffs were to win the case.

VW thinks a final judgement could arrive in 2023 at the earliest, if the case is appealed all the way to the Federal Court of Justice.

Individual proceedings could then take at least another year -- in the court of first instance.

By then, the cars' market value will have further eroded, making a buyback cheaper for the firm.

Instead, the judges mentioned the possibility of a settlement, while allowing that such talks "would not be easy" given duplicates and foreign residents on the list of plaintiffs.

The VZBV says it is "open" to an out-of-court settlement but "in that case, VW would have to pay a significant sum after all," Mueller told AFP.

VW for its part finds a mass settlement "hard to imagine".

Most of VW's fines payments have gone to the US (AFP Photo/Geoff Robins)

30 billion euros

Since 2015, when Volkswagen admitted to manipulating 11 million vehicles worldwide to fool emissions tests, the scandal has cost the group over 30 billion euros ($33 billion) in fines, compensation and legal costs.

Most of that sum -- $22 billion -- has gone to the US, while in Germany VW has so far paid just 2.3 billion euros spread across three fines.

Alongside car owners, investors are claiming damages for losses they suffered when the group's share price plummeted after it came clean.

And earlier this week, chief executive Herbert Diess and supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Poetsch were charged with market manipulation.

Former chief executive Martin Winterkorn, who stepped down over the scandal, has been also charged with fraud.

The clouds of scandal still haven't blown away (AFP Photo/Julian Stratenschulte)

Away from the legal battlegrounds, "dieselgate" has sped up the fuel's decline from its status as lower-carbon alternative to petrol, favoured with government subsidies.

In Germany, its market share among new registrations has fallen from 46 to 33 percent. Car bans are also looming in some city centres because of the level of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions.

The diesel scandal is "part of the group's history" just like the famous Beetle and Golf models, says VW brand chief Ralf Brandstaetter.

"The diesel crisis was a catalyst for our transformation," Brandstaetter told AFP in a recent interview, pointing to VW's 30 billion euro investment in a new electric range to "regain society's respect".

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