Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
“Historically, the spread moved up and down over zero enough that it’s accurate to say there’s little difference between the two. The recent spread is an anomaly…”
Um, ‘kay.
By John Kingston
Diesel consumers on the East Coast received some news Wednesday that may suggest an easing of the tight physical market squeeze in the region.
Guest Post by Eric Peters
Everyone knows about the drawing and quartering of VW over the “cheat” software embedded in the inscrutable labyrinth of code, deep within the “affected” cars’ computers. The code tweaked the engines to pass the EPA’s certification tests – passage of which serves as a kind of permission slip to sell cars – by making them produce hair-splitting differences less oxides of nitrogen (NOx) while being tested, to get them through increasingly unreasonable regulatory rigmarole designed to prevent them from being sold. Because diesels – efficient, practical and inexpensive – pose a threat to the expensive, inefficient and impractical electric car agenda, which is really an anti-driving agenda.
But that’s another rant.
Out in the real world, unplugged from the government’s testing rigs, the “cheating” cars produced fractionally more NOx, in the interests of better mileage and drivability.
Guest Post by Eric Peters
Mazda Motor’s director and senior managing executive officer Kiyoshi Fujiwara talks about its new engine, to be called SKYACTIV-X, at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Diesels are at the top of the Dead Pool – on account of their particularly diesel exhaust byproducts, specifically particulates (aka, soot) and oxides of nitrogen (aka NOx). But diesels are much more fuel-efficient than gas-burning engines because they are compression ignition engines.
Well, compression and heat.
Instead of a spark to set off the explosion, the air/fuel charge is progressively squeezed (and thereby, heated) as the pistons ascends within its cylinder until – boom! – it ignites spontaneously.
More of the potential energy contained in the fuel is translated into useful mechanical energy.
Guest Post by Eric Peters
For reasons that aren’t inscrutable (give me a minute – I’ll explain) the jihad against diesels is metastasizing to include FiatChrysler.
The combine – which subsumes the Jeep and Ram truck brands – has been accused of selling diesels that emit “as much as 20 times” the maximum allowable quantity of an exhaust byproduct, oxides of nitrogen (NOx).
This is exactly what got VW nailed to the cross. And it’s exactly the same demagogic coverage. “As much as 20 times” the allowable maximum!
Good god, it sounds apocalyptic! A lung-melting catastrophe!
Except of course it’s not.
Guest Post by Eric Peters
It is almost halfway through 2016 and – still – no (new) diesels for you.
Not from VW, at any rate.
Uncle has still not given his permission for the sale of any 2016 model year TDI (diesel) powered VW cars. The entire inventory sits and waits.
Perhaps forever.
But another couple of months will be enough. Then it will be summer – with fall in sight, new model year-wise.
The 2017s will begin to appear.
At which point, the 2016s become like yogurt approaching its sell-by date. Good for buyers, perhaps – assuming they are allowed to buy. But terrible news for VW and its dealers, who will take an epic haircut that – by itself – could cause catastrophic financial damage to the German automaker. On top of that, there is the other problem – what to do about the roughly half-million “affected” TDI-powered VWs already in circulation.
News reports say that Uncle and VW have come to an agreement of some kind. Very much in the way one comes to an “agreement” with the cop who “asks” you to buckle up. The details of this “agreement” will not be made public for months, however. Not until June 21 will the “agreement” be made public.
Some details have leaked, however.
It looks like VW will be forced (whoops, agreed) to buy back – and crush – some of the “affected” cars… and perform (it appears) software tweaks to the remainder, such that they are brought into compliance with Uncle’s edicts.
It will be interesting to see just how many of the half-million cars will simply be crushed – with VW eating the cost.
It comes down to whether a given car can be brought into compliance via the relatively painless (and not-too-pricey) reprogramming or even outright replacement of its computer, which controls the operation of the engine. Some cars will need to have major physical work done to them – for instance, installing a urea injection system in the exhaust, which also requires modification to the fuel system, as well as software/computer work). This looks to be too painful and expensive to be worth doing and so those cars will – apparently – be destroyed and their owners cut a check.