2011 Volkswagen Jetta Se on 2040-cars

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Senators want civil, criminal actions against VW

With the Department of Justice just beginning its investigation into Volkswagen's emissions evading diesels, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Amy Klobuchar are pushing for the automaker to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law both civilly and criminally. In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, they press the agency to make its scrutiny "thorough but expeditious." The politicians allege that VW misled people while pumping huge amounts of pollution into the air. The Senators believe that all the information about VW's actions needs to make it to the public eye, and the DOJ must have a strong response to the automaker breaking the law. "Officials at Volkswagen should be granted no get out of jail free card, and the Department should accept no plea agreement with Volkswagen that does not ensure any and all information regarding criminal acts by high level officials is provided to the Department," they write. Senator Blumenthal is no stranger for championing changes in the auto industry as of late. He was an advocate for the General Motors Ignition Switch Compensation Fund and pushed for a similar organization for Takata airbag victims. He has also been a staunch supporter for greater automotive cyber security. Blumenthal, Klobuchar: Department of Justice Should Take Strong Civil and Criminal Actions Against Volkswagen for Any Violations Monday, September 28, 2015 Condemns Volkswagen's actions that misled hundreds of thousands of consumers and resulted in tens of thousands of tons of additional pollution emissions Calls for thorough but expeditious investigation (Washingtion, DC) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) today urged the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to take strong civil and criminal actions against Volkswagen for any violations following the German carmaker's actions that misled hundreds of thousands of American consumers and resulted in tens of thousands of tons of additional pollution emissions. In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the senators called for a "thorough but expeditious" investigation. "Officials at Volkswagen should be granted no get out of jail free card, and the Department should accept no plea agreement with Volkswagen that does not ensure any and all information regarding criminal acts by high level officials is provided to the Department," wrote Blumenthal and Klobuchar. "The U.S.

Last VW bus ever made arrives at final destination

A Brazilian politician tried to save it, unsuccessfully, so the final Last Edition Volkswagen Type 2 Kombi was produced on December 20, 2013 and now resides in a vintage museum at Volkswagen's Commercial Vehicles HQ in Hanover, Germany.
The Volkswagen Microbus was built for 56 years, starting in September 1957. Brazil was the last country still assembling it, but new safety regulations in the country requiring airbags and ABS on all cars spelled the end. When that politician introduced a bill that would pardon only the 'Bus from a death sentence, it couldn't garner the required number of votes for passage. The South American country takes the Kombi production title, though, with 1.5 million of the 3.5 million total made in the home of Copacabana beach and the girl from Ipanema.
The VW Bus is dead. Now perhaps we can turn our attentions to the still-not-totally-settled matter of the Bulli...

VW joins Daimler's protest of new A/C refrigerant as EU deadline for compliance passes

The case of Dupont and Honeywell's refrigerant R-1234yf is doing the exact opposite of keeping things cool. The two chemical companies have spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing R-1234yf to replace R-134a, the new refrigerant shown to be 99.7-percent kinder to the environment than the one it is meant to succeed. Part of that development has been years of testing by governments, outside safety agencies and automakers to approve the chemical for use in cars. It passed the protocols necessary for the European Union to declare that new and significantly revised cars from 2013 onward needed to use R-1234yf, and mandated that every car as of 2017 must use it.
Enter Daimler AG. The automaker created a head-on collision test with a B-Class at their Sindelfingen test track that would lead to the pressurized refrigerant being sprayed on the engine. The result in 20 out of 20 test was that the refrigerant burst into flames as soon as it hit the hot engine, while Daimler says that R-134a does not catch fire in the same test. Another unexpected result of the R-1234yf test was the release of hydrogen flouride, a chemical far more deadly to humans than hydrogen cyanide, emitted in such amounts that it that turned the windshield white as it began to eat into the glass.
Said a Daimler engineer in a Reuters piece, "It was scarcely believable. The most complicated lab tests conducted using the most sensitive measuring instruments around found nothing and all we do is drive a car around a couple of times, open a tiny hole in the refrigerant line and the next thing you know the car is on fire." So Daimler said it wouldn't use the refrigerant, and it recalled the cars it had already shipped with R-1234yf.