Vol. 79/No. 36      October 12, 2015

For years Germany-based Volkswagen, the biggest automaker in Europe, rigged exhaust emissions to pass laboratory tests. On the road, however, the cars emitted up to 40 times the amount of nitrogen oxides allowed by the U.S. Clean Air Act.

After the California Air Resources Board noted these high pollution levels, VW recalled half a million cars in December 2014, purportedly to adjust software devices. But a new on-road test in May found little difference.

The two agencies threatened to withhold government certification for VW’s 2016 diesel models. The company in mid-September then admitted it had installed “defeat device” software that programmed cars to produce acceptable emission results during lab tests — on some 11 million diesel cars worldwide!

As VW stock plummeted and CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned, company officials said they’d set aside $7.3 billion — over half VW’s annual profits — for penalties and recall costs.

Volkswagen, the largest corporation in Germany, employs some 300,000 workers in 29 plants.

Under capitalism auto companies, and other industrial giants, often rely on “cost-benefit analysis” in determining whether fixing a malfunctioning part would cut into their profits more than paying for resulting injuries and deaths.

One of the most blatant examples was the Pinto, millions of which were produced in the 1970s. “For seven years the Ford Motor Company sold cars in which it knew hundreds of people would needlessly burn to death,” said a Mother Jones article in September 1977.

The subcompact car’s fuel system was placed in the rear not far from the bumper, making it highly likely a rear-end collision even at slow speeds would rupture the gas tank and explode. Fixing the problem would cost between $5 and $8 per vehicle. But a secret company memorandum argued that the company had little to gain financially from making the repair; it was cheaper to pay out for deaths and injuries resulting from the auto fires they knew would occur. More than 500 people died from the defect.

The bosses’ callous attitude hasn’t changed. In 2012 Toyota recalled about 2.5 million vehicles in the U.S. because of window switches that could cause fires. The automaker also paid $1.2 billion in fines for withholding information on sudden acceleration problems with some of its vehicles.

Hundreds of people died in crashes in General Motors cars as a result of defective ignition switches and likely related air-bag failures. The company, which has recalled 1.6 million of these vehicles, knew about the defect in 2001 and did nothing. Fixing the problem would have cost as little as $1 per car.

Two decades ago General Motors installed defeat devices on half a million cars that distorted actual carbon monoxide emissions. And in 1998 seven manufacturers of heavy-duty diesel engines, including Caterpillar and Volvo Truck, implanted devices disabling nitrogen-oxide controls.
 
 
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