I've not had a rant for a few days. Here goes....
There's nothing on tv anyway.
I don't see any individual being out of pocket
directly as a result of the VW con. The software in question was activated in very specific operational circumstances that wouldn't arise in normal circumstances so wouldn't impact consumption. Convincing a court otherwise is a high hurdle to jump. It's possible to decompile the code but proving what it does line by line is not easy. It's hard enough just doing software alone. Doing it in a real world system in conjunction with masses of sensors is an order of magnitude more complex. An interesting forensic exercise though.
Your residuals may be depressed as a consequence but I don't think any consequential losses would be recovered in court - they are normally and explicitly excluded from any agreement. You might get a good-will payment with no acceptance of liability. That will probably be enough for most. The most likely result from any action.
I doubt if any individual can prove they have been disadvantaged by the con and it's going to be impossible to prove anyone has been hurt physically. You couldn't isolate the effects of just VW cars.
The only chance of any prosecution would be from the standards organisations if they can show their measurements were defrauded.
If the measures by which UK tax thresholds were impacted HM gov might consider action. Unlikely though. To do so would require tests to be redone on exactly the same models in the same conditions. Difficult to set up.
As to getting Diesels out of line up. It will happen but it's likely to take years. 2020 is ambitious. Tax on large petrol engines is going to be high. Only significant development on battery technology in support of hybrids is going to give you low revving powerful torquey engines. They won't appear in mass production for a while yet.the costs are to high.
Manufacturers have issues on maintaining residuals on current and future diesels. Either that or they buy back diesels in exchange for new cars. If prices plummet then owners simply won't be able to buy new. A fine balancing act. VW may suffer as a brand issue. If that were to spread to all manufacturers they have mega problems.
Get used to small (sub 2L) high revving twin-turbo petrol engines. Having said that the current 2L engines in high performance guise are very good. Still don't have the low end grunt for relaxed town driving though (compared to your average 3L 6 pot or 2L diesel) IMHO. When you lift the skirts it's a different matter. But, to get emissions down they have to be very docile in normal circumstances. You can't have high power engines that pull from low revs and low emissions. That's currently mutually exclusive. Do you want to drive a screaming 1.2L in a 1800kg+ car that needs constant wiggling of the gear stick - not relaxing. Not fun.
The real problem with all carbon based engines is you have to deal with the carbon.
Sometime we will be driving vehicles using fuel cells. You still need a source of hydrogen/oxygen. A big tank of pressurised hydrogen - just too dangerous to give some of the numpties we have on our roads.
If you think we're entering nirvana and that you'll never be conned again then I'll have some of what you're smoking
Yep, Hull just hit the post 
