Volkswagen is a famous automaker with 78-year history in Germany. However, it is facing a scandal for cheating on emission tests recently. Hard to believe right? It has admitted cheating in diesel emissions tests in the United States and Europe, where Volkswagen sells about 40 per cent of its vehicles. Volkswagen wants to lower the engine costs in a “clean diesel” strategy that was popular in Europe by manipulating emissions results.

This scandal not only harmed the reputation of Volkswagen but also is an embarrassment for Germany, which held up Volkswagen as a model of its engineering prowess for years. Most importantly, consumers would not trust Volkswagen like they did before. Although Volkswagen decided to recall 11 million vehicles, its consumers still felt being betrayed. Don Pittis, who thought Volkswagen is a part of his life and even his first car is a VW Beetle, said “it makes me despair about corporate morality in general.” A company public has always thought of responsible and dependable appears to have intentionally cheated not only public environmental laws but all the other car companies that thought they were working from a common set of rules.

In my opinion, Volkswagen truly disappointed consumers and with no doubt the scandal will negatively impact Volkswagen’s reputation in the short term. Especially the scandal is related to environment which is important to the whole society and a significant factor for someone to choose a car. The problem for VW right now is to solve this problem by any cost and the quickest reaction.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/volkswagen-eu-martin-schulz-german-econo-1.3256024

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/volkswagen-emissions-1.3248230

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/vw-tdi-diesel-morality-1.3238590