“So, how’s the new car?” I’m asked.

“Well I’m sure I’ll get used to it”.

Hardly the happy, excited, new toy acquisition response one would think on this rare occasion. It’s been going on 7 years since the last new car.

Oh no, the emotions surrounding this new car are mixed, to say the least.

When we first came back here after Asia we bought a Volkswagen Golf Diesel Station Wagon. A real car (as opposed to the ubiquitous SUV), perfect size, awesome cargo space, drove great, very fuel efficient.

Ads running at the time promoted the “clean diesel” of the cars and the great fuel efficiency. Believing it was better for the environment we even paid extra for the diesel model.

Then in September 2015 came the news that all those diesel cars, over 600,000 of them in North America, were bogus. They were very far from clean. What eventually was revealed was a tale of fraud and toxic corporate culture of epic proportions. They sold these cars knowing full well that were spewing out nitrogen oxide, the nasty stuff that harms human health, 40 times higher than allowable limits. For over 6 years they got away with it.

Here’s what happened.

Back in the mid 2000’s Volkswagen was keen to increase its market share in the U.S. in a big way and they wanted to do it with their diesel cars. There was just one problem with that strategy. No one had yet discovered a way to create a diesel system that could reduce NOx emissions to comply with regulations in a way that was anywhere near easy and cost efficient.

So they cheated. They installed a “defeat device” which is a software that recognizes when the car is being tested in the lab and reduces NOx emissions temporarily to yield results within legal limits. Once it’s back on the road, it goes back to its normal and releases the stuff out through the tailpipe.

In 2013 an independent lab started testing the VW diesel cars, not because fraud was suspected, but in an attempt to discover how VW had succeeded where others had not. They very quickly discovered that emissions results in the lab could not be replicated when the cars were driven on the road. The California Air Resources Board soon became involved and did their own tests with similar results.

For 15 months the Board was in intensive communication with the company as they tried to figure out what was causing the discrepancies while VW continued to stall for time. Instead of coming clean (ha) VW continued its fraud with more lies, stalling and misdirection all the while continuing to sell these vehicles to an unsuspecting public. Eventually in September 2015 they admitted what they had done. Even then this was only after the US authorities threatened them by stating they would not certify for sale any of their model 2016 cars, gas included.

Nitrogen oxide, the nasty stuff that in these cars were spewing 40 times the allowable emissions in North America, creates smog, factors in acid rain and causes health problems in humans including asthma in children. Volkswagen admitted that their massive deception was a financial decision, an “intentional, premeditated cost benefit analysis to cheat”. The wanted to be Number One no matter what.

Ultimately VW was forced to pay $25 billion in penalties including buying back all the affected vehicles from owners. So far 6 people have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the U.S. The Chair of VW in Germany resigned but to date has faced no charges. Hundreds of thousands of internal documents showed very clearly that he definitely knew of, and sanctioned this fraud although right up to the day before his resignation he was denying all knowledge and vowing that “he was investigating how this could have happened”.

That’s it in a nutshell. The company also at various times during the attempted cover up offered to recall the vehicles to fix them – a “fix” which involved not reducing the toxic emissions, but to install a different kind of cheat device; they lied to the US Congressional investigation, stating that the problem was a result of a couple of rogue engineers; and they secretly formed with Mercedes and BMW a bogus “non-profit organization” to prove that their diesel was safe by pumping tailpipe gases into chimpanzee cages for hours (while running cartoons to distract the primates), testing their bogus lab results against an old dirty diesel engine to “prove” their cars were clean and harmless.

Volkswagen TDI Graveyard, one of 37 sites across North America. What will happen to these 600,000 diesel cars VW was forced to buy back?

So our perfect little car that turned out to be a fraud has been bought back and on its way to who knows where. For me the company’s actions were so egregious I was unable to consider another (gas) VW station wagon. Searching for a replacement was depressing. For some reason station wagons, a preferred choice, are no longer popular in North America and few manufacturers are making them. The new car is a distant second choice.

Time to move on and think less about what the new car is and more about where it will take us. A road trip was in order and off we went for a few days in March to Tofino/Ucuelet on the west coast of the island – a great antidote to winter cabin fever and this huge disappointment.

One last word before I “move on”:

Bastards.

Netflix is currently screening a documentary series Dirty Money. The first episode, Hard NOx, tells the story of this Volkswagen fraud – compelling viewing. The story does not end with North American penalties and buy backs. Six jailed executives do not change an entrenched corporate culture. Trouble still brews in Europe under a different regulatory system.