Your Diesel Car Is Not a Monster!

Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you’ve probably already heard that automotive manufacturer Volkswagen got caught red-handed using a software program to tamper with pollutant gas emissions in its diesel engines. It’s a serious issue, but it doesn’t mean that your diesel car is a monster!

The facts

Some Volkswagen cars are equipped with software that displays incorrect polluting emission quantities. Of course, this doesn’t endanger the health and safety of people nearby, but the fact remains that the emission levels are much higher than expected. In fact, the software can detect when the vehicle is under test conditions and change the quantity of pollutants emitted.

The matter is far from resolved, and it’s hard to predict the corrective measures the German manufacturer will implement. Government authorities will impose heavy fines on Volkswagen, and the company will also have to compensate vehicle owners somehow.

Here is a list of affected vehicles. All of them have the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder TDI engine (turbo diesel) sold in North America.

• Jetta TDI, Golf TDI, Beetle TDI, and Audi A3 TDI (2009–2015)
• Passat TDI (2014–2015)

The 3.0-litre TDI V6 engine doesn’t seem to be affected for now.

What to do

Now that the damage has been done, you can take some simple yet effective measures to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, whether you have a diesel or gas engine.

• Get regular maintenance on your car.
• Change the oil after the recommended number of kilometres.
• Make sure the engine has a clear air filter.
• Is the dashboard Check Engine light on? Take the time to get it checked out by your technician.
• Act quickly in the case of a manufacturer recall.

Poor maintenance can increase your gas bill by 10% to 20%!