Usually, when a Porsche gets permanently parked it’s because it’s a treasured museum piece – retired from heroic deeds on street or track (sometimes both). But the 1,500 Porsches that have been sitting for the past year-plus have been idled by Uncle.
1,500 brand-new but no longer “new” 2016 model year Cayennes will eventually be sold (perhaps next year sometime) at a discount – as used cars – when Uncle finally gives Porsche dealers permission to sell them.
With Porsche dealers (and salesmen) eating the loss.
These are Cayennes powered by 3.0-liter diesel engines, marked – like Hester Prynne – but with a scarlet “D” instead of an “A” for having cheated Uncle’s emissions tests. They join the entire fleet of diesel-powered 2016 model year VWs (Jettas, Golfs, Beetles and the Cayenne’s VW stablemate, the Touareg) that have been indefinitely idled by Uncle.
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In addition to the 1,500 brand-new Cayennes that never got on the road, there are another 10,000 or so 2016 (and older) Cayennes that are on the road – and soon to be taken off. In order to be “fixed” in exactly the same manner as one “fixes” a male puppy.
The puppy will never be quite the same after he is “fixed” – and neither will the “fixed” diesels, whether Porsches or VWs (there are about half-a-million of those).
Keep in mind that no one has been harmed by any of this. Regulatory standards have been affronted, that’s all. Porsche – like parent company VW – did the equivalent of making an “illegal” U-turn at a deserted intersection in the middle of the night. Against the law, surely.
But a technical foul and no more.
A reasonable cop wouldn’t even bother – or (at most) give the “offender” a warning. But the EPA – the federal agency (where, under the Constitution, do agencies get their lawful power to legislate?) which sees no humor in anything – and forget to behave reasonably – does not do warnings. That no one was harmed by this “cheating” business cuts no ice. There must be punishment! Off with their heads!
Meanwhile, how about the harm caused by EPA?
I’ve already written about the billions in fines that will come out of our pockets, ultimately. We being the people who own VW stock or work for VW or a supplier of VW or who will pay higher local taxes because tax revenue that would have been raised from VW has been disappeared via the economic damage imposed on VW, which is to say on us. The new car and engine designs that will never see the light of day because R&D money that would have gone toward that end now goes toward Uncle’s end.
