What’s coming the way of the European automakers will make the gunfight at the OK Corral look like a family picnic. And the rest of the Western auto industry isn’t far behind.
For starters, following German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen have been allegedly running a cartel since 2006, the European Commission is investigating the automakers for allegedly colluding over emissions, engines, brakes and other components and technologies in secret meetings.
It’s good to see one of the pillars of Australian business strategies for most of the 20th century has allegedly made its way to Europe. The long Friday lunch, where our local manufacturers of all sorts of products sat down over some steak and a few bottles of red, followed by some large glasses of Para Port, and agreed price and market share should have been the stuff of a Harvard Business School case study.
Der Spiegel investigations into the anti-cartel authorities in Brussels and Bonn, and automakers in Stuttgart, Munich and Wolfsburg, and conversations with current and former executives, provide a previously unknown image of Germany’s most important industry. “The conclusion is that Daimler, BMW, Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen often no longer compete with one another. Instead, they secretly co-operate, very closely, in fact, in the same way one would normally expect of the subsidiaries of a single company to work together, as something like a ‘German Cars Inc’ — or a cartel,” it says.
Anyway, not only are our Teutonic friends said to have agreed prices but also allegedly agreed that the correct way of fixing diesel emissions took up too much boot space, so looked for other, less correct, ways to beat the system. Yesterday the paper revealed that German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, has said Porsche also used illegal exhaust gas software in the Audi engined Cayenne 3 litre TDI model. At the same time, Porsche owner, VW, announced it wants to carry out exhaust gas improvements on 650,000 diesel cars including Seat, Skoda, Audi and VW.
Last Wednesday, Canadian lawyers, Strosberg Sasso Sutts announced a $C1 billion ($998 million) class action against the Germans, alleging they conspired to set the price, output, innovation, and technical standards of components used in the motor vehicles they manufactured, and that were sold in Canada.
“If the allegations in the claim prove to be true, then Canadian consumers have been harmed by a longstanding cartel of German car manufacturers to provide inferior components in their vehicles, while charging premium prices for these vehicles,” said SSS lawyer David Wingfield.
Also this week, the car owners’ friend, Roddy Sims, said his ACCC alleges that about half of the 70,000 Ford Focus, Fiesta and EcoSport cars Ford sold over the past couple of years have had at least one repair relating to the company’s Powershift automatic transmission.
Sims says “from 2011 to May 2015, Ford allegedly refused to provide a refund or replacement vehicle to consumers, even after vehicles had undergone multiple repairs that had not fixed the issue’’. Well, that’s not very good.
But better news for more mature readers. Our researchers have found Australia’s oldest and most competitive driver, Melbourne’s Murray Carter. Murray, now 86, is happily steering his beloved Corvette around the track.
A serious wheel person, Murray has had an unbelievable career in our sport, including running second behind Bob Jane (another legend) in the 1963 Australian GT championship.
Obviously inspired by our stories of racers of all ages, readers have been asking how to get themselves or their kids going in motorsport. The safest and best organised young people’s sport in Australia is karting. Just Google a local kart club in your area.
If you are past the kid stage, hook up with a race coach like Phil Alexander at www.raceawaytracktime.com.au. Phil can take you from novice to seriously licensed race driver in one of his cars, thus saving the family Merc from a few scrapes.
I haven’t just been standing around drinking free booze and eating food you can only dream about. No, I’ve been out there road testing two relatively cheap cars that surprised me.
I paid Europcar $150 a day to drive a Mercedes CLA 200. You’ll pay around $50,000 to buy this Merc. I love it. It’s the perfect city car for someone who doesn’t want the usual choices around this money. Merc luxury, enough grunt and “look at me” styling. You need five weeks to learn the counterintuitive controls and I’m told there’s not much room in the back but then again, I never sit in the back.
Showing how fickle men are, I love the Renault Megane RS265 even more. Forget back seat room. This is not a car for wussies who think about stuff like families or friends.
This has the genuine racing seats, a more or less genuine racing wheel, somewhat racing suspension, a big engine and it’s so much fun I want to marry it. Yours from $140 a day at Hertz. We can’t tell you more because being French, Renault wouldn’t talk to us on the phone.
Anyway, back to our usual cars. Next month in Monterey, where you pay $1 million a night for a tent and the accommodation prices go up from there, Mecum Auctions are selling a Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita. The CCXR Trevita has unique, white carbon fibre bodywork. Trevita is Swedish for “three whites”. But only two Trevita models were produced in 2009, showing why Scando has some problems these days.
This is a shortened version of the original article – read the rest at The Australian
