A sad affair
The news of the Volkswagen emissions scandal has come as a big shock to the global motor industry, but it shouldn’t have. Volkswagen is no stranger to scandal, in one form or another, as I outline later in the magazine; nor for that matter, are other giant automakers such as General Motors, Toyota and others, in varying degrees.
What is clear in all the research I’ve been able to do, is that the top brass at these companies rarely take responsibility for what goes on, yet are happy to draw enormous salaries and benefits. That VW’s Martin Winterkorn DID resign is admirable, but I can’t help wondering if he is just part of a Machiavellian sacrifice to allow those really responsible to duck for cover.
Looking from the outside, as many of my friends do, it’s hard not to draw a comparison between feudal Britain, France and Germany, and compare those days of old with the machinations that go on in a big automotive corporation, with “lesser” managers usually sacrificed to protect “the great”.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch “Downton Abbey”, set, as it happens, in my native Yorkshire.
I’ve known about some of the historical scandals at Volkswagen for many years, but have not had any real reason to publish the story this fully.
It’s a sad story in many respects, for it just shows to what lengths people will go in their search for fame and fortune, for themselves, or for the company they work for.
Already the scandal is having a knock-on effect in New Zealand, with much shuffling of people as those who can, look for new jobs in companies not (so far) involved. The tragedy is that the local team at Volkswagen importers European Motor Distributors is innocent of any wrongdoing, but like VW importers, distributors, and even carmakers and assemblers in other countries away from the parent plant in Germany, may be tarred with the same brush as the huddling “top brass”.
To do so, however, would be very wrong. I note that already lawyers are circling the wagons like opportunistic “Redskins” from a cowboy movie of old. I just hope that, as in the movies, they will be driven off by the cavalry.
All the best,
John.