Volkswagen Dipsticks
German automaker burns trust even faster than oil
This Week In Blunders – Jan. 4-10
“We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?” – Lee Iacocca
Volkswagen Tiguan owners are suing the automaker because their compact SUVs are burning through more oil than a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.
VW claims a quart every 1,200 miles is normal.
On Thursday, a judge dismissed VW’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit covering 2022 and 2023 Tiguans with EA888 turbocharged engines.
VW has already settled similar claims with its other oil-burning models but the Tiguan is its best-selling vehicle in the U.S. and the stakes are much higher if it is ordered to issue a recall.
VW never disclosed to its customers how much oil they’d be buying but an internal technical service bulletin that VW reissued in 2024 declares “normal” at up to 0.5 quarts every 600 miles.
So far, there are no claims of seized engines between oil changes, but who wants to spend more than $30,000 or $40,000 on a wagon and have to constantly be lifting the hood and jerking the dipstick?
Maybe VW has a secret plant to launch a subscription service for 0W-20. But the German automaker would be better off settling than fighting.
It can ill-afford any more reputational damage following “Dieselgate.” After this global scandal broke in 2015, its U.S. sales have never fully recovered.
VW had installed software to cheat emissions tests. Then it marketed its diesel engines as “clean.” What followed were years of worldwide recalls, litigation, criminal prosecutions and more than $30 billion in fines, buybacks and remediation.
ReadMore:
Volkswagen Dieselgate - 2015 (The Biggest Business Blunders Of All Time)
Slipping Away From Prosecutors (Business Blunders Archive)
First VW told car buyers that its diesel engines were clean. Now they’re saying their oil-burners are normal.
Customers are getting exhausted.
Try predicting more suckers
The news caught most of us by surprise, but somebody made a $30,000 bet on Polymarket that Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro would soon be in U.S. custody and then swiftly bagged $436,760 when it happened, Axios reports.
Or how about this gem? Somebody scored nearly $1 million after winning 22 of 23 bets on what topics would rank on Google’s annual list of the most searched terms, iGamingToday reported.
Prediction market sites, like Polymarket and Kalshi, are where you can bet on anything, like “Will Jesus Christ return before 2027?” (And if he does, all bets are off and you’re going to Hell for gambling.)
Prediction market bet increasingly appear rigged by people with inside information.
It sucks being on the losing end of a stupid bet when you’re wagering against someone who works at Google and already knows the trends. Or how about someone in the White House Situation Room?
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., ’ is introducing a bill to outlaw federal officials from making these sorts of insider bets.
It’s a safe bet it won’t pass. Americans love a rigged market.
Remember when pardons were controversial?
This week we welcome Marc Rich to the Business Blunders Hall Of Shame.
Rich was a billionaire commodities trader who helped pioneer the global spot-oil market and later founded what became international commodities trading giant Glencore. But he is better remembered as an international criminal who got a full pardon from President Bill Clinton in 2001.
Read More: Marc Rich – Glencore (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Rich was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury on more than 50 felony counts in 1983.
The charges included wire fraud, racketeering and making oil deals with Iran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis. He was also accused of dodging $48 million in taxes – one of the largest tax-evasion cases at the time.
Rich dodged prosecution in Switzerland and remained on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for 18 years. But with a few handy donations to the Clintons, he scored a full pardon.
Oh, the outrage. Congress launched a bipartisan investigation, longtime Clinton supporters spewed with rage, and Clinton came to regret the political toll it took on his reputation. And he deserved every bit of it.
Anything like that happening today?
Last year alone, President Donald Trump granted more than 1,500 pardons, including relief for scores of political allies, donors and even white collar thugs like crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao, who has business connections with the Trump family.
Must be hard for the Clinton’s to watch. I feel your pain.
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Best line: customers are getting exhausted.
LOL!