Volkswagen fooled the judges hook, line and stinker.
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Green Car Journal was just one of the many publications that fell for the dirty diesel deception VW and Audi perpetrated over the past six years. Back in 2009 and 2010 Green Car Journal made the 2009 VW Jetta TDI and 2010 Audi A3 TDI its “Green Car of the Year.” It was a questionable lack of judgement at the time and seems even more ridiculous now. Green Car Journal said in a press release "These models were selected as Green Car of the Year above others for compelling reasons, including high fuel efficiency, reduced carbon emissions, a fun-to-drive nature, and the ability to meet 50 state emissions requirements with advanced diesel technology."
The problem with the choice by Green Car Journal was that the VW Jetta TDI and Audi A3 TDI were not green cars in those years. Even before the revelations that the cars were spewing up to 40 times more pollutants than conventional gasoline-powered cars in their size category. Both compete in the compact sedan segment. That segment was led in sales by the gasoline-powered Toyota Corolla automatic. The 2009 Corolla consumed 11 barrels of petroleum per year according to the EPA. The 2009 Jetta consumed 11.6. The CO2 per mile of the Corolla was 299 and the Jetta 308. No car that cannot even top the most common gasoline-powered car in its segment should ever be called “green.” “Green-car” is a term reserved for those vehicles in a given category that surpass mainstream vehicles by significantly reducing fossil fuel consumption and CO2 production.
The next shoe to drop may well be the Guinness World Records that VW staged by passing off its 2013 Passat and 2015 Golf as emissions-legal vehicles. In the case of the Passat, the diesel now under fire for emissions violations set a mileage record, and the Golf set a liquid-fuel cost per mile record. It would seem obvious that the vehicles used in the tests should be disqualified if those models are suspected of having the emissions over-ride systems.
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