It cost VW Group 30 billion dollars in fines and compensation in the America alone, against an annual worldwide profit in the region of 10 billion dollars (from a turnover around 229 billion - margins are slim).
Its estimated by some pundits that when all this is eventually resolved it will have wiped out a decade of profits worldwide, so its done them a lot of harm.
The company were responsible for the murder of hundreds of babies born to slave labour in WWII, but then lied about this right up until the 1990's. The VW Group board did not come clean until 1996, by which time most of the survivors had conveniently died and the compensation bill was conveniently minimised. They then more recently get caught out with dieselegate, estimated to be responsible for 5000 air pollution related deaths every year in Europe alone.
Why anyone would buy a car from a company with an 80 year history of death and deceit is anyone's guess. One of the nice things about Volvo is they have never been proven to be emissions cheats (accusations have emerged, but no actual proof has been forthcoming and Volvo continue to deny it), didn't make weapons or vehicles for fascists, and didn't murder children.
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2005 C70 2.4T Collection convertible. 40,000 mile sunny day toy.
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