Automotive News: Dieselgate 'omerta' banned EU experts from speaking to press, More than 1 million Ford Explorers may face recall on fumes
Dieselgate 'omerta' banned EU experts from speaking to press
Scientists working for the emissions laboratory at the EU's Joint Research Centre (JRC) were not allowed to discuss Dieselgate with the press, two anonymous sources close to the institute told EUobserver.
"When the scandal broke, there was an omerta within the JRC," one of the sources said. "No one was allowed to answer questions from journalists."
Two years ago on Monday (18 September), US authorities announced that Volkswagen had equipped diesel vehicles with software that allowed them to recognise when they were being assessed in a laboratory and switch to a cleaner mode during tests. Of the 11 million affected cars worldwide, 8.5 million were sold in Europe.
The scandal put a spotlight on the JRC, which has a world renowned vehicle emissions testing facility.
The JRC had published reports outlining the risk of the use of cheating software - so-called defeat devices - in 2011 and 2013.
It later emerged that JRC staff had found suspiciously high emissions levels, long before the Dieselgate scandal had become public. Top EU officials told the European Parliament that these signals never reached them.
More than 1 million Ford Explorers may face recall on fumes
Seven years worth of Ford Explorers are a step closer to recall in the U.S. over mounting reports of exhaust fumes leaking inside.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has taken an interim step toward prompting the recall of 1.3 million 2011-2017 Ford Explorers, including 2016-2017 Explorer Police Interceptor models, according to a posting on the agency’s website. This comes more than a year after NHTSA first started looking into odors and exhaust issues in the vehicles. read more »
Oops! Honda Recalls Already Recalled Cars
Honda is voluntarily recalling the vehicles to replace the passenger front airbag module for free. According to the Japanese automaker, these vehicles were previously recalled as part of the massive Takata airbag inflator recall and improperly fixed. “While performing recall replacements of Takata passenger airbag inflators, two dealer technicians at a single specific U.S. Honda dealer installed replacement inflators incorrectly in these vehicles,” Honda said in a statement.
