Dieselgate | Running on Fumes | 2

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By 2014, Volkswagen has taken the U.S. auto market by storm with its fleet of affordable, fuel-efficient diesel cars. But a new study threatens to reveal the dirty truth behind so-called ""clean"" diesel. When the EPA comes knocking with questions, the company's very survival is at stake.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Spring 2013,
0:07.0	2013.
0:10.0	A Volkswagen Jetta flies down a freeway in Northern California.
0:15.0	A mess of pipes and hoses peek out of the trunk.
0:19.0	One of the tubes is duct taped the tailpipe.
0:22.1	The other end feeds into a makeshift plywood box in the back of the car.
0:26.9	And the box is hooked up to a portable generator.
0:30.2	It makes such a racket the two young men piled into the jetto can barely hear themselves think.
0:35.9	Pull over. Pull over.
0:38.4	What?
0:39.4	Pull over.
0:40.1	The wire came out again.
0:41.8	Again.
0:43.8	It's so hot in here.
0:45.3	The super glue's probably melting.
0:47.2	Where's the duct tape?
0:48.5	It's in the thing behind the seat.
0:52.3	God how mighty.
0:53.6	A police cruiser pulls up behind the car. An officer gets out eyeing the equipment
0:58.8	sticking out of the trunk with confusion. The young man in the driver's seat rolls down the window
1:04.0	as the officer approaches. Uh, you gentlemen all right? Yes, sir, just some equipment trouble.
1:13.7	What's solved this? It's a portable emissions measurement system. Uh, who now? Sorry, we're researchers from West Virginia University.
	...

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