Even though Volkswagen laid out its recall blueprint last week for how it's going to make 11 million faulty diesel vehicles comply with emissions laws — aiming to start the massive undertaking in January and end the job in late 2016 — German regulators weren't having it.
On Thursday, the country demanded that the embattled automaker recall 2.4 million affected cars in Germany. And reacting to the pressure, Volkswagen decided later that same day to recall its entire fleet of manipulated diesel cars across Europe — all 8.5 million vehicles.
Seeing how Germany forced Volkswagen's hand — not waiting until January for action — the United States could come down on the carmaker over the worst crisis in its 78-year history in similar fashion.
"Rather than a proposal, generated by Volkswagen and subject to what they want to do, an authority is now in charge and will dictate what happens," Carl Tobias, a law professor who has studied auto safety at the University of Richmond, told the New York Times about Germany taking control and possibly other countries following suit.
"It still depends on how rigorous the authority will be with Volkswagen," he added. "VW has always been very cautious in terms of the timeline, and we won't know for some time."
Thursday also had Volkswagen suspending a fourth senior engineer, Falko Rudolph, and on Friday, the automaker appointed Lars-Henner Santelmann as new head of its finance division, Volkswagen Financial Services, in hopes of powering the battered brand out of this muddy trudge. The recall alone is projected to cost $6.5 billion with fines from countries possibly nailing the automaker for billions more.
Volkswagen has already gone back on its promise to complete repairs on affected cars by late 2016, saying it could take longer than that. Some cars will need a software update to have them comply with emissions laws, while others will need new parts. Last week, Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller didn't even rule out giving affected owners entirely new cars.
