VW Lost Its Moral Compass in Quest for Growth

WSJ Analysis by Shelby Peach 

Article: VW Lost Its Moral Compass in Quest for Growth 

By: Dan Neil at 1:31 PM on September 24, 2015

     Every company, everywhere is always trying to generate the newest, most energy efficient, top of the line product. Volkswagen, a German automobile company, recently tried and horridly failed. In their race to get ahead of an industry they were already ahead in, VW AG company wired "emission cheating software aboard 11 million diesel-powered vehicles world wide". Who would ever suspect faults in a product marketed to have "clean diesel emissions"? Basically what VW has done is wire the vehicle to pass the EPA tests, but the vehicle actually emits more carbon emissions into our environment than one would expect based on their marketing of the vehicles' clean emission diesel engines.

     

     Many things are wrong here; in some respects it reminds me of the Ford Pinto fuel defect scandal back in the 1970's. Morally, Volkswagen has marketed a product that they do not actually provide. It is extremely unethical to claim a vehicle will emit fewer carbon emissions when, in fact, it is only causing much more. Today, a huge environmental issue is global warming, and wether you believe it to be true or not, it is actually happening...SCIENCE! We are slowly, but surely, destroying our planet, and VW only added fuel to the fire. They  violated the social responsibility to their customers by producing a product that has negative effects on society, instead of positive ones.

     I took interest in this article because not only do I find big business scandals entertaining, but also I really enjoy cars. This pertains to our marketing class because it hits many of the basic guidelines we've discussed- especially moral and ethical issues. It effects everyone in the automobile industry because the competitors now have a leg up on VW AG. It effects VW and their loyal customer relationships, and what would have possibly been prospective buyers. Not to mention, it has caused a -4.29% drop in their stock price. So as a company, I'd say they've dug themselves quite the hole with this scandal. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/vw-lost-its-moral-compass-in-quest-for-growth-1443115862