Emissions but a different kind!
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/enviro...a174d58de4b069
Porsche tried to stop safety report on throttle delay
Ben Webster Environment Editor
Published at 12:01AM, October 17 2015
Porsche tried to block the release of a government safety report on one of its cars by suggesting it would no longer cooperate fully with investigations if the information was disclosed.
The sports car company made the comment during a dispute over allegations that it had caused a safety risk to drivers by secretly installing engine devices to pass noise emissions tests.
An information tribunal ruling described Porsche’s suggestion as “disconcerting in the extreme”.
Porsche is part of VW Group, which has admitted that up to 11 million VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat diesel vehicles had been fitted with software which cheat pollution emissions tests. VW last month promoted Matthias Müller, chief executive of Porsche, to replace Martin Winterkorn, the group chief executive who resigned over the scandal.
Several Porsche and Audi R8 owners have complained that their cars fail to accelerate under certain specific conditions. They say that this is dangerous when they pull out to overtake.
Porsche staff emailed a German customer admitting that there can be a “delayed response” from the throttle at 30mph and that this was the result of an attempt to comply with European noise limits. High performance cars must pass a test showing that they do not exceed 76 decibels at 30mph.
John Cieslik, 48, a software engineer who bought a £54,000 Porsche Cayman in 2011, is suing the company over what he alleges is a safety defect that almost caused him to have a collision with a lorry when he tried to overtake.
He said: “I hit the accelerator pedal expecting to move swiftly out of danger only for the engine to die. I sat for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the lorry, horn blaring and lights flashing, to drive straight over me. Within a whisker of a fatal accident, the engine came back to life and the car accelerated away from a near death experience.”
Nick Ray, another Porsche owner, experienced the same throttle problem but said he was told by a Porsche dealer that it was “a common characteristic of the type of car for which there is no fix”.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, after complaints by Mr Cieslik and other Porsche owners, tested a Porsche and found a delayed throttle response of up to 2.5 seconds. However, the agency adopted the same position as Porsche, arguing that this “lag” did not constitute a safety risk.
Mr Cieslik, from Saintfield, near Belfast, asked the DVSA to send him the results of its investigation but it refused.
When he appealed to the information tribunal, the agency justified its refusal by saying it “relies on maintaining close relationships with manufacturers” and disclosing confidential information “would deter manufacturers from co-operating [and] being candid”.
The tribunal ruled in Mr Cieslik’s favour in August and ordered the DVSA and Department for Transport, which oversees it, to disclose the results. The panel expressed concern that Porsche had said that if results were released manufacturers would reduce “proactive engagement” which “inevitably would reduce the proactive testing functions it could carry out”.
The judges said: “The tribunal finds the suggestion that manufacturers would be reluctant to engage proactively in safety investigations to be disconcerting in the extreme.”
The DVSA has yet to disclose the information and has lodged an appeal against the tribunal ruling. Porsche declined to comment, as the matter “is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings”.
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