Working with his small team of researchers at West Virginia University, Dan Carder exposed a giant corporation’s harmful fraud: although VW’s diesel-engine cars passed lab tests for EPA regulations for emissions of toxic nitrogen oxides, on the road the cars were emitting up to 35 times as much NOx into the air. The uproar has thrown VW—then the world’s largest automaker—into a maelstrom of law-enforcement actions, private mass litigation and loss of dealer and customer confidence. Eleven million of its cars will have to be fixed or repurchased—which could cost VW as much as $20 billion.
With over 500,000 such diesel cars affected in the U.S. and many millions abroad, why was it Carder who caught the problem, instead of the EPA, 50 state motor-vehicle departments or their counterparts in other countries?
Carder’s team is not waiting for excuses. As we enter a new era of pro-consumer testing, we can thank Dan Carder for reporting the facts that show the way.
Nader, a consumer advocate, wrote the landmark book Unsafe at Any Speed
