My understanding of the multiple engine power options was that it was introduced to enable sales and increase margins.

Same product, mostly same components, higher price for the high power which is more often chosen makes companies happy. I believe some of the vendors do also increase things inside the engine on the really high power versions, pistons, variable vain turbos etc but this is a small delta in total cost and so not the whole sales price difference.

Look at Specing a car on the Land Rover or Jaguar site. Add the 21" wheels and you can add over £3000 for some options. For this price you could buy the set new.So they are effectively pocketing the cost of the 19" you upgraded from.

This differential cost is the entire drive to "everything by extra"

As for the engine maps, it is just the same as Formula 1 given the spoils available. The government MPG and CO2 figure test is well known. They optimise the engine map and features (stop start) to align with this proven test. This creates lean areas in the engine map at low load and RPM as well as programs for the gearbox ratio changes. This has been the game for years now. Anyone got 743mpg out of their Prius here ? I have never got the claimed 28.5 out of my MB-E despite a couple of serious attmepts for the fun of it. It was not fun. Make your car the best on CO2 and you get an additional XX% of the fleet market.

The after market chip companies work through mapping out these areas of lean burn and matching to other things like changeover in cam profiles and exhaust flaps/restrictions. In many cases the manufacturer has already done this with Sports Mode buttons. That's why they are there, and to extract another £200 of options money from you. Thats why the car always defaults to crappy green mode each time you switch it on. It must be the decision of the driver to adjust the pollution level of the vehicle.

So VW have been caught with their hands in the till. £300 avoided per car. In my visits to the US the number of cars at the black pump are a tiny number of the problems on the road. V8s, 3L low output V6, crappy diesel quality, poor octane on petrol. Lots of other stuff than can be worked on ahead of fines for this. Some of the new engines like the Ford 2.3 turbo show real progress.

Make then fit an after market injection system to align them. Slap them with a fine to the same value ($300) per car sold so it is a pay twice hit.

I don't think it would stop me buying a VW. It will make me angry at yet another witch hunt which does not really benefit society. Having said that the clean air issues are very fair. It can get smoggy in many parts of the world so I should eat humble pie on that front.

If I had to buy a new VW I would still be looking at the clever 1.4 TSi engine rather than a diesel unless I did high mileage. I say that having really enjoyed the 1.9 PD150 engine in a MkIV Golf we hung onto for ages because it was such a good all-rounder and a Pheaton V10 TDi which was a monster.

Then again you could always just order and Aero model with dual sidepipes and say sod-it to all of them. You do have to laugh.

How long before they start to talk about Seat, VW, Skoda who all use the same basic engines. It did make me laugh when the TV had one pundit talking about VW also owning Bentely and Lambo. Would it effect them as well blah blah blah. No they don't make a diesel you twonk. Some of these people just shock me for the wrong reasons on the telly these days.

Everyone loves a Morgan. Even me, unless it's broken again.