Quote Originally Posted by MikeD View Post
On the matter of there will be effects on the VW motorsport programs .... trust me there will. If you follow CNBC or Bloomberg, you will get the sense of how serious this actually is ... not only for the many law suits awaiting them, but also for future earnings for the company. There is a reason that Angela Merkel is involved in this now, and that's because German carmakers, is 20% of the total German exports!!

I do think, due the the company called VW, that it's actually that brand that will be most under threat, and I do expects the VW program in the WRC to be stopped by the end of this year at the latest. The last thing they want with the VW brand is to participate in what is percieved as a poluting by the normal people. Furthermore, the VW group will actually have to look at the political interest in the company, and their stockholders more than anything. So I guess cost-cutting will be on the agenda, after the law-suits have been settles, and there is no way that the WRC program will fit into that.
TV journos are blood sucking creatures. Richard Quest reporting VW troubles looked like a hungry hyena jumping into a dead body! We must let the dust settled. Probably sooner or later Mr. Winterkorn will step down and the US diesel market niche will get a black eye by environmentalists, but in Europe, China and elsewhere repercussions will be limited. In a globalized economy there's no interest to put a major player in misery, because at the end everybody will get affected...

As far VW motorsport activities, they certainly won't be distressed by financial reasons and only diverse, environmental pressured, marketing strategies could put them in question. Hard to see that happen immediately.