Turns out Germany's not big clean eco-friendly giant after all

Dear local dealer...

Like most Germans I'm stunned by the VW scandal. We're sold this idea - by industry and media alike - that Germany's world champion in clean, environmentally friendly technology and we set standards for the rest to follow. Suddenly it turns out that America has much stricter environment laws - and they're smarter at catching cheats too.

Flashback to 2008. I'm teaching "Ethics" to Business Studies students as part of their compulsory English course. Students tell me this is the most interesting part of their course. The big news story at the time: the Siemens scandal. The telecommunications company paid millions of euros in bribes to "friendly" officials in Nigeria, Russia and Libya - in return for lucrative contracts. Little did we know back then that Volkswagen was cheating customers, dealers and environmental authorities on a far greater scale.

What a shame Herr Winterkorn didn't study Ethics at college too. Or if he did he conveniently forgot about it. At least until the "shit storm hit the fan", to use a lovely German expression. Interestingly, the first thing the VW boss did was not make his "I am utterly sorry" apology. No, he secured himself a nice little pension package, of course. That's € 28.57 mill. plus €3.2 mill. severance payout. Nice one. Isn't it funny that when top managers get caught cheating they immediately quit, announcing they need to spend more time with their family. Or in Winterkorn's case to "allow for a fresh start". 

Standing outside my local VW dealer I almost feel like going in and crying out "You cheats!". But just a moment. Maybe we should check our sat navs first. They could be rigged too.