VW announced it had been fudging tests with US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its tests for toxic emissions, they were higher, perhaps owning a diesel car is not that more environmentally friendly that normal gas. In Germany, there is a desire to be greener than other companies and VW believed diesel is better. Toyota has hybrid technology on some of its cars and people in general are concerned. There is a growing market for these types of cars for we all know that automobiles  contribute to global warming, so we in the public would like to do our part in the solution. At times, we wonder if we are doing enough or we have to accept the consequences for things are changing in the environment. We do know that many changes in the environment can be adapted to, we just are not positive of how long it takes to adapt. Within this mix – VW as a company lied to the EPA and more importantly even though it does not sell a lot of cars – its reputation has taken a large hit as well as the price of its shares has gone down. The company is now is a crisis mode and this means it not only has to correct the lies; it has to come up with new technology that surpasses its lies and pay fines for its lies.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every company has a reputation, breaking the trust of the customers and the public is the worst thing it can do and the prudent course is to find alternatives to the stock. The stock price will be down for the next quarter as the costs begin to be discounted into the operations of the company. In another quarter or 3 months the stock may be worth buying again for the company should have gone through the process of cleaning up the lies. People will lose their jobs and the company will have to do better than before, the stock price should eventually come back to where it is trading up and go even higher for VW still has a healthy market share for their non diesel cars. Honest is the best policy.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.