Posted on: 01/16/2017

Article after article has been written about the Volkswagen AG settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Keith Laing writing wrote for the Detroit News said “The federal government’s pending agreement to fine Volkswagen AG $4.3 billion for rigging hundreds of thousands of diesel cars to cheat U.S. emission standards would be the largest penalty levied on an automaker doing business in the United States.”

Mr. Laing noted that the $4.3 billion fine is in addition to a $14.7 billion settlement the company reached earlier this year with the EPA.

GM paid a fine of $900 million for the dangerous defective ignition switch problem a few years ago. Soon after, Toyota paid $1.2 billion for issuing misleading statements about cars that experienced unintended acceleration in 2014.

With problems like those mention above it would not seem possible that Volkswagen could still be the global leader in auto production in 2016. VW has released production figures and will be either first or second. Toyota will release year-end results at the end of January and if the current Toyota estimates are correct, VW will be the second largest.