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The Curious Tale of Mr P R Wallah

FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
01/10/2015

During the BBC's coverage of the Singapore GP, Eddie Jordan predicted that Volkswagen would join Formula One. Next day the emissions scandal broke. For all I know pens were poised over contracts to join Formula One, but I guess VW has other things on its mind right now.

I have my own VW story, never told before. It has nothing to do with motor racing but, with the present crisis in the background, it may not be without interest.

In 1997, I was Motoring Editor on a regional daily paper and was invited to the UK launch of the Golf MkIV. It was a one-day affair which gave hacks like me a taste so that when the model was launched in the UK we could pad out press releases with personal experience. Road test cars would follow later.

I got paired with 'Harry'. We have lost touch so I cannot get his permission to use his real name. The Golf MkIV was not a great leap forward, but the range did include the very first V5 engine and Harry and I made a bee-line for one.

All the cars were left-hookers, VW had yet to make any with rhd. The exercise was a taster, rather than a full-blown launch, but VW had found a varied route and Harry and I had enjoyed our drive and had particularly liked the V5 engine.

We were heading back to the hotel for lunch, Harry was driving so I was in the right hand seat. In the middle of a country corner, the throttle opened wide and stuck open. I will never forget the look on the face of the lady in the Metro coming the other way, had we got any closer I'd have had to marry her,

Harry was an experienced driver and we made it back to the hotel on full throttle, low gears and heavy braking. There was a problem with the V5 engine and it was going to go on sale the very next day in European markets.

We pictured someone proudly driving his new car home, possibly with his family on board, and the same thing happening in the middle of any town let alone Amsterdam, Milan or Paris. It did not bear thinking about.

It took some effort on our part to get the VW PR team, enjoying lunch, to listen to us. The guy in charge is still with VAG and he has enough on his plate right now so I will call him P R Wallah, Esq. Mr Wallah could not believe anything could be wrong with a new car. In other words, he believed the bullshit he put out. Eventually he was persuaded to leave his coffee and look at the steaming engine.

There had been a back-fire so severe that it had blown the inlet manifold apart and a metal gauze filter, located at the join, had wedged open the throttle.

Even when they saw the evidence, the whole of the VW PR team were in denial. They insisted that the engine be restarted several times even though they could see where the gauze filter was lodged. It was as though they thought they could wish away the problem.

Harry and I had a scoop. World's First V5 Car Engine Has Serious Flaw. A tabloid would have paid for the story, but we were more concerned about the customer who found his new car out of control.

We told P R Wallah that we would say nothing if the problem was addressed with the utmost urgency, even if it meant delaying the sale of the V5, and that we were kept in the loop. We had the story and we wanted to use it in a positive way,

We were seasoned in the ways of the motor industry and how they buried bad news. The original Beetle never rusted, right? Wrong! In 1961 VW bought steel from the Soviet Union which came with its own tinworm. It was a boast of the VW press department that the story was buried.

The problem with our engine turned out to be the ECU, supplied by Bosch, and we soon heard that Bosch had been able to replicate the back-fire and had a solution in hand.

Harry and I had put our position in writing, we wanted action, but Wallah was a PR man. He leaked the 'full throttle' story to one magazine with his PR spin. I suspect, I do not know, that favours were called in.

Wallah's story made a few column inches near the back of the mag which, in his terms, was burying the story. He was quoted in the brief article, so he could never be accused of trying to hide anything. But he had broken his word to Harry and me and we were incensed.

We had a scoop and were prepared to throw it away provided action was guaranteed.

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 05/10/2015 14:41

"A sad & sorry tale. Sadly it appears pretty typical of what goes on. To coin an old joke, as far as most large Corporations are concerned, especially when senior manager bonuses are concerned, Ethics is a county to the East of London....."

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2. Posted by TeamAR1510, 01/10/2015 16:55

"I truly appreciate you and your colleague's efforts for putting passenger safety above everything else.you showed great integrity and did your best to make sure they fixed the problem.It's no surprise that big corporations would risk putting people's lives at risk rather than fix a flaw in the name of economics.and when a scandal does break out how they use money and influence to push make believe stories through certain media channels that would absolve them of any corporate malfeasance or make some poor guy their perfect scapegoat."

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