I'm afraid I must disagree.

Other manufacturers tuned their systems to legitimately pass the tests. The fact that the tests did not replicate actual driving conditions was not their concern. Had those cars been driven on the road in a fashion similar to what the government specified for the tests, the cars would have met the government requirements and in actuality would not have been polluting.

Volkswagen, on the other hand, had Bosch program their ECUs with two separate programs, one that passed the tests (just like the other manufacturers) and a second one that pretty much turned off all emissions control in order to give better performance at the expense of vastly excessive emissions. And the fun part is that the first program could never run on the road unless the engine temperature were some impossible negative degrees K, but would always run when the car was being emission tested.

That's not taking advantage of a discrepancy between test criteria and real life. I don't even have the words to describe what it is. Blatant, dishonest, egregious lying and cheating at the expense of the public at large (and even more so at the car owners' expense) in the name of greed and corporate profits.

I am not a fan of this sort of behavior, but I am also concerned that overreaction will cause "the baby to be thrown out with the bathwater". I hope that the people responsible for the punishment of Volkswagen will moderate their desire for revenge. How many of the 600,000 innocent workers employed by Volkswagen will lose their jobs if Volkswagen is driven out of business? If Germany's economy goes down the tubes, how will that affect the world economy? Just because I drive a Honda doesn't mean that I'm exempt from the possible financial repercussions of this debacle.

tanstaafl.