There are no emissions tests where I live (Ohio)
True. But vehicle manufacturers selling cars in Ohio are still required to meet national standards set by the EPA. So the cars in Ohio are equally out of spec, so Volkswagen will still have to do something to get the cars in Ohio and everywhere else meeting the EPA requirements.
As stated elsewhere this will probably be mostly software update. As anyone who watches "Street Outlaws", the show about street drag racers, knows: there is almost infinite variability in how you program a cars electronic ignition and fuel injection.
The State of Ohio, if they wanted to be bastards, could require that an owner show proof of getting the recall repair prior to renewing tags.
I think states with emissions testing will certainly do this, otherwise they have no way to know if they are still getting BS readings or not.
It is an incredible mess, and it's unbelievable that many levels of people in the company were obviously aware of this fraud and permitted it.
There are enough states requiring emissions tests (CA, NY, parts of GA, many others) that VW will be killed by retrofitting EPA-legal emission control systems, and the market for used VW diesels will be disrupted by buyer not knowing whether a given vehicle is either “fixed and under-powered” or “good performance and illegal to sell”. Remember, it’s illegal (correct me if wrong) to sell a vehicle which you know has a sub-par emissions system.
Sure, you might not have to fix yours, but you may have serious trouble disposing of it.