Car pollution does suck. There is nothing wrong with wanting to breath cleaner air, especially if you have to live in a high car density town or city.
This wasn't a little bit of cheating - the cars put out 10 to 40 times the allowable amount of NO emissions. That is asinine.
The way VW is reacting, I’m sure that it’s very bad. But the testing that was done by that outfit in WVa doesn’t appear to be enough to quantify how much dirtier these engines were than the allowed limits. 10 to 40X is a big spread. The EPA and the California Standards will have to do their own controlled testing to establish the true figure. Just sayin’.
And no one will ask is NOx really that big of a problem. Their are a handful of engine tinkers that say it isn't and we have wasted billions of barrels of oil because we won't run lean and get the better fuel mileage because of EPA Nox Regs. The rules went coo-coo-banana-nutsoo in 95' went Clinton said we will take 95% of the emissions out of cars in 1995. Ya but... They were already 95% cleaner than their 1960's counterparts so he was going after that last 95% of the last 5%... Ever hear of Kelly Johnson's ( Lockheed SR-71 fame ) axiom on overall design? You go for the 80% because the last 20% you try to squeeze out of a vehicle design isn't worth it, it is not cost effective. We are in splitting hairs territory and it is no wonder cars are so expensive, not to mention the exotic technologies they are adopting to meet Obama's fuel regs.
Remember “How to Lie with Statistics”. The 40 times is meant to shock. If the standard was at a small amount and then the standard was revised to reduce by to a fiftieth of that amount over three years, a vehicle that was better than the standard could easily be 40 times dirtier if the standard was drastically changed.
This huge reduction is why the scam took place.