[knarf]

I haven't read the article .. and won't until tomorrow, but I'm guessing ...

VW made vehicles that were stated as X emissions compliant, and no consumer actually knew, nor probably cared ...

but

Some gov't piece of paper said VW was lying, and according to the paper they were ... so the consumers who probably liked their cars and didn't know and probably didn't care are now faced with get money or repairs that really aren't necessary .... except for a gov't piece of paper

Am I close ?

[Spktyr]

Negative. VW made vehicles that they claimed were compliant, then went on HUUUUUUUUUGE marketing campaigns claiming that these vehicles were suuuuuuper clean and that they weren’t the old polluting diesels of yore. Hundreds of thousands of people were conned into buying the cars on the basis that the cars were ‘clean.’

Here’s just one of the many VW ‘clean diesel’ ads they ran for the better part of a decade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNS2nvkjARk

Here’s part of one of the print ads:

http://www.brandchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/volkswagen-clean-diesel-tdi.jpg

They committed consumer fraud on a massive scale.

[norwaypinesavage]

"VW made vehicles that were stated as X emissions compliant, and no consumer actually knew, nor probably cared ..."

Most consumers couldn't care less whether or not their vehicles were emission compliant. However, most REALLY care what their fuel costs are. The cars are illegal to drive or sell as is, and retrofitting the cars substantially reduces their fuel economy.