...bringing the global total to 13 million cars!

Now how about all the Seat & Skodas with the VW TDI 2.0 Common Rail engine?

Ja, I agree with you on your 1st statement. It's a pretty crappy thing they've done. At least it didn't kill anyone, like GM with their faulty ignition switch. I think their diesel cars might be finished in the USA.

I am looking into swapping a 5 speed into my '02 that came with the crap VW 01m auto trans. I will be hanging on to it for awhile, since you can't buy a new one and might not want a 2004-6 (cam shaft failures) or a 08-14 (emissions control parts failure before Dieselgate broke), we know now these parts were not even being used much! Any fix, is only going to further tax those systems which are failing early anyway and reduce gas mileage.

However I think for the German government they are "too big to fail". VW Group owns Porsche too.

Bosch supplied the parts and warned VW to not release the cheating software in the wild: http://blog.caranddriver.com/report-bosch-warned-vw-about-diesel-emissions-cheating-in-2007/

Note: in my recollection from 10 years in Europe, "Bild" (including "Bild am Sonntag") are not the most newsworthy sources. Maybe someone from Germany can chime in on this.

@VK Yes, Bosch is in damage control mode.

German government gives VW until Oct. 7th to present a solution: http://blog.caranddriver.com/germany-gives-volkswagen-10-days-to-present-solution-to-diesel-emissions-problem/

:-)

Instead, Horn claimed the defeat devices were put in place by a few rogue software engineers. "This was not a corporate decision, from my point of view, and to my best knowledge today," he said. "This was a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reasons." Volkswagen has not been able to identify who these individuals might be, or even how many would have been involved in the scheme, according to the CEO.

Just LOL.

Hey Barclay's bank had a rogue trader in Asian nearly bring them to their knees

It happened multiple times, and usually it is one or two guys who make billions in transactions without any checking :-)

Btw, thing you see now (and all times before it) is usual capitalism procedures.

US VW CEO Michael Horn testified about the Rouge Software Engineers, and, after being called out on it being unlikely, said "I agree, it's very hard to believe, I struggle myself" LMFAO!

Watch the video: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/09/us-volkswagen-emissions-idUSKCN0S217M20151009

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

Instead, Horn claimed the defeat devices were put in place by a few rogue software engineers. "This was not a corporate decision, from my point of view, and to my best knowledge today," he said. "This was a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reasons." Volkswagen has not been able to identify who these individuals might be, or even how many would have been involved in the scheme, according to the CEO.

I hope the CEO's resignation doesn't bring the official investigation of this corporate conspiracy to a premature end. It's eye-opening to examine how real-life conspirators (such as the Watergate Plumbers) formulated their unethical plan, put it into covert action, and maintained secrecy both before and after the plot was hatched. As the OP suggests, VW is exceptional only in being caught in an unmistakable act of fraud.

Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi have joined the growing list of manufacturers whose diesel cars are known to emit significantly more pollution on the road than in regulatory tests, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/09/mercedes-honda-mazda-mitsubishi-diesel-emissions-row

And this is how bourgeoisie dictatorship works:

James Robert Liang, a veteran Volkswagen AG engineer, pled guilty in federal court on Friday to charges of conspiring to defraud US regulatory agencies and American consumers for his part in the 10-plus year emission cheating scheme.

According to the Justice Department plea deal, Liang and his co-conspirators were tasked with developing the "EA 189" diesel engine for sale in the US. However, they quickly realized that they could not design an engine that could meet the stringent US emissions limits. So instead, they designed and implemented software that would recognize when the car was being smog tested -- versus simply driving around normally -- and adjust the vehicle's emissions accordingly.

So, pure and honest directors (and owners above them) asked engineers to design engine. But this low qualified workers could not even do it. And instead they planned horrid criminal thing - they in secret developed software to cheat honest people and honest owners.

Law is the will of the ruling class transformed into legal regulations.

Print it and put above your bed. Always remember - bourgeoisie state is the machine that makes all this laws work. By lies, coercion, punishment and bullets.