I'm not saying you are defending VW but I don't think anything they did was remotely defensible. I don't think it could be considered defensible at any level,

I'm not saying you are defending VW but I don't think anything they did was remotely defensible. I don't think it could be considered defensible at any level, either. But I do maintain that the market really doesn't seem to care: therefore VW are still in business which is what the parent was wondering. If you had bought a VW you really wouldn't have any reason to not keep driving it, as the end-user. Conversely, I do think people would be absolutely furious if VW had cheated in emissions and fuel mileage tests to make their cars seem to run on very little fuel but in practise the realistic mileage would be much lower for the majority of owners. And I mean much lower than the general gap between measured and actual fuel efficiency. In that case VW might really be struggling to survive if they didn't have better technology to show the market.