Posted on: 09/24/2015

The first report to the public on the VW emissions problem occurred this week. Briefly, since this problem will be in the news for weeks to come, here’s what happened.

As a routine test by researchers in West Virginia two years ago, VW was caught using hidden software that allowed pollution-control systems on 2-liter diesel cars to work normally when being tested for harmful emissions coming out of the tailpipe but shuts those systems off during regular driving. It’s difficult to understand why the world’s largest automaker would deliver 11 million cars to purchasers worldwide that produced 40 times the allowable smog-forming pollution allowed in the United States.

The Washington Bureau for the Detroit News wrote that threatens to cost the German automaker at least $7.3 billion. The CEO of VW resigned this week and undoubtedly more resignation or firings will follow.