What was the motivation behind VW using tech to circumvent regs?
Probably profit.
By portraying false results they made their cars look better than they actually were.
This meant less investment and cost to truly achieve those emissions levels AND to make the cars look comparable to or better than competitors, and keep them in lower emissions tax brackets.
The tax collected was lower than it should have been. Tax evasion? Tax avoidance?
Fraud? Trades description issues? Future values of affected cars?
Not the first company to get caught and unlikely to be the last.
In my view the perpetrators are those emplyees who
a) authorised it
b) came up with the idea. But perhaps they looked at it as one possible solution albeit one in a series of theoretical ones.
Other employees of VW are potentially victims of this as well as buyers of cars.
The real problems are US based where, as earlier commenters post, there are vested interests and opportunists looking to make $$$$$$$.
Unpaid tax and fines for government.
Compensation for car owners/dealerships.
Lawyers fees.
As for diesel. I moved back to petrol when my annual mileage dropped a lot. Initially I wouldn't recoup costs for my new lower mileage.
When I changed cars again 18 months ago I stayed away from diesel also because of the change in attitude to diesel re particulates. Suddenly politicians were commenting about it despite knowing for ages. A sure sign of changes to come.
