reginos:

I think in Europe the NOx effect has been deliberately overlooked or downplayed in official checkes, because the lower diesel consumption is important for households and businesses especially in a time when most economies are ailing. Governements don't want to load their economically weak voters further by penalizing diesel cars.

I think you got exactly the point. Smiley

Is this responsible? NO. The devious logic might be that people with asthma are less in numbers than those saving money from diesel fuel consumption!

In the USA with cheap petrol I cannot imagine how a household would choose diesel so the authorities can be tough on diesel.

There is indeed some sort of perfidious distinction between Diesels with a high NOx output and large SUVs with high fuel consumption and very high CO2 output, especially in the US where Diesel passenger cars aren't really very common but this is how it works in the US and VW knew that. 
This is not much different from the whole Tesla craziness in the US, where people are buying electric cars for various reasons but actually are supporting the coal energy production which finally "fuels" their electric cars. So in the end, a Tesla may actually not be environmentally "clean" at all, even compared to large SUVs with higher fuel consumption.

Perception is everything. Unfortunately.


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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet, Porsche Macan Turbo, Ford Mustang GT500 Shelby SVT (2014), Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT (2014)