'Volkswagen did not say how the planned refit would make cars with the "cheat" software comply with regulations, or how this might affect vehicles' mileage or efficiency, which are important considerations for customers.'

I assumed, when this scandal broke, that (as John F implies) the whole point was that the crafty software meant that the test results showed a compliant, low-pollution vehicle, while the driver's experience was of an economical car with good performance - the two being incompatible in the real world.

If that is correct and VW updates the software so that low levels of pollution are achieved all the time, while their cars are dogs to drive, there will be a lot of unhappy VW customers.

Edited by FP on 30/09/2015 at 12:24

Excellent points by John F and FP. It's bad enough that VAG has been caught cheating to deliver the performance that owners expect, while supposedly passing emissions tests.

As pointed out, VAG obviously cheated because they couldn't make the engines meet emissions regs while delivering the expected performance.

But the backlash will get even worse if the cars' performance is hobbled by the 'updates.'

I know I certainly wouldn't be happy if my car was neutered to meet emissions regs that it should've been meeting in the first place.

If VAG can't get the cars' driveability up to the way it was before the updates, they really will be opening themselves up to a flood of cars being rejected by owners.