Is VW the biggest corporate fraud ever?

The VW emission scandal still leaves me open mouth amazed. 

VW rigged 11,000,000 cars to pass emission tests believing, apparently, that this subterfuge would last forever. 11 million cars and no German engineer ever paused to suggest that, you know guys, we’re gonna get busted for this one day and it will not go well for us.

Increased profit with increased sales is a blinder. Greed, if you prefer. The fraud enables VW to tout their TDI Clean Diesels – remarkable gas mileage with a small environmental footprint. But it has all been 11 million lies. Wow.

Soon my 2015 VW Golf TDI will be recalled. The computer will be reprogrammed and emission controls will operate all the time, not just when the two front wheels are spinning in the test shop. My car will transform into the clean diesel vehicle that was promised. Great. But, its fuel economy will suck and its acceleration curve will go into the diesel tank. My car will transform into a car that is very different than what I was promised.

Fuel economy goes down. Resale price goes down. Customer satisfaction goes way down. The cost to owners will be thousands of dollars per car. This may be the biggest corporate fraud ever. Assuming a modest $5,000 loss per owner, this is a $55,000,000,000 fraud. That’s 55 billion in case you are too lazy to count the zeros. And, this does not include damage done by these diesel spewing polluters since 2009. Again, wow.