...but these sneaky VW emissions aren’t responsible for the deaths of many people. Statistically, these diesel emissions killed zero people, so the original comment is correct and your point is not relevant.

No one suggested that air pollution can’t kill anyone, ever. I think you misread the comment.

“ This would be equivalent to there being 10,000,000 compliant TDIs in North America instead of 500,000 polluting. Still think it doesn’t make a difference?”

Sure. 200,000 people. Of which only 25,000 are caused by passenger vehicles vs other sources, and of those 25K, only at most around 25% from NOx (being ranked third in impact), and of those 6300ish, caused by 150 million cars on the road, only 500K (0.3%) of which are VWs. Worst case scenario, about 100 people.

But…

Air pollution kills people. A trivial change in the overall levels of one specific pollutant, on the other hand, not so much.

Get all 500,000 TDIs in one place and there would be a localized effect. 8-40x of a small number on cars with minuscule market share is still basically zero. Nothing a modern passenger diesel…

Plenty of other diesel cars have blown the limits by that much and even more once you start digging through the test results. Some VW cars are near the top of the list...and some are near the bottom.

Real-world results are very mixed. Virtually none of 100+ cars that have now been tested are actually under the test…

It’s literally a Tiguan with a Skoda face and cheaper interior. Capability is on par with the current US offering. Maybe US customers in general would respond to a cheaper car with a cheaper interior, but VW customers would not.

VW never promised 50mpg to begin with—the 2011 SportWagen is only rated for 42mpg highway. So dropping from 50 to 46 is still above its sticker rating. So Consumer Reports is suggesting it will go from 120% its sticker rating down to 110% of its sticker rating. No grounds for action there. You’d still be getting more…