I was thinking exactly the same thing. How have the VAG owners actually suffered a financial hit? They still had the use of their car. Perfectly right that the company is fined, maybe the money should have gone to some kind of environmental cause.
The emissions and fuel consumption cycle figures would have been inaccurate so when you compared them to other cars the VAG group cars would have appeared to be more efficient, so if they claimed 40mpg on the tests but in reality only got 30mpg the owner would be worse off as they may have purchased the car that really did 40mpg on the test.
Of course, test and real world figures vary but the test is used as a comparison. Cheating it deserves a punishment and I think the UK Govt should also sue for lost revenue on vehicle excise duty and company car taxes (where higher CO2 readings would require more BIK to be paid).
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