Volkswagen problems

How does the Volkswagen scandal affect the average Irish driver?
Will it stop them from buying new VW's in the near future?

The actions by the company will have major implications for the company and for Germany in the future, but I think that if investigations into other manufacturers are carried out it will be found that they are not the only ones fitting software modifications to fiddle the testing systems.
This piece of software was known about in the motor industry for quite some time, it was located by software design engineers who work on modifying the computer in cars to gain more power and or speed.
They may not have thought too much about the implications of such software, and were not in a position to say too much about it as what they were doing to the computer was bordering on the illegal.
Everyone wants clean air, and we all want fuel efficient vehicles that will give us high MPG. Do we really look at the CO2 except to see what price our car tax will cost?
How many people had even heard of NOx before this week?
Back in the 70s when diesel was coming on stream to power most types of public transport, a report in Britain was commissioned to find out the effects of using diesel engines in cities. This report was very critical of using diesel engines, and recommended that diesel was totally unsuitable for city transport. But the oil crisis made sure that this report did not see the light of day.
A large amount of pollutants in the diesel exhaust can have a very adverse effect on health and the environment.
Fitting catalysts  solves some problems, but introduces new types of highly toxic toxins. Engineers will tell us that the amounts are so small that they are insignificant but when the volume of diesel engines  start to grow in urban areas it now can produce lethal amounts of pollutants.
Some of the pollutants coming from exhausts today could include hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides,soot and that is just from older diesels. When we now include emission control within our vehicles we can add heavy metals, ammonia and possibly urea.
All of the emissions can contribute to problems in humans, such as irritation of the respiratory  system. This in turn can cause coughing, and lower lung capacity. While it can present a problem to all people, it can be a major hazard to people with respiratory problems.
I think we will see a major change in the way vehicle engines are tested in the future, and maybe in the type of engines we use. There will be a cost factor involved for the ordinary motorist as we may see some manufacturers having to change their CO2 ratings.
It can be hard to understand why some large cars with large engines can have very low CO2 ratings and small cars with small engines have high CO2 ratings.
Perhaps over the coming months we will see a shake up throughout the car manufacturers, because I don't think any one of them are pure white.
People will still buy VW's, if still available, and will still buy diesel until something else comes on the market that gives the freedom and economy that diesel now gives. Do we care about the pollution ? of course we do but we can't see it.