Don't think of crime and punishment. Think of markets and regulation. You brought it up yourself: Mitsubishi has delayed their clean diesel engines for years because they couldn't meet their emissions goals, while Volkswagen has been selling "clean" diesels that met those same goals by LYING. So. VW became the largest automaker in the world at Mitsubishi's expense. Those gains came at the expense of hard-working, honest engineers that were legitimately trying to play the game.

In my opinion, Germany at large has enjoyed an unfair reputation for quality and excellence. Volkswagens have always been pieces of shit. Yeah - my Bosch dishwasher was pretty great compared to the crap dishwashers I dealt with in Los Angeles, but it was a sad comparison to the Maytag I had prior to the Bosch. And then it burst into flames. And then I looked it up and it was the second recall of over 600,000 Bosch dishwashers in four years. And then I was reminded that my Mitsubishi ate FIVE Bosch waterpumps and FOUR Bosch alternators in 18 months, and then we switched to Nippon Denso for both and they've been going strong since 2006. VWs, BMWs and Audis run on $70/gal coolant, which is only available at the dealer, and if you don't drain and flush your coolant system prior to swapping in the normal stuff, it turns into gelatin. So you'd better pay your dealer $150/hr to top up your blinker fluid because, you know, German engineering.

So is it punishment? Or is it comeuppance? American cars have had a bad reputation that's a hangover from the mid '80s and their resale value is shit. German cars are bought by people who believe the hype, and now that hype has been obliterated.

VW won't go under. If they were completely fucking erased from the earth, they wouldn't drop Germany's GDP by a single percentage point.

Q: what's a million dead volkswagens at the bottom of the ocean?