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This wasn't exactly a fuel economy issue, it was more of an emissions cheat. I get great economy out of my Golf - higher than advertised. I agree that if they'd done the right thing w/ emissions that economy might have been worse and the car not as attractive.

The reason the cars got better fuel economy than competitors is because VW cheated on emissions. IOW, the deception wasn't in the economy numbers, but in how VW managed to pull that off.

They didn't "get lucky".

I agree that it's a little weird to say that they got lucky, but a pretty big hint that they actually did is that I wish I were a part of the settlement. It's not like anybody was actually harmed. These owners are getting a great deal.

Did they have extra fuel expenses? My understanding is that VW bypassed emissions controls in order to maintain a high level of efficiency and performance. The environmental cost of that was externalized onto all of us.