> what VW did is absurdly negligible

You're both completely right, while you're completely wrong.

No. They deliberately programed entire generations of diesel engines to give the wrong smog emissions results by knowing the environment and duty-cycle of emissions testing.

On both total emissions as well as emissions/ton/mile metric, long-haul commercial fleet diesel trucks are far better than the millions of polluting and poorly maintained small displacement privately owned diesel cars and pick-ups.