I think that this VW thing is probably getting blown way out of proportion by the news. They seem to be singling out VW as some evil company who deliberately falsified emissions on the cars. I'm not sure it's that clear-cut. From what I could gather from the news articles, VW's chairman stepped up, apologized, and said they will work to fix it, which I think is good. But I'm not sure he even needed to go that far.

Discrepancies relate to vehicles with Type EA 189 engines, involving some eleven million vehicles worldwide. A noticeable deviation between bench test results and actual road use was established solely for this type of engine. Volkswagen is working intensely to eliminate these deviations through technical measures. The company is therefore in contact with the relevant authorities and the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA – Kraftfahrtbundesamt).