Really? A straight pipe? If such a simple and cheap fix can make the cars compliant with the regs without affecting performance and consumption, why go to the trouble and risk of a cheat device in the first place??

That's not what the pipe is about. It's about minimising the performance loss after the software update - because there will be a performance loss and being more accurate on the metering will allow it to be minimised.

In Germany car owners are forced to get recalled vehicles fixed to renew their license. But in the US less than 65% get their cars fixed. That means there are a lot of unsafe - or in this case: polluting - cars on the road.

Lets look on the exhaust side. If the longevity of the engine and the fuel economy is better at the (illegal) settings, like normal when not being tested, does that mean that unspent fuel, products of combustion will then go into the turbo and catalytic converter, which then sees much heavier demand and shortens their life considerably?
Where is that gallon of every tank going to go??...into moving the car or to a catalytic converter that burns it up (and then has shorter lifespan)?

This seems incredibly simplistic and counter-intuitive. First they refuse to share the firmware code with the regulatory agencies. Then they say that the maximum refund to customers will be a $500 Visa gift card (which is valued at around $300.) And now they have a "fix" that involves a few dollars worth of plastic.
It makes no sense because it would have been readily apparent at the initial pre-production stage. Something is incredibly fishy.
The resale value of the vehicles has been completely trashed. And that included non-diesel VWs, Audis et alia. There is also the lost mileage that has resulted in increased fuel costs.
If this is the fix, needs to be slapped with the highest possible fines, refunding far more money to cover real damages, refunding is a similar amount x4 as punitive damages, refunding to the states, especially Georgia and California, the money they have and will spend on handling emissions checks for these vehicles. By my reckoning it comes in at $30,000 per vehicle plus fines and punitive damages.
After this no one will ever believe anything that VW/Audi says.

I would never trust VW... the could be lying again!

Okay, an easy fix. But what about the criminal charges against everyone involved? Do NOT let them off the hook for this. The victims are all the American people--not just the people who bought the cars under false pretenses. All this talk about deregulation and the dangers of big government ignores just such as these powerful corporations/people thinking whatever they can get away with is good if it makes them money. "Big Government" needs to step in on behalf of "We the People!"

Volkswagen made a wonderfully clean and efficient diesel engine. The problem is the EPA and the solution is to dissolve this destructive socialist agency and all the rest of the alphabet soup of agencies posing as part of an American free market "federal government". The whole problem with the Volkswagen diesel is a bunch of hidebound government bureaucrats who pretend they can legislate reality and don't have two functioning brain cells to share among themselves. Sincerely, David Parker

It will take much more than a "simple technical fix" to salvage this company's reputation.

David Parker: "The problem...is bureaucrats..." That is the immediate problem. The bigger problem is govt. won't allow a free market. But the fundamental problem is the "we the people" mentality that has faith in force, e.g., the brute force of an elite given a moral blank check to use brute force to rule everybody/everything. This faith is incompatible with our existence because it is anti-freedom, anti-life, anti-rights, anti-creativity, anti-progress.
Until this myth is acknowledged as a destructive superstitious cancer, our species will suffer war and poverty, while we struggle to produce in spite of our self-enslavement.