"Over the past few weeks, much has been written about alleged problem areas and improvements that need to be made. Ladies and gentlemen, please don't be fooled. Let me put it clearly: we know what we have to do in our large, global group. And we started doing it some time ago." That was Marty Winterkorn at the Volkswagen Group's annual general meeting five months ago.
Today Marty is out of a job. Last month the US Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to Volkswagen and Audi saying "four-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars from model years 2009-2015 include software that circumvents EPA emissions standards for certain air pollutants".
The EPA "determined that VW vehicles on the road emit up to 40 times more pollution than emission standards allow".
Rorting vehicle emissions regulations is an established art form in the global car industry. Seventeen years ago to the day, the US Department of Justice and the EPA hit seven manufacturers of heavy-duty diesel engines with a $1.3bn fine.