Yeah, I knew about those particular rules regarding a car that can never pass smog. I used to live in CA and they have pretty much the same rules in WA where live now. I'm sure these diesels are all under the same set of rules: If it doesn't pass smog, you can spend X dollars to try to make it pass, and if that doesn't fix it, you get a certificate which says "well at least we tried", which lets you keep driving it.

My point is: With these VW diesels, if you choose to keep the car and also choose to *not* get it repaired (ie, you don't take it in for the recall to get the cheatcode removed), then none of the above will ever apply.

The whole point of the cheatcode was to make them pass tests every time. I'm assuming that whatever EPA test they were originally cheating on is slightly more rigorous than whatever the corner smog station can dish out. So VW diesels which didn't go in for their "cheatcode-removal repair" will always pass the tests at the corner smog station.

The interesting question is, whether the corner smog station will care whether it's running the cheatcode or not, or if they even have any way of knowing.