To many, finding out that Volkswagen had been cheating at emissions tests came as quite a shock. Others viewed the event with some indifference; a cynical take might be that every OEM would do the same thing given half the chance. Well, score one for cynicism.

On Tuesday, BMW's offices in Munich—the iconic four-cylinder building you might remember from Rollerball—and an engine factory in Austria were raided by the authorities in connection with suspected fraud related to exhaust emissions.

At question are two diesel-powered models, neither of which is sold in the US: the BMW 750xd and M550xd. According to an official statement from Munich's attorney general, prosecutors believe that those two models have been fitted with an illegal emissions-testing defeat device.

These devices monitor various input from the vehicle and can discriminate between regular driving and conditions that would occur during emissions testing. If the vehicle believes it's being tested, engine performance can be altered with compliant maps that allow it to pass the test while actually emitting far more pollution during regular use.

At this point the list of companies that don’t cheat might be shorter

This isn't the first police raid of BMW's HQ in recent months; in October last year it was searched in relation to price-fixing between German automakers. And it's not the only car company to be raided by European police looking for evidence of emissions fraud, only the most recent.

In January 2016, Renault was raided. In April 2016, it was PSA Peugeot Citroen's turn. Then in May 2017, Mercedes-Benz's parent company, Daimler, got a visit from the law. Even more recently, Daimler was accused of having defeat device software running on diesel vehicles that turned off compliance measures after 16 miles (26km) of driving.

Before any of those raids, car makers had been called to account for their behavior with regard to emissions cheating by the UK parliament. Asking about the extent of defeat device use among the industry, Labour MP Angela Smith was told that the practice was probably unique to Volkswagen. Insert raised-eyebrow emoji here...