If you missed what happened, the US Environmental Protection Agency recently found that the car maker was using a "defeat device" or software trick that could detect when a car was being tested and automatically enable its emissions control systems. When it returns to normal mode, the diesel car would then output high levels of nitrogen oxide, which contributes to high air pollution and causes respiratory issues.

The affected cars aren't all Volkswagen-branded, though. Almost half of them (588,114) are, but 393,450 Audi, 76,773 SEAT and 131,569 Skoda vehicles were found to be using the so-called cheat device. Cars with EU6, V6 TDI and V8 TDI engines aren't affected (as well as all petrol models). The company hopes to ready its "technical solutions" and share them with "responsible authorities" before the end of October, so if you find out that your car needs to be retuned, you might not have to wait too long to get it sorted.

[Image credit: Bodhack, Flickr]