I'm going to the Mojave to steal a car!

[Fireball]

Volkswagens with diesel engines? Why couldn't they sell them?

Volkswagen Corp was sued for more than $1B USD for writing software into the ECM that allowed it to detect when it was being tested for emissions, and going to the low emissions mode. The rest of the time the vehicles were in use, they emitted as much as 40 times the US Federal limit for that type of pollution.

Ig- There may be some value for reprogramming the vehicles to conform to US regulations, but those vehicles would always be suspect. Screw me once, shame on you...etc.

I had a SMOG license as a mechanic, back in the '70s-'80s. My behavior was observable and reportable to the state. If I broke the law, I was liable for prison time for it. I never considered a person's inability to pay for repairs that would make the vehicle legally roadworthy a cause for my breaking the law and going to jail. There were avenues for subsidization of costs for repair (or not) for poor people. I'd point them to those resources. Believe it or not, the biggest assholes were those people with expensive vehicles that didn't pass. They'd offer up money to get by. I simply told them that if they had enough money to bribe me, they had enough money to go make the repair, whether it was done at our shop or elsewhere. The thing about having money is that it talks to a lot of people. My take is, again, I won't take a chance of losing personal freedom for something like $50 US.