Volkswagen

Two friends went surfing the Sunday before the Palisades Fire erupted and then parked the van in a neighborhood that was later destroyed. They were sure it was a goner.

Longtime VW employee James Robert Liang worked for the carmaker in Germany and in the U.S., where he helped bring a troubled diesel engine to market.

Citing "a culture of deeply-rooted corporate arrogance" at Volkswagen, New York and Massachusetts have filed civil lawsuits against the carmaker.

In a historic civil settlement, VW will buy back or repair cars sold as "clean" but that in fact polluted above legal levels. The company will also pay nearly $5 billion for environmental reparations.

As early as 2007, Volkswagen was reportedly warned by the contractor that supplied the now-infamous engine management software that it would be illegal to sell cars with deceptive settings.

The new report found that a BMW X3 produced more than 11 times the amount of nitrous oxides pollution allowed under Europe's standards.

Arvind Thiruvengadam and colleagues at WVU got excited when they won a grant in 2012 to test emissions on a few diesel cars. He figured the data might result in some papers a few people might read.

The agency says some 480,000 diesel-powered Volkswagens have sophisticated software that detects emissions testing — and "turns full emissions controls on only during the test."