Volkswagen came clean about its dirty tricks and dirty diesel engines, and the reaction was explosive.

After being outed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the German automaker recently revealed that it had essentially rigged its engines to let them run with filthy emissions systems. Volkswagen confessed to fitting some 11 million vehicles worldwide with stealthy software that allows the smog-inducing systems to detect a government pollution test, then immediately self-correct to meet the much-cleaner standard.The defeat device revelation compelled CEO Martin Winterkorn to resign. He feigned being shocked by the events that forced his exit.The misdeed's scope, as well as public and official outrage, soared off the charts.Volkswagen will have to recall 482,000 Jettas, Beetles, Passats and Audi A3's in the United States alone. It faces a probable Justice Department probe and fines of up to $37,500 per car under the Clean Air Act, or up to $18 billion just in the U.S. Its stock plummeted 30 percent. People who paid top dollar for Volkswagen's reputedly efficient and environmentally friendly engines fumed at the company's secret fumes.But as disappointing as Volkswagen's despicable behavior is, it's not the saddest part of this story; the saddest part is that VW's test-dodging scheme is merely the auto scandal du jour. Or have you missed the recall-notice-news segments that fill your radios, TVs and papers on a seemingly daily basis?Four days after the Volkswagen story broke, Hyundai recalled 470,000 of its popular Sonatas. Their engines can fail due to metal debris clinging to the crankshaft. A week before the VW bombshell, GM acquiesced to a $900 million fine for its failure to disclose faulty ignition switches - defects, by the way, linked to the deaths of more than 100 people.Toyota and Nissan recently sent notices to 6.5 million owners to notify them of their pending Takata air bag recall. The trouble there? Metal shards can fly from the air bag, and kill the passenger, during inflation. And let's not forget the $1.2 billion Toyota paid in 2014 to settle federal charges that it tried to hide its vehicles' tendencies toward sudden acceleration, which of course led to accidents.If you want to add fuel to your frustration, realize that none of these behemoths is likely to be dealt a death knell due to these transgressions. VW's annual profits top $10 billion; it can weather this storm. The only recourse we have as consumers is to recognize, with even more depth, that profit comes first, second and always to these companies, and to buy their cars with an additional layer of care.Rather than obsessing only over price, mileage and performance, we must now ask tragicomic questions such as, "Do your airbags ever blow metal shards when they deploy?" "Do your ignition switches ever shut down during, let's say, high-speed runs along the highway?" "Does your car ever accelerate suddenly and for no reason?" Or this new one: "Do your cars emit law-evading fumes?"- The Reading EagleThe foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.