Newly French-Bought Vauxhall Has Suddenly Escaped France's Emissions Investigators

Opel and Vauxhall have been cleared of illegal emissions fixing by French authorities just a couple of weeks after being bought by France’s biggest automotive manufacturing group, in possibly the world’s most absolutely-definitely-not-suspicious bit of timing.

The firms were being jointly investigated by the French government after reports emerged from Germany claiming that the Zafira’s emissions control system stopped working properly above 87mph, or at higher altitudes.

Opel has, apparently, admitted using emissions manipulation software, but has denied ‘cheating’ the system. In any case, they appear to have been told to forget about it now that it’s a French-owned company in which the French government itself has a 13.7 per cent stake. Hmmm.

French government investigators have now decided that there is no evidence of fraud on Opel or Vauxhall’s counts, and has put the matter to rest. To date, only the Volkswagen Group has been formally accused of cheating emissions tests in Europe.