Add in the fact that the Volkswagen and now Mitsubishi woes have led to scepticism regarding the whole industry's grandiose claims on emissions and fuel efficiency and you wonder if a whole new world of pain is about to beset all carmakers?
Not many of us have ever trusted the boasts over mileage per gallon of gasoline. I've got two cars and the fantasy world that is Planet Lab Test requires lots of math plus a huge pinch of salt to get back to real road driving.
More worrying, though, is the fact that without even breaking any rules, most diesel vehicles – which are the mainstay of European manufacturers' sales – chuck out many times more unsavory chemicals into the atmosphere than the aforementioned Planet Lab Test, according to the latest research. I am no eco-warrior but surely we should begin to start worrying about these big disparities given the parallel growing vilification of diesel by clean air campaigners.
Nobody expects the automakers to do anything about these betrayals of consumers without a big stick up their rear bumper but maybe, just maybe, braver regulators in Europe and beyond will start to end their cosy compliance in the twin hoodwinking of car drivers over MPG and emissions in real-world driving.
This, of course, will only happen I guess when buyers start giving a damn about this more than they care about 0-60mph machismo and supposedly attractive purchase-financing terms.
Of course, a burst of irrational exuberance could soon give the autos their day in the sun as stock-pickers ignore all these negatives but if the car companies are still on pitiful valuations now given the huge amount of inventory they are shifting globally, goodness knows what will happen if they ever land back on pot-holed terra firma.
Stephen Sedgwick is a co-anchor on CNBC's flagship program, "Squawk Box Europe," and is also CNBC's OPEC reporter. Follow him on Twitter @steve_sedgwick.