I am on a passenger seat something like 3 times a week, in france, for the same 15 min rides (about 5 different rides in a southern city), and each time there is at least one car who emits a very foul smoke, so foul we immediately roll windows. Most of the time those cars aren't even so old.
I highly suspect french automakers to cheat too.
There needs to be many more random exhaust controls, or at least much tighter annual or biannual checks. I can't even comprehend why it's not the case already.
It's not even a climate change problem, it's a health problem. I caught a cold already 2 times this year, which was followed by a chronic cough that lasted 3 week after the cold went away.
"It's not even a climate change problem, it's a health problem": NOx being extremely dangerous for humans doesn't make it less of a problem for global warming.
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) has a Global Warming Potential 265-298 times that of CO2 for a 100-year timescale. N2O emitted today remains in the atmosphere for more than 100 years, on average. [0]
As far as I know, the NOX problems that were masked by the VW software cheating are not the kind of problems that everybody driving behind the car in question can smell.
As somebody who has driven only Peugeots for 14 years now, I can attest that the exhaust system of any Peugeot at any point in time is primarily occupied with rusting. I have to change some part of the exhaust every odd year. Most likely the smelly French cars you observed also have problems with rusted through exhausts.
Also: As somebody plagued with respiratory problems, I feel your pain. My health massively improved when I moved from the city back to my home town in the German woods.
As a Frenchman, I reckon French manufacturers are gaming the stats/cooking the numbers as well, but I don't share your view on the age of the cars emitting the foulest stenches. 90% of times there's an issue it's a 10+ year-old car and most often from the cheaper end of the price spectrum.
I highly suspect french automakers to cheat too.
There needs to be many more random exhaust controls, or at least much tighter annual or biannual checks. I can't even comprehend why it's not the case already.
It's not even a climate change problem, it's a health problem. I caught a cold already 2 times this year, which was followed by a chronic cough that lasted 3 week after the cold went away.