And last week, prosecutors in Stuttgart said they had opened a "fine proceeding" against Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler over the same suspicions relating to 700,000 cars.But the number of vehicles showing irregularities in BMW's case is far smaller, at just under 8,000. Prosecutors said that they believed "mistaken labelling of the part of the motor control software responsible for exhaust treatment" was behind increased on-road emissions. "Extensive investigations" had found neither evidence of a purposely designed defeat device, nor of intent to commit fraud by BMW employees, they added.Rather, "the company had not set up an appropriate quality control system" that could have prevented the error or revealed it after the fact, the prosecutors found.