Commonly, the NO_x emissions rates of diesel vehicles have been assumed to remain stable over the vehicle's lifetime. However, there have been hardly any representative long-term emission measurements. Here we present real-driving emissions of diesel cars and light commercial vehicles sampled on-road over 15 years in Zurich/Switzerland. Results suggest deterioration of NO_x unit emissions for Euro 2 and Euro 3 diesel technologies, while Euro 1 and Euro 4 technologies seem to be stable. We can exclude a significant influence of high-emitting vehicles. NO_x emissions from all cars and light commercial vehicles in European emission inventories increase by 5-10% accounting for the observed deterioration, depending on the country and its share of diesel cars. We suggest monitoring the stability of emission controls particularly for high-mileage light commercial as well as heavy-duty vehicles.