Quick News About Volkswagen Problems

Volkswagen has plead guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties for their part in selling "clean diesels" that were actually quite dirty.

VW will be on probation and will be watched by an independent monitor for three years.

VW is charged with participating in a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and VW customers and for violations of the Clean Air Act by lying and misleading the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. customers about the emissions systems. Volkswagen admits it spent years using sophisticated and illegal software to conceal nitrogen oxide emissions that are up to 40 times higher than allowed by law.

In addition, six VW executives have been indicted by a federal grand jury and may soon join their buddy behind bars.

Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt was visiting Florida, so the feds decided to pay him a visit.

They even brought him a shiny pair of bracelets as a gift. Schmidt, 48, is a resident of Germany but was in Florida when the feds arrested and charged him with conspiracy, wire fraud and violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act.

Mr. Schmidt is the second VW employee to be arrested for their role in the diesel emissions cheat and coverup.

There's been a lot of talk about diesel buyouts and fixes lately.

But one group that's been left out was what VW calls "Generation 3" diesel vehicles from the 2015 model year. But after 16 months of waiting, that's about to change:

"Volkswagen finally received approval to fix certain 2-liter diesel vehicles to make their emissions systems legal, at least for about 67,000 of the 475,000 illegal 2-liter "clean diesel" vehicles."

VW will remove the "defeat device" software and replace it with something a lot less cheat-y. Then sometime next year, VW will install new software in addition to a diesel particulate filter, diesel oxidation catalyst and a nitrogen oxide catalyst.

VW's diesel buyback program had some vague language about what condition the car had to be in to stay eligible.

Basically, it had to be "operable." Does it run? Does it roll? Then you're good to go.

So disgruntled owners started stripping off parts and selling them online before sending their cars in. And it worked ... for a while.

According to CarComplaints.com, a judge is saying you jetta stop doing that:

"U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer has [said] owners should think twice about altering their vehicles if they want VW to pay for the cars.

OK, Judge Breyer didn't use the Jetta pun and it's such a wasted opportunity. The pins were setup, he just had to knock them down.

Volkswagen has agreed on a settlement for about 83,000 3-liter, V6 TDI owners in the United States.

Under the proposed 3-liter diesel agreement, Volkswagen will be allowed to recall more than 75 percent of the illegal vehicles to fix them and bring them into compliance with emissions laws. The settlement agreement could mean another $1 billion loss for VW, adding to the $15 billion to be paid for illegal 2-liter vehicles.

That means about 63,000 vehicles will be repaired and 20,000 will be bought back. As for what that fix will be? VW says ¯\–(ツ)_/¯

Our neighbors to the north tend to be a patient bunch, but you have to imagine Canadian VW diesel owners were starting to wonder when their settlement offer would come.

Well, good news. Canadian owners will receive between $5,100 and $8,000 in compensation along with a few options. Any eligible owner can choose to trade their vehicle and apply its fair market value at that time towards the purchase of a new or used Volkswagen or Audi vehicle.

Spread out over 105,000 vehicles, that equals about $2.1 billion CAD (Canadian dollars). The settlement needs to be approved and finalized by two courts.

We all know Volkswagen is in plenty of hot water for their diesel emissions. Well, the FTC is turning up the heat.

In its motion filed in a federal district court in San Francisco, the FTC says it saw red flags when 23 phones of important Volkswagen employees were determined to be lost or unable to be turned on. Federal investigators want to know what was on those 23 cell phones that relates to VW's admitted emissions cheating that was concealed by the automaker for years.

If VW executives need some new cells, I hear there's plenty available inside federal prison.

It's been well over a month since Volkswagen's historic $14.7 billon dollar diesel settlement which includes the option for owners to sell their cheatin' cars back to VW.

So how are things going? Meh, according to a firm appointed by the court to monitor the settlement's progress.

Many owners have complained about long telephone hold times and missed deadlines. Some, in snowier climates, are ticked off they had to pay to put on snow tires while waiting for VW to get its act together.

Yes, this is an unprecedented deal. And sure, there's a lot of moving parts. But as Jalopnik.com points out, it's not like VW couldn't see this coming.

You can review the settlement details on our site.

And if you haven't yet, I'd also encourage you to visit VWcourtsettlement.com or call 1-844-98-CLAIM to schedule appointments with claim specialists.